You’ve posted consistently for months. Some videos hit 3,000 views. Some hit 300. You’re not sure why one works, and the other doesn’t, and every piece of advice you find online was written by someone with 2 million followers, explaining what works when you already have 2 million followers.

That’s not useful. So we built something different.

We studied 100 viral creators across 10 different niches to create what we’re calling the 2026 Smartphone Freedom Lifestyle Viral Creator Study. 

For each creator, we looked at their top-performing video, the exact hook they used, how they opened the first three seconds, what they said, what was on screen, and how their audience responded.

Then we split the findings by follower size. Because what works at 200K followers is not what works at 5 million, and most creator advice skips that part entirely.

We were really surprised by what we found…

The most common hook type isn’t the highest performing one. The niche with the most views is one of the least monetized. And some of the biggest viral videos in our dataset had nothing to do with the creator’s niche.

Dive into the study below to see our specific findings.

Contents

• Key Findings
• How We Collected the Data
• Read This Before You Copy What Big Creators Do
• Most Creators Only Think About Half Their Hook
• What the Data Shows
• Use Specific Numbers in Your Hooks
• Your Biggest Video Might Have Nothing to Do With Your Niche
• The Identity Flip: Set Up an Expectation, Then Prove It Wrong
• Niche Breakdown
• Pick a Goal Before You Pick a Video Length
• What Kind of Audience Are You Actually Building?
• High Views Don’t Equal High Revenue
• What to Do With All of This

Key Findings

Here are the top-line findings. Each one has a short takeaway, so you know what to do with it.

1. On-screen text appeared in 56% of all viral videos, more than any other hook delivery method.

→ If you’re not putting words on screen in the first three seconds, you’re losing viewers who scroll with sound off.

2. The most commonly used hook (visually stopping the scroll before any text is read) is not the highest-performing one. Hooks built around a specific number or a direct audience call-out outperform the Scroll Stopper on engagement.

→ If your hooks are purely visual, test adding a number or a direct call-out to your next video.

3. Videos using the creator’s own voice average 10.79% engagement. Trending audio videos average more views (45.5 million) but only 7.4% engagement.

→ If you want views, trending audio can get you there. If you want people who actually engage and buy, use your own voice.

4. Creators under 500K followers use “Number Drop” hooks in 43% of their top videos.

→ If you’re under 500K, Number Drop and Result Tease hooks are your highest-probability starting point.

5. Established creators (2M to 5M followers) lead with visual “Scroll Stopper” hooks in 43% of their top videos. Almost the exact inverse of smaller creators.

→ Scroll Stoppers work when your face already has authority. If you’re not there yet, a visual-only hook won’t carry the weight you think it will.

6. Entertainment and Cooking have the highest average views, yet both rely primarily on the Creator Fund (the platform’s built-in pay-per-view monetization). Fitness and Finance creators tend to earn more per viewer through courses and coaching.

→ Views don’t equal income. The niche you’re in shapes how you monetize, and most creators don’t realize this until years in.

We’ll go deeper on all of these below, including a full niche-by-niche breakdown, the hook framework that explains the data, and the structural patterns behind the biggest videos in our dataset.

How We Collected the Data

We analyzed 100 creators from 10 niches, looking at one top-performing video each.

For each video, we recorded the hook type, delivery format, visual format, audio strategy, on-screen text, view count, like count, comment count, engagement rate (likes + comments/views), and video length. We also tracked each creator’s typical hook style and compared it to their top video to spot where the mismatches happened.

Around 93% of the videos are from TikTok, so treat these findings as TikTok-first. @roseandben’s engagement rate (90.48%) was excluded as a statistical outlier. All findings are patterns observed in viral content, not statistically validated causal claims.

If you reference this study, please cite it as the 2026 Smartphone Freedom Lifestyle Viral Creator Study.

Read This Before You Copy What Big Creators Do

This is the finding that should change how you think about everything else here.

Most creator advice tells you what hooks to use. Almost none of it tells you that the answer depends entirely on how big your account already is. 

We split creators into four tiers by verified follower count and looked at which hook types appeared in their top videos. The pattern was almost a perfect inversion across tiers. Before you look at the data, here’s what those hook types mean:

• Scroll Stopper: The visual is so striking that the viewer stops scrolling before reading anything. No text needed. The food looks insane. The stunt is already happening. The transformation is midway through.
• Number Drop: A specific number, credential, or achievement stops the scroll. “$500k saved at 32.” “5 rules for 5 kids.” The number does the work.
• Result Tease: The viewer knows exactly what result they’re about to see or learn. “Instant face lift.” “Pull day based on science.” You know what you’re getting before you decide to watch.

Hook Type	Under 500K	500K to 2M	2M to 5M	5M+
Scroll Stopper	0%	21%	43%	39%
Number Drop	43%	37%	22%	17%
Result Tease	29%	21%	19%	11%

Look at that inversion.

The Scroll Stopper, the hook style most small creators copy from big accounts, appears in zero percent of small creators’ (under 500K) top videos. It shows up in 43% of established creators’ (2M to 5M) top videos.

The Number Drop and Result Tease run in the opposite direction; they’re strongest for small creators, weakest for large ones.

Why? 

Large creators can open on pure visual spectacle because their face already signals authority. The algorithm knows them. A real chunk of their audience sees their content regardless of how the video opens. 

Smaller creators haven’t built that yet, so they need to earn the watch through specific numbers, proof, and a clear promise of what’s coming.

If you have under 500K followers, the data says you should be leading with Number Drop and Result Tease hooks, not Scroll Stoppers. Most small creators do the opposite because they’re copying the wrong tier.

One cautionary note: @milansinghhh, for example, has 2.7 million followers and averages 6,254 views per video, the most extreme follower-to-views gap in our study. 

Large follower counts built without a genuine community don’t convert to reach. It’s a documented trap.

What this means for you: If you have under 500K followers, lead with Number Drop or Result Tease hooks. Not Scroll Stoppers. Test this on your next three videos before reverting to what you were doing.

Most Creators Only Think About Half Their Hook

Before we get into the numbers, here’s the framework that makes everything else in this study make sense.

Most creators treat their hook as one decision. It’s actually a two-part decision. And the combination of those two decisions determines both how widely your video travels and how deeply your audience engages, which are often in direct tension with each other.

Decision 1: Hook Type

The content premise. The strategic reason someone stops scrolling. Six types appeared across our 100 videos:

• The Scroll Stopper: Catches the eye with something unexpected or visually striking before the viewer reads anything. The food looks insane. The stunt is already happening. The transformation is midway through.
• The Number Drop: Uses a specific number, credential, or achievement to create immediate credibility. “$500k saved at 32.” “5 rules for 5 kids.” “My uncle bought me a $15k dog.”
• The Result Tease: Tells the viewer exactly what result they’re about to see or learn. “Instant face lift.” “How to cover a hole in the wall.” “Pull day based on science.”
• The Direct Call-Out: Names a specific person, group, or situation. “Every woman in the world right now.” “POV: you come out as straight to your liberal parents.” Someone in your audience feels personally seen.
• The Warning: Creates doubt, concern, or urgency that makes leaving feel risky. “There’s no way ear seeding actually works.” “If you’re struggling to figure out what to do with your life.”
• The Comment Flip: Opens with a viewer comment, screenshot, or DM as the premise, then responds to it on camera.

Decision 2: Delivery Format

How the hook reaches the viewer in the first three seconds. Four delivery formats appeared in our data:

• On-screen text: Words over the video within the first three seconds. Works whether or not the viewer has sound on, which matters more than most creators realize.
• Curiosity open: Leads with excitement, intrigue, or raw energy. No text needed because the visual or the vibe carries everything.
• Trending sound: Uses a viral audio clip to carry the emotional hook before anything else. The sound is doing the work.
• Urgency open: Creates a consequence or fear response that makes leaving feel like a mistake.

A Number Drop hook can be delivered through on-screen text or trending audio. A Scroll Stopper can run with original audio or music only. The combination determines both reach and engagement, and those two outcomes are often in direct tension.

What the Data Shows

Hook Types: The Most Common Hook Is Not the Best Performer

Hook Type	Videos	Avg Views	Avg Engagement
Scroll Stopper	33	32.8M	9.74%
Number Drop	30	18.5M	10.81%
Result Tease	16	18.5M	8.69%
Direct Call-Out	11	34.9M	11.42%
Warning	8	8.5M	10.35%

The Scroll Stopper is the most-used hook, appearing in 33 of the 100 top videos. But the Direct Call-Out averages the highest views (34.9M) and the highest engagement (11.42%) despite appearing in only 11 videos.

One caveat: the Direct Call-Out concentrates on Lifestyle and Entertainment, the two highest-reach niches in our study. 

So this isn’t clean proof that the hook itself drives higher views everywhere. What it tells us is that Direct Call-Outs appear in the contexts where the biggest videos happen. 

Scroll Stoppers are the safe, repeatable option. Direct Call-Outs have a higher ceiling.

For smaller creators specifically, the Number Drop has the highest engagement rate of the three most common hook types (10.81%) and is the dominant hook in small creator top videos. That combination matters.

What this means for you: Test a Number Drop hook in your next video. Not a vague claim, a specific number. Not “I’ve saved a lot” but “$500k at 32.” Then watch your engagement rate against your Scroll Stopper videos.

Delivery Formats: The Trending Audio Trade-Off

Here’s the choice you’re actually making when you pick a delivery format: more reach, or stronger engagement. They often pull in opposite directions.

Delivery Format	Videos	Avg Views	Avg Engagement
On-screen text	56	22.4M	10.6%
Curiosity open	27	19.3M	10.4%
Trending sound	10	45.5M	7.4%
Urgency open	7	25.9M	7.0%

From our study, trending audio produced the highest average views at 45.5 million, but the lowest engagement rate at 7.4%. 

On-screen text and curiosity opens both average around 10.4 to 10.6% engagement with more consistent numbers.

Trending audio is a reach tool. It pushes your video to more feeds, but those people tend to engage less from our data. The main exception is for creators in the entertainment niche, which makes sense.

Your own voice builds community. It may get fewer views, but it’ll get viewers who respond, share, and come back. If you want new people to find you, trending audio can help. If you want your existing audience to trust you enough to buy something, your own voice is the better play.

What this means for you: Before you pick a sound for your next video, ask: What am I trying to accomplish right now? If it’s new reach, test trending audio. If it’s deeper engagement from your existing audience, use your own voice. Don’t use trending audio by default just because it’s there.

The Hook Combination That Shows Up Most: Face-to-Camera With Your Own Voice

When we mapped visual format against audio strategy across all 100 videos, one combination stood out. 

(Note: the definitions for these hook types are under the Most Creators Only Think About Half Their Hook section.)

Face-to-camera plus the creator’s own voice appears in 45 of 100 top videos, nearly half the dataset. It also produces 10.79% average engagement, the highest of any major combination.

Face-to-camera plus trending sound seems to produce more average views, but drops engagement by about 2 full percentage points. 

Visual chaos plus music only (4 videos) has the weakest engagement at 5.88%. Those videos get watched, but don’t generate responses.

The most underused combination: split-screen or collage format. Only 5 videos use it, but it averages 22.1M views and 11.54% engagement, above average on both metrics. It appears almost entirely in Fitness (reaction content, motivational collage) and Education (debate reactions). If you’re in either niche and haven’t tested this format, the numbers suggest you should.

What this means for you: If you’re in Fitness or Education, try the split-screen or reaction format. From our sample, it may be overperforming and underused in both niches. Find a controversial clip or take in your space, react to it on camera, and test it.

Use Specific Numbers in Your Hooks

Across Finance, Parenting, Fitness, Tech, and Entertainment, one pattern shows up in high-performing hooks with near-total consistency: a specific number beats a vague claim.

Here’s a list of examples from some of the videos we analyzed:

• “I’m 32 with almost $500k saved” → 25.4M views
• 5 Rules for our 5 kids” → 71.7M views
• “My uncle bought me a $15k dog” → 36.9M views
• 5 most painful alarm clocks in the world” → 12.8M views
• 5 generations in 1 video” → 30.6M views

The brain reads specificity as credibility. “I’ve saved a lot of money” is forgettable. “$500k at 32” stops the scroll.

What this means for you: Before you post your next video, look at your hook and ask: is there a specific number here that I’m leaving vague? If your hook says “a lot,” “many,” or “huge,” find the actual number and put it in.

Your Biggest Video Might Have Nothing to Do With Your Niche

This is the finding that surprised us most. When we compared each creator’s typical hook style to the hook in their actual top viral video, real mismatches kept showing up. And in almost every case, the mismatch is where the biggest numbers live. 

• @jackieaina (3.4M Beauty creator, typical style: Scroll Stopper product content) went viral with a 7-minute personal story about being celibate for a year. 6.3M views. 15.87% engagement, her highest in the dataset.
• @alexeubank2.0 (2.9M Fitness creator, typical style: Scroll Stopper workout content) went viral, showing a $15,000 dog his uncle gave him for Christmas. 36.9M views. Nothing to do with fitness.
• @jooshica (1.8M Beauty creator, typical style: Result Tease) went viral with a casual, unplanned video doing makeup on her little brother. Hook: “Why is he lowkey prettier than me?” 24.1M views.
• @wisdm (14M Lifestyle creator, typical style: aesthetic montage content) went viral responding to a commenter’s challenge to make an outfit for every year since the beginning of time. 91.2M views. 19.74% engagement.

Audiences follow the person, not the category. The algorithm rewards novelty even from established creators. Stepping outside your format into something personal, unexpected, or genuinely funny can produce your highest-reach video.

This doesn’t mean abandon your niche. It means don’t be so locked into your format that you filter out the spontaneous, human moments your audience would actually love.

The Trend Behind the Videos with the Highest Engagement

Three of the highest-engagement videos in our dataset have one thing in common across three completely different niches. Each sets up an assumption about who the creator is, then immediately proves it wrong.

• @ladyspinedoc (Education) opens with three words: “I’m not a feminist.” Then she performs complex spinal surgery. 20.8M views. 18.27% engagement.
• @captainkatemccue (Education) opens with “I’m a feminist, watch me cook.” Then she navigates a cruise ship she’s captaining. 14.3M views. 20.98% engagement.
• @kendahllandreth (Entertainment) sets up a birthday party scene with cake, balloons, and a family gathering. The text reads “POV: you come out as straight to your liberal parents.” 32.8M views. 13.11% engagement.

Creators from three different niches had the same structure…establish what the viewer expects, then immediately deliver the opposite.

It’s the most repeatable high-engagement creative format we found in the entire dataset. And it costs nothing to execute. No special equipment, no trending audio, no production budget. 

Just an interesting contrast between what you seem to be and what you actually are.

For smaller creators: this format works just as well at 10,000 followers as it does at 10 million. It doesn’t require an existing audience. It requires an interesting juxtaposition.

What this means for you: Think about the biggest assumption someone makes about you based on your niche. Then think about one true thing about you that directly contradicts it. That’s your Identity Flip hook. Write a script around that contrast and test it.

Niche Breakdown

The patterns above apply broadly. But each niche has its own rules. Here’s what the data shows for each one, including the format that’s overperforming, the one that’s underused, and what to do about it.

Beauty & Advocacy

Dominant hook: Number Drop | Length sweet spot: 11 to 32 seconds | Avg engagement: 9.77%

The most counterintuitive finding in Beauty: the highest-engagement videos are not about beauty. @jackieaina’s celibacy story (15.87%) and @skinbyrileyb’s wedding video (16.43%) both outperformed product content on engagement. The audience is there for the person. Product content monetizes that relationship. It rarely builds it.

The most minimal hook in the dataset lives here: @golloria’s 55.8M-view video uses two words on screen, “A blush.” The text was nearly invisible. The hook was entirely audio, with the creator repeating it while applying product to her face. The visual was doing maximum work before any text was read.

What this means for you: Post one personal or off-topic video this month, something that shows who you are outside the niche. Watch what happens to your engagement. Then use that audience warmth to return to product content.

Fitness & Wellness

Dominant hook: Result Tease | No strong length ceiling | Avg engagement: 9.46%

In Fitness, the creator’s physique is the hook before any text loads. This is the only niche where music-only, no-text content regularly reaches 20M+ views. The body does the work that text does everywhere else.

The most underused format: split-screen. @noeldeyzel_bodybuilder’s motivational collage of four viral clips hit 31.1M views and 16.08% engagement. @shivwilson’s gym conflict reaction video hit 26.3M and 14.45%. Both outperformed straightforward workout content.

What this means for you: Test the reaction format. Find a controversial gym clip or fitness take, react to it on camera, and use split-screen. This format is underused and overperforming in this niche.

Cooking & Culinary Arts

Dominant hook: Scroll Stopper (8 of 10 top videos, the most uniform niche in the study) | Avg engagement: 7.79% | Dominant monetization: Creator Fund (7 of 10)

Cooking is a sensory niche. The first frame has to make the viewer physically react, whether that’s salivating, feeling curious, or experiencing spectacle. Text-first hooks almost never appear in top Cooking videos because the food does a better job in the same frame.

@spizee.goat’s giant chocolate unboxing (no text, no voiceover) hit 81.6M views. The sound of @notorious_foodie unwrapping raw meat, no words, just the sound effect, hit 44.2M. Viewers don’t always want to make the food. They want to experience it.

One underserved lane: @cassyeungmoney went to 13.8M views talking about eating a late lunch and skipping dinner. Relatable eating behavior, no recipe, no spectacle. Lifestyle-adjacent food content is almost completely missing from the top of this niche.

What this means for you: Lead with the most visually extreme version of what you’re making. And seriously consider adding a product, course, or cookbook. You’re in one of the highest-reach niches in this study, and most creators here are leaving most of the money on the table.

Education & Edutainment

Dominant hook: Number Drop | Avg engagement: 14.92%, highest in the study | Avg views: 6.2M, lowest in the study

This is the most important niche finding in the entire study, and it’s easy to miss because the view counts look small.

Education has the lowest average views and the highest average engagement. By a lot. No other niche comes within three percentage points of its 14.92% average. The individual numbers tell the story:

• @selftaughtpm: 22.23%, highest engagement in the entire dataset
• @captainkatemccue: 20.98%
• @ladyspinedoc: 18.27%
• @mavereuer: 16.22%

Educational audiences don’t just watch. They respond, debate, share, and come back. That’s the audience most likely to buy a course, a book, or a coaching program.

What this means for you: You have the highest-converting audience in short-form video. Post short (under 20 seconds) to grow your reach, and longer (over 2 minutes) to deepen loyalty with your existing audience. Build an offer. A 14.92% average engagement audience is a buying audience. Treat it like one.

DIY & Home Renovation

Dominant hook: Scroll Stopper | Length sweet spot: 42 to 69 seconds | Music-only audio: more than any other niche

DIY is the only niche where music-only transformation videos are a proven standalone viral format. @steffydegreff’s bookshelf build (no text, music only) hit 13.3M views and 13.53% engagement. A bathroom renovation time-lapse with no words hit 17.5M.

The opening frame is everything here. The messier, more broken, or more unfinished the start, the stronger the scroll-stop. The chaos in the first frame is the hook. The transformation earns the watch time.

What this means for you: Open on the worst version of what you’re fixing. Don’t start with a clean shot of the finished result. The hole in the wall, the pile of raw materials, the demolished bathroom that’s your hook. Then let the transformation play out. Music carries it.

Tech & Productivity

Dominant hook: Number Drop | Length sweet spot: 35 to 48 seconds, the tightest range of any niche | Avg engagement: 9.53%

The most consistent virality driver in Tech is being first. @ijustine went to a physical Apple Store on iPhone 16 launch day and filmed herself holding the phone. No script. No special production. 79.8M views, the highest in the Tech category. Timing beat execution quality by a wide margin.

One format worth flagging: @katamogz’s MacBook Neo color reveal used an AI voiceover (the only AI voiceover in our entire dataset) and produced 22.22% engagement, the highest in the Tech niche.

What this means for you: Set alerts for product launches and feature announcements in your area. The fastest path to a breakout video is being the first person with clear, accessible coverage of something new. And keep videos between 35 and 48 seconds. Performance drops off outside that range in Tech more sharply than in any other niche.

Personal Finance

Dominant hook: Number Drop | Face-to-camera: 100% of the videos we studied in this category | Comments per like: 1.46, highest in the dataset

Finance is the most emotionally polarizing niche we studied. The top-performing videos fall into two categories: aspiration (someone achieving wealth) and outrage (irresponsible money behavior). Calm, instructional finance content doesn’t appear in this dataset’s top videos.

The comments-per-like ratio is worth sitting with. For every 100 likes a Finance video gets, it generates 1.46 comments. @nobudgetbabe’s “The easiest way to get rich, no gatekeeping” generated 39,200 comments on 842,400 likes, among the most debated videos we analyzed. That comment volume is an algorithm signal, and Finance creators generate it at a rate nearly five times higher than Fitness creators.

The length pattern is the most immediately useful finding for this niche: post under 13 seconds (pure stat with text over movement) or over 87 seconds (narrative or podcast-clip format). The 35 to 55 second range produced the most inconsistent results of any length bracket in any niche we studied.

What this means for you: Lead with a specific number in every hook. Not “I saved a lot” but “$500k at 32.” Not “this deal was huge” but “$100 million acquisition.” And choose a format: ultra-short stat content or longer narrative content. The middle is where Finance videos go to underperform.

Parenting & Family

Dominant hook: Number Drop | Length: under 13 seconds or over 87 seconds | Avg engagement: 7.82%

The highest-viewed Parenting video in our dataset is also its most polarizing: @ongsquad’s “5 Rules for our 5 kids,” which listed specific, debatable family rules about dating, clothing, social media, sleepovers, and church, hit 71.7M views. The video drew both strong agreement and strong pushback. Both drove the algorithm.

The bimodal length pattern is the clearest of any niche. Four videos under 15 seconds averaged 27.2M views. The single mid-length video (55 seconds, a straight tutorial format) is the lowest performer in the niche at 2.3M. Four videos over 61 seconds all hit 15.8M+. Parenting content is either a punchy moment or a full story.

What this means for you: Take a specific position. A clear, debatable parenting stance, even one some viewers push back on, drives more reach than universally agreeable advice. Specificity creates polarity. Polarity drives comments. Comments drive distribution.

Entertainment & Comedy

Dominant hook: Scroll Stopper | Length sweet spot: 8 to 37 seconds | Avg views: 43.3M, highest of any niche

In Entertainment, trending audio is often the creative premise, not just the delivery format. @calebrownn’s 153.4M-view video (the highest single video in our dataset) is built around a trending sound paired with split-screen clone-dancing. The creator’s job in this niche is finding the most interesting physical or comedic interpretation of what’s already moving culturally.

The subverted expectation structure appears across the highest-engagement Entertainment videos: the straight coming-out video (32.8M, 13.11%), the indie movie girl in the rain (58M, 15.86%), and the movie reenactment (39.4M, 15.74%). Set up what the viewer expects. Deliver the opposite.

What this means for you: Find the trending sound first, then build your concept around it. Figure out what most people do with that audio, then do something completely different. The gap between expectation and delivery is where the comments come from.

Lifestyle & Aesthetic

Dominant hook: Scroll Stopper | Best lengths: 6 to 8 seconds or 43 to 101 seconds | Avg views: ~28M

Lifestyle rewards cultural timing more than any other niche. @katiefeeney’s 224M-view video (the highest single video in our entire dataset) is not a technically superior video. It was taken at the Super Bowl near celebrities. Access and timing were the strategy.

The most instructive example: @madelineargy posted a 7-second video with no text and no clear message. The song playing over her face generated speculation in the comments about what she was going through emotionally. That speculation drove 113.2M views. Lifestyle is the only niche in our study where deliberate ambiguity is a proven hook.

What this means for you: Track cultural moments and put yourself near them when you can. Your content doesn’t have to be extraordinary. It has to be timely. Test the under-10-second format with trending audio. The highest-viewed Lifestyle content in our study is often its shortest.

Pick a Goal Before You Pick a Video Length

The videos in our study indicate that short videos tend to drive reach, while long videos drive loyalty. These are two separate strategies, and the data confirms it in niche after niche.

Take Education, for example. Two 16-second videos in that category hit above 14 million views, the highest in the niche. A 167-second video hit only 1.1 million views but produced 22.23% engagement, the highest of any video in the entire study. These are just individual videos, but it’s indicative of a bigger trend.

Finance, for example, shows the same split from a different angle. Videos under 13 seconds work as pure stat drops, text over a walking shot, or a number that stops the scroll. Videos over 87 seconds work as narrative or podcast-clip content. The 35 to 55 second middle range is where Finance videos start to underperform.

Parenting confirms it again. Videos under 15 seconds averaged 27.2 million views, and a 55-second video was the niche’s lowest performer (in our sample) at 2.3 million.

What this means for you: Before you decide how long your next video should be, decide what it’s for. If you want new people to find you, post short. If you want your existing audience to trust you enough to buy something, post long. Trying to do both in the same video is usually why mid-length videos underperform across most niches.

What Kind of Audience Are You Actually Building? (Most Creators Never Ask This)

Here’s a question most creators never ask before picking a niche: what type of audience response does this space produce?

We tracked comments per 100 likes across all 100 videos. This shows whether an audience responds actively or watches passively.

Niche	Comments per 100 Likes
Personal Finance	1.46
Education	0.91
Entertainment	0.67
Tech	0.65
Cooking	0.59
DIY	0.54
Parenting	0.54
Beauty	0.36
Lifestyle	0.35
Fitness	0.31

Here are the trends we noticed:

• Finance builds debaters. 
• Fitness builds admirers. 
• Lifestyle builds passive appreciators. 

None of those is wrong, but they monetize differently.

Debate drives comment sections and algorithm signals. Admiration drives product purchases and brand deals. Passive appreciation drives brand deal volume at scale.

What this means for you: When you pick a niche, you’re also picking the type of audience you’ll spend years building. Pick the response type that matches what you’re trying to sell, then choose the niche that produces it.

High Views Don’t Equal High Revenue

The two highest-average-view niches in our study, Entertainment (43.3M avg) and Cooking (24.5M avg), rely primarily on the Creator Fund from what we can tell. 

Two of the best-monetized niches, Fitness and Finance, have lower average views and tend to earn more per viewer through courses, coaching, and direct product sales.

A Cooking creator with 50M views on a video earns Creator Fund rates, fractions of a cent per view. A Fitness coach with 5M views may be selling a $500 coaching program to a portion of those viewers who convert.

To put this into perspective, @katiefeeney’s top video in our dataset (the 224 million view Super Bowl celebrity video) was 2,476 times her average view count. One video, the right moment, an extraordinary number. That’s not a content strategy. That’s lightning. The creators who build sustainable businesses in our dataset aren’t the ones chasing a single breakout moment. They’re the ones with something to sell when the views come in.

The Education niche captures this tension most clearly. It has the highest engagement of any niche (14.92%), the lowest average views (6.2M), and creators mostly rely on the Creator Fund for monetization. Education creators have the most responsive, most purchase-ready audiences in short-form video, and most are earning next to nothing on those audiences.

What this means for you: Views measure reach. Revenue requires something to sell. If you’re in Education, Finance, or Fitness and you don’t have an offer yet, that’s the gap to close, not your view count.

What to Do With All of This

The data in this study point to a few things that most creators overlook.

1. The hook types that work for big accounts don’t work the same way for smaller ones.
2. Trending audio tends to reach more people but builds less loyalty
3. The niche with the most views isn’t the one that makes the most money
4. Some of the biggest videos in our dataset had nothing to do with the creator’s actual niche.

None of it is complicated. But reading about it and actually applying it to your content every week are two different things.

That’s where most creators get stuck. Not because they don’t understand the strategy, but because there’s a gap between knowing it and doing it consistently.

The good news is that AI can fill in a lot of that gap. It can help you generate hook ideas, build out content around your niche, and stay consistent without burning out.

That’s why we built our AI Content Creator. It’s complete with tools, templates, and done-for-you ideas that take everything in this study and make it actionable for your account. And if you want more hands-on support, our 1-on-1 coaching is built around the same system.

So if you want instant access, sign up here today!