Question

Is it possible to have something like this in one query,

Count how many likes a certain ID has in image_likes and then order results from images descending by how many likes they have.

Answer 1

SELECT
    *
FROM
    `images`
ORDER BY
    (SELECT COUNT(`id`) FROM `image_likes` WHERE `image_id`=images.`id`) ASC

(I have of course made up field names, but this format should work)

If possible, you might want to change the way the system works so that you can just read the total likes from a field name rather than doing a subselect.