We examined over 30 million Shorts videos with a total of 1.3 trillion views to determine the top YouTube Shorts niches to get views fast. If you’re trying to get monetized with YouTube Shorts, get more views, get more subscribers, or just want to know what’s trending in YouTube Shorts, then read on or dive into our video on the subject:
Entertainment – The number 1 YouTube Shorts niche by views
Entertainment is by far the most popular Shorts niche, accounting for over 17% of all YouTube Shorts views over our 90 day test period. But it’s not just any entertainment content. Viewers are mostly watching pranks, challenges, and a special genre known as “oddly satisfying.”
These types of videos work so well because they’re what I consider global-friendly. They work in any language, although they oftentimes don’t include any speaking at all, making them easily consumed around the world. They are truly a global phenomenon and are therefore racking up a ton of views via YouTube Shorts.
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📅 April 23, 2024
⏰ 7:00pm PST
What’s next in creator tech? Join BENlabs CEO Ricky Ray Butler, host Judah Lee, and creators King Bach, Hannah Stocking, and Kris London for a special Creator Day event, streaming live from LA.
Food and Drink – The number 2 YouTube Shorts niche by views
The next killer YouTube Shorts niche is food. Now, food can include a lot of topics: cooking tutorials, food reviews, even mukbang, etc . but food content centered around chocolate, gummies, and meat-filled recipes are at the top of the charts.
A good example of a creator who’s growing in this niche is albert_cancook. Albert takes his cooking niche and makes it wildly appealing by recreating popular dishes from restaurants, TV shows, and movies. This short-form food format is the reason why his channel is skyrocketing on YouTube right now. According to Social Blade, his channel’s getting 20,000 subscribers every single day.
Video Games – The number 3 YouTube Shorts niche by views
The third niche is video games. I know some of you are happy to hear this. The beautiful thing about gaming content is it’s attractive to viewers of all ages. And trend-jacking popular video games or new releases are a great way to drive up views quickly. Because of the general interest in certain games, viewers are already looking for content related to them. So you can just ride the wave of popularity and get more views without having to do a bunch of extra work. In our research, we found that the games that are getting the most views from Shorts are:
- Minecraft
- Grand Theft Auto
- Fortnite.
Sports – The number 4 YouTube Shorts niche by views
The fourth niche is sports, specifically fishing, basketball, martial arts, and football. If you think you can make content around them, you probably should
Crafting – The number 5 YouTube Shorts niche by views
Crafting videos pulled over 16 billion views in the last 90 days. Art and crafting are skills that many people don’t have, so this makes this an attractive niche for skilled artists because of the much lower competition. Not many people can do things like this. And it’s easy to stand out even if you’re starting out if you’re good.
The top categories in this niche were drawing, woodworking, and paper art. But things like sewing and metalwork were popular too. Even videos around pottery got millions of views. And even if you’re not planning to make these crafts, they’re so fun and entertaining to watch because you’re just getting to see the process and how it’s done. That’s why crafting videos are killing it on Shorts right now.
Family and Parenting – The number 6 YouTube Shorts niche by views
You may be surprised to hear that gender reveal videos can generate over 20 million views each. Yeah, this niche is pretty popular. Marriage and wedding videos pulled in 2.6 billion views combined. Childbirth and pregnancy pulled in another 1.2 billion, and videos around fatherhood pulled in over 710 million.
Animals and Pets – The number 7 YouTube Shorts niche by views
Who doesn’t love a cute animal video? Footage of your pets doing funny things and reaction videos to animals seem to work best. But we see a lot of skits where pets are the main characters do extremely well.
Movies and Television – The number 8 YouTube Shorts niche by views
Now, this is another great one for writing trends. Netflix released the show “Wednesday” on November 23rd, 2022. And the channels that make content around the show during its spike in popularity got loads of views. In fact, seven of the top ten videos for TV series in the last 90 days were about “Wednesday.”
The same happens when any popular TV show or movie gets released. And Netflix actually shows you what’s trending in the top 10 movies and shows that people are watching. Use this information to your advantage so you can find out what’s trending at the moment so you can make content.
Science and Technology – The number 9 YouTube Shorts niche by views
Within this niche, science experiments came in third place, robotics came in second, and at the top of this niche is consumer electronics, mainly smartphones and tablets. And if you’re a tech channel, pro tip here, iPhone-related hacks, pranks, and challenges do the best.
News – The number 10 YouTube Shorts niche by views
Here’s the thing, short-form content is now a major way that we all consume our news. A recent survey found that 57% of Gen Z get their news from social media instead of traditional sources like TV and newspapers. And that number only goes up when we look at younger demographics. Shorts around current events, politics, and trending news stories are crushing it on YouTube Shorts.
Now if you’re trying to blow up on YouTube Shorts, we have a lot of content planned for you. From interviews with successful Shorts creators to revealing strategies that are driving millions of views. So keep tuned!
by TubeBuddy as part of