Audio and video payload on React sites

80.8% of audited sites (7,730) ship no audio or video requests during initial load and pass LCP at 84% (1.4s median), compared with 85% (1.4s median) on pages pulling over 3 MB of media.

Field data PhoneDesktopAll Scope All sites October 2026 edition · Phone field outcomes · React sites only
React Scoped to 9,570 sites out of 210,902 analyzed (frameworks) Compare with all sites →

2.8% of React sites use 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media audio and video payload, and 89% of those sites have a good LCP, against 84% of all React sites.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 5,488 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
1

Core Web Vitals pass rate

Sites with 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media audio and video payload have a good LCP most often: 89%, against 84% of all React sites. Sites with no audio or video requests media payload have it least often, at 84%.

SitesGood, needs improvement, poor LCPMedian
All React sites5,48884%1.4s
Medium media (500 KB to 3 MB) 2.8%16989%1.4s
Light media (under 500 KB) 11.8%69086%1.4s
Heavy media (over 3 MB) 4.6%25985%1.4s
No audio/video media 80.8%4,37084%1.4s
GoodNeeds improvementPoorSites: with Chrome field data
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 5,488 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
2

Audio and video payload usage

No audio or video requests is the most used: 80.8% of React sites. 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media is 2.8% of React sites.

No audio/video media 80.8% Light media (under 500 KB) 11.8%
No audio/video media 80.8% Light media (under 500 KB) 11.8% Heavy media (over 3 MB) 4.6% Medium media (500 KB to 3 MB) 2.8%
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 5,488 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
3

The four LCP phases

Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media and no audio or video requests sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 477 ms median for 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media against 512 ms for no audio or video requests. Overall median field LCP is 1.3s for 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media (TTFB 477 ms, load delay 453 ms, load duration 132 ms, render delay 173 ms) versus 1.4s for no audio or video requests.

Median LCP phase breakdown (Chrome field p75) Load delay Median LCP
All React sites 4,169502 ms433 ms180 ms433 mslab 439 ms1.4s
No audio/video media 3,308512 ms421 ms183 ms421 mslab 429 ms1.4s
Medium media (500 KB to 3 MB) 129477 ms453 ms173 ms453 mslab 465 ms1.3s
Light media (under 500 KB) 523485 ms466 ms168 ms466 mslab 470 ms1.4s
Heavy media (over 3 MB) 209462 ms491 ms163 ms491 mslab 489 ms1.3s
TTFB Resource load delay Resource load time Element render delay
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 5,488 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
4

Audio and video payload per platform

On Wix, 76% of sites use no audio or video requests audio and video payload, and 94% of Wix sites have a good LCP, against 84% of all sites. On WordPress, 85% of sites use no audio or video requests, and 63% of WordPress sites have a good LCP.

PlatformAudio and video payload on its sitesGood LCP
All React sites 9,570 sitesNo audio/video media 81%Light media (under 500 KB) 12%84%
Wix 5,824 sitesNo audio/video media 76%Light media (under 500 KB) 14%94%
WordPress 2,342 sitesNo audio/video media 85%Light media (under 500 KB) 11%63%
No audio/video media Light media (under 500 KB) Heavy media (over 3 MB) Medium media (500 KB to 3 MB)
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 5,488 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
5

Audio and video payload or the platform

Does the platform explain the audio and video payload difference?

On Wix, 93% of sites with 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media audio and video payload have a good LCP, against 95% of Wix sites with no audio or video requests. Within Wix, sites with 500 KB to 3 MB of audio/video media and no audio or video requests have a good LCP about equally often. On WordPress, 63% of sites with no audio or video requests audio and video payload have a good LCP, against 66% of WordPress sites with under 500 KB of audio/video media. Within WordPress, sites with no audio or video requests and under 500 KB of audio/video media have a good LCP about equally often.

How autoplaying video streams saturate initial bandwidth

When a <video> tag loads without preload="none" or an optimized poster image, the browser fetches megabytes of video segments concurrently with critical stylesheets and hero assets. Across 7,730 sites (80.8%) with no initial media requests, 84% pass field LCP at a 1.4s median, versus 86% (1.4s median) under 500 KB and 85% (1.4s median) above 3 MB.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 5,488 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
6

Understanding audio and video payload

Set preload="none" on below-the-fold <video> elements and always specify a lightweight compressed poster image on hero videos. Across all audited sites, 80.8% ship no initial media (84% good LCP, 1.4s median) versus 4.6% shipping over 3 MB (85% good LCP, 1.4s median).

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 5,488 with phone field dataBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
Related signals Stylesheets per page → Script initiator → Image dimensions set → Image source mix → By Arjen Karel · 9,570 crawled React sites (5,488 with phone Chrome field data, October 2026) · How we measured