Everyone has an opinion on what works on YouTube Shorts. We counted instead. This guide looks at 85,140 English Shorts published in the last 90 days by channels with 1,000 to 1 million subscribers, and compares their views by format, title, niche and channel size.
The median Short in the sample got 26,200 views, and 16.3% got at least 3× their channel's usual views (an outlier). Everything below is compared to those two numbers.
The quick answer
- Best formats: animation, rankings, ASMR / satisfying, storytime, pranks.
- Worst formats: tutorials, news commentary, reactions, reviews.
- Best title hook: "X vs Y" (47K median views, almost 2× the average).
- Best niches for views: ASMR, comedy, animals. Worst: business, finance, true crime.
- Channel size matters a lot: 1,700 median views under 10K subscribers, 44,000 above 100K.
Views by Shorts format
Our classifier tags the format of a Short from its title, description and tags when it is clear enough (about 14% of Shorts get a format; the rest are counted in the overall median).
| Format | Shorts | Median views | Share at 3×+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animation | 655 | 237,800 | 20.4% |
| Ranking ("ranking the best…") | 631 | 87,200 | 20.6% |
| ASMR / satisfying | 595 | 76,700 | 19.2% |
| Storytime | 392 | 70,900 | 15.1% |
| Prank | 291 | 65,000 | 19.9% |
| Experiment ("I tested…") | 361 | 54,800 | 17.7% |
| Compilation | 748 | 45,600 | 22.7% |
| Vlog | 556 | 40,000 | 22.7% |
| Challenge | 809 | 28,500 | 14.9% |
| All Shorts | 85,140 | 26,200 | 16.3% |
| Listicle | 484 | 24,500 | 14.9% |
| Gameplay | 2,074 | 24,200 | 12.9% |
| Review | 450 | 18,700 | 15.6% |
| Reaction | 335 | 15,000 | 17.4% |
| News commentary | 1,219 | 10,900 | 14.0% |
| Tutorial | 1,570 | 8,200 | 12.1% |
The pattern is clear: Shorts that work without context win. An animation, a ranking, a satisfying clip or a short story makes sense to someone who has never heard of the channel, in the first second. A tutorial or a news take only works for people who already care about the topic.
Compilations and vlogs have average views but the highest share of outliers (22.7%): they rarely get huge numbers, but they beat the channel's normal more often.
Real examples from small channels
- Animation: The Why Side (45K subscribers), "How an Accident Made Boats Faster": 15M views, 203× its usual. Minecraft Mango (47K), a Minecraft animation: 8M views, 20×.
- Ranking: RankRoyale (42K), "Ranking the Funniest Spicy Food Reactions": 9.2M views, 234×. ToppyKicks (39K), "Ranking The Best Parents Vs Kids Moments": 8.9M views, 81×.
- ASMR / satisfying: Aaron_jzart (85K), a calligraphy ASMR Short: 9.9M views, 591×. Dan Relaxing (28K), "Relaxing with Foil Paper ASMR": 7.8M views, 19×.
- Storytime: The Weekend Builder (79K), "My wife was not happy": 7.7M views, 650×. Alana Fay (197K), "22, pregnant, and moving into my parents' house": 2.8M views, 14×.
- Experiment: Volcanic Buildx (87K), "He Was Living in an Abandoned Animal Shed… So I Built Him a Real Home": 18.7M views, 235×.
- Compilation: Cute Pet Paradise (42K), "Thrilling moments of a cat catching a mouse": 35M views, 508×.
All published in the last 90 days, all from channels under 200,000 subscribers.
See the Shorts going viral in your niche this week
Filter Returbe's Top Videos on Shorts and small channels to find the formats taking off right now.
Views by title hook
Titles matter less on Shorts than on long videos (most viewers never read them in the feed), but some patterns still stand out:
| Title hook | Shorts | Median views | Share at 3×+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Versus ("X vs Y") | 2,220 | 46,800 | 19.7% |
| Negativity ("worst", "never") | 967 | 32,200 | 16.6% |
| Extreme ("insane", "craziest") | 1,889 | 30,900 | 16.8% |
| Superlative ("best", "biggest") | 3,665 | 30,800 | 16.3% |
| Warning ("don't…", "stop…") | 605 | 29,800 | 16.1% |
| First person ("I…", "my…") | 3,157 | 29,000 | 14.8% |
| ALL CAPS word | 20,118 | 27,300 | 15.8% |
| Number in the title | 15,444 | 19,400 | 15.2% |
| Question | 10,225 | 18,200 | 13.7% |
| "New" / urgency | 5,343 | 13,800 | 14.0% |
| List ("5 things…") | 1,479 | 11,400 | 12.8% |
| Money ("$", "rich") | 1,116 | 10,800 | 13.7% |
| Authority ("doctor reveals…") | 434 | 10,700 | 11.1% |
"Versus" is the only clear winner. A comparison promises a result in a few seconds, which is exactly what the Shorts feed rewards. Lists, money and authority titles do worse: they are typical of educational and finance Shorts, which get fewer views anyway. We tested 29 title habits on long videos too, in YouTube titles that get views, and the Shorts version in Shorts titles that go viral.
Views by niche
| Niche | Median views | Share at 3×+ | Passed 1M views |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASMR & relaxation | 98,800 | 18.6% | 16.0% |
| Comedy | 62,800 | 19.8% | 15.4% |
| Animals & nature | 58,100 | 23.5% | 16.2% |
| Food & cooking | 41,100 | 16.7% | 9.5% |
| Cars & vehicles | 39,500 | 18.8% | 10.9% |
| Challenges & entertainment | 37,200 | 20.9% | 12.2% |
| Sports | 35,100 | 19.2% | 9.8% |
| Gaming | 31,500 | 14.1% | 6.9% |
| Film, TV & anime | 31,100 | 18.8% | 14.1% |
| Self-improvement | 25,600 | 22.7% | 4.2% |
| History & documentary | 20,900 | 16.1% | 3.2% |
| Tech & AI | 8,700 | 13.7% | 3.1% |
| News & politics | 7,500 | 10.7% | 0.8% |
| Science & education | 6,400 | 14.4% | 5.1% |
| Fitness & health | 5,500 | 11.5% | 2.1% |
| True crime | 2,000 | 8.0% | 0.3% |
| Finance & investing | 1,400 | 6.8% | 0.6% |
| Business & e-commerce | 460 | 2.5% | 0.2% |
Niches with at least 300 Shorts in the sample. The visual, wordless niches win; the niches that pay the most per view on long videos (finance, business) are the weakest on Shorts. For which niches let small channels break out, see the best YouTube Shorts niches.
Views by channel size
| Subscribers | Median views | Passed 100K views | Passed 1M views |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1K – 10K | 1,700 | 4.8% | 0.6% |
| 10K – 100K | 21,800 | 21.4% | 6.1% |
| 100K – 1M | 44,400 | 36.8% | 11.5% |
The "Shorts don't care about your channel size" idea is only half true. Small channels can go viral (the examples above prove it), but the median Short from a channel under 10K subscribers stays under 2,000 views. Viral Shorts from small channels are real, and rare: about 1 in 20 passes 100K views.
What to do with this
- Pick a format that works without context: a story, a ranking, a satisfying process, a short animation, a comparison.
- Make the first second explain itself. If the viewer needs to know who you are, the feed will swipe past.
- Use "X vs Y" when it fits. It's the strongest title pattern we measured.
- Educational and finance creators: use Shorts to bring people to long videos, where your niche pays 100× more per view (Shorts vs long videos).
- Keep it short: the best-performing Shorts are under 30 seconds (how long a Short should be).
- Copy formats, not videos. Find Shorts that are 10× their channel's normal in your niche and reuse the structure.
Methodology
- Sample: 85,140 Shorts tracked by Returbe, published between 90 and 7 days ago, by channels with an English-language audience and 1,000 to 1,000,000 subscribers. Excluded: made-for-kids, live streams, AI story farms.
- Views: latest view count we recorded. Outlier: views ÷ the channel's usual Shorts views ≥ 3.
- Format, hooks, niche: Returbe's classifier (title, description, tags). A Short can have several hooks.
- Medians everywhere, because a few Shorts with 50M+ views would distort averages.
Key takeaways
- Animation (238K), rankings (87K), ASMR (77K), storytime (71K) have the highest median views; tutorials (8K) the lowest.
- "X vs Y" titles get almost 2× the median views.
- ASMR, comedy and animals lead by niche; finance and business trail.
- Small channels can go viral, but rarely: 4.8% of their Shorts pass 100K views.
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Start for freeFAQ
What type of YouTube Shorts get the most views?
In our data of 85,140 English Shorts, animated Shorts have the highest median views (about 238,000), followed by rankings (87,000), ASMR and satisfying Shorts (77,000), storytime (71,000) and pranks (65,000). Tutorials (8,000) and news commentary (11,000) get the fewest.
What is the average number of views on a YouTube Short?
The median English Short from a channel with 1,000 to 1 million subscribers gets about 26,000 views. It depends heavily on channel size: about 1,700 for channels under 10K subscribers, 22,000 for 10K to 100K, and 44,000 for 100K to 1M.
Which Shorts niches get the most views?
ASMR and relaxation, comedy and animals have the highest median views per Short (59,000 to 99,000). Finance, business and true crime Shorts get the fewest (under 2,000 median views), even though those niches pay much more on long videos.
Do Shorts titles matter?
Less than the first seconds of the video, but yes. Shorts with a 'versus' title (X vs Y) have a median of 47,000 views, almost twice the overall median. Titles built around money, lists or authority ('doctor reveals…') do worse than average.
Can a small channel go viral with Shorts?
Yes. In 90 days, channels with 40,000 to 80,000 subscribers had Shorts with 7 to 24 million views, hundreds of times their usual views. But it is rarer than it looks: only 4.8% of Shorts from channels under 10,000 subscribers passed 100,000 views.