What is actually workingon Shorts right now
Twenty niches, one YouTube search each per day, ranked by views per day since publish. Every card links back to the video on YouTube, and every page states how many results it ranked — including when that number is small.
Each niche refreshes once a day · dates and denominators are on every page
What this is and is not
A query and a cache, not a corpus
Ranked by views per day since publish, not by total views — a three-year-old video with a million views has taught nobody anything about this month. We run one search per niche per day and cache the answer for everybody who asks for it that day.
YouTube Shorts only
No TikTok, no Instagram, no Facebook. There is no index of those and we are not going to imply there is.
No transcripts
The API gives titles, channels, counts, durations and thumbnails. That is why there is a title-patterns page and no hooks page.
Real denominators
Every ranking says how many results it was built from, even when YouTube only returned forty-three of them.
Niches
20 niches, one search each
Pick the one you post in. Each page ranks today's fastest-moving Shorts for that query, and links to the tool that would make your version.
Faceless channels
Channels that post daily with nobody on camera — the format most of this site is built for.
Query: “faceless shorts”
See what is movingMotivation
Short-form motivational content, which is the most crowded niche on the platform and still moves.
Query: “motivation shorts”
See what is movingPsychology facts
Counter-intuitive claims about behaviour, one per video — the highest-retention facts format there is.
Query: “psychology facts shorts”
See what is movingSpace facts
Astronomy at feed length, where the visuals are usually the weakest part of the video.
Query: “space facts shorts”
See what is movingHistory
One event, one detail, one minute. The niche where being specific beats being broad.
Query: “history shorts”
See what is movingPersonal finance
Money explained quickly, for people who did not come here for a spreadsheet.
Query: “personal finance shorts”
See what is movingFitness
Training and form content, where the on-camera half dominates and the explainer half does not.
Query: “fitness shorts”
See what is movingCooking
Recipes at speed. The one niche where a real kitchen still beats anything generated.
Query: “cooking shorts”
See what is movingProductivity
Systems, tools and habits — a niche that rewards a specific method over general advice.
Query: “productivity shorts”
See what is movingAI tools
The fastest-moving and fastest-decaying niche here: half of these will be wrong within a quarter.
Query: “ai tools shorts”
See what is movingStudy tips
Revision and exam technique, with a seasonal audience that is enormous twice a year.
Query: “study tips shorts”
See what is movingHorror stories
Narrated horror, which compresses into a minute better than almost any other kind of fiction.
Query: “horror stories shorts”
See what is movingCar facts
Engineering, history and trivia about cars — a niche with an unusually knowledgeable audience.
Query: “car facts shorts”
See what is movingSports facts
Records, rules and moments. Almost entirely archive footage, which is what makes it hard to enter.
Query: “sports facts shorts”
See what is movingTech news
The niche we deliberately do not sell a tool for: a tool page takes a topic, and a model's knowledge of this week is stale. Hand article-to-video the story's link instead.
Query: “tech news shorts”
See what is movingBook summaries
One idea from one book. Works best when it argues with the book rather than summarising it.
Query: “book summary shorts”
See what is movingLanguage learning
Vocabulary and phrases in short bursts, narrated in the language being taught — 29 of them are available.
Query: “language learning shorts”
See what is movingMindset
Adjacent to motivation and usually better, because it argues for something rather than asserting it.
Query: “mindset shorts”
See what is movingTravel
Destinations and advice. The half that is somebody's own footage is not a niche we can serve.
Query: “travel shorts”
See what is movingPets
The oldest format on the internet, and the one where real footage is the entire product.
Query: “pets shorts”
See what is movingQuestions
Where does this data come from?
The YouTube Data API. We run one search per niche per day, look up the details of what comes back, and rank it. We do not scrape, we do not hold a corpus, and we do not have anything from TikTok or Instagram — anything implying otherwise would be a lie.
Why rank by views per day rather than total views?
Because total views reward age. A three-year-old video with a million views has taught nobody anything about this month. Views per day since publish makes a video from last week comparable to one from last year, and it is what 'currently winning' actually means.
How fresh is it?
Each niche refreshes once a day and every page states the date it was last refreshed and how many results it ranked. When today's refresh has not run, the page says so rather than presenting yesterday's ranking as today's.
Why only twenty niches?
Quota. A search costs 100 of the 10,000 units the free tier gives us per day, so twenty niches is 2,000 units and leaves the signed-in product room to work. It is a real ceiling rather than a launch decision, and past about ninety niches this approach stops working.
Is there a hooks page?
No, and there will not be one built from this data. A hook is a spoken opening line and the API gives us no transcripts, so we would be reading titles and calling them hooks. What we do have is the title-patterns page under each niche, which is exactly what it says it is.
Do I need an account?
Not to browse — these pages are free with no login. The 'Make my version' button carries that video's angle into our generator, and that part needs an account: a free account writes the script at no cost, and rendering uses credits. Signing up takes a moment, needs no card, and comes with 60 credits.