The Short Form Video Performance Report

Evening posts, 5PM to midnight, earn the most views. The best hour beats the worst by 86%. Day of the week barely moves the needle.

The 11 to 20 second band earns peak median views across 108K Shorts. Views fall in both directions from that sweet spot.

Reels reach 6.1× more accounts than in-feed posts. Format choice moves reach far more than Reel length.

Only 1 in 358 TikToks reach 100,000 views. Consistent volume is the main lever, not a single perfect post.

85.1% of TikTok views come from the For You page. Every post is a cold audition. Follower count barely matters.

Posts with zero hashtags outperform the 7–10 hashtag range by 117%. More tags do not mean more views on TikTok or Instagram.

The For You page delivers 85.1% of all TikTok views. The following feed accounts for just 0.3%. Follower count barely determines reach.

Captions without emoji earn 357 vs 228 median views on TikTok. The same pattern holds on Instagram. Emojis are not a reach lever.

Creators posting 200+ times a year earn 169× more total reach with no per-post penalty. Volume compounds. Consistency is the lever.

Social-proof openers lead across 121K classified hooks at a median of 232 views. Authority and direct-command hooks land last at 177.

TikTok's median engagement rate is 2.26%; Facebook trails at 0.99%. These are medians on 219K posts, not inflated averages.

The top 10% of Shorts hold 91% view-through; the median is 45%. Reach is downstream of retention.