Fyreside Newsletter - 9/29/25

Hey Reader,

First and foremost, a hearty thank you to the 4 of you who replied to my question last week! I've made a lot of progress on the blog and I'm excited to share some of it with you today. Luckily for the rest of you, there's still time to answer my question! So, if you'd like to add your opinion to my upcoming blog, shoot me a reply with your answer to the question below.

I need your help.

Please reply to this email with your answer to this very simple question:

How many views does something need to be "viral?"

And now, a preview.

I'm aiming to have this blog up on Blogfyre by the end of the week. Admittedly, it's taken more time for me to get my thoughts down about this topic than I expected. The reality is that I'm attempting to answer an unanswerable question. As was reflected by your responses last week, no one knows how many views it takes to be "viral." In fact, there's not even a range of consensus. I asked my question on a few platforms, here are some of the answers I got:

300+
1000+
10,000+
100,000+
1,000,000+
1,500,000+

Trying to determine the threshold for virality is like trying to determine how many grains of sand there are in Florida. You can estimate and hypothesize with the most complex equations, but you'll never be right. And, much like any scientific study about the state of Florida, the deeper you go, the sadder you get.

So, for the rest of this week's newsletter, I'd like to give you a preview of this upcoming blog. As always, feel free to share this preview or send any feedback my way!

"How Many Views Does It Take To Go Viral?"

Since November of 2020, the most watched video on YouTube has been Baby Shark Dance which, at time of writing, is around 16b views. For context, 16b is about twice the population of the earth. TWICE THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH.

So, to be at the top of the leader board, you need everyone on earth to watch your video at least twice. No pressure, right?

But looking back across the history of the most viewed videos tells a different story. When Baby Shark Dance claimed the “most watched” crown, it did so with just over 7b views. For those playing along at home, that’s less than the population of earth!

In less than 5 years, an already astronomical goal post has been moved by 230%. Ready for an even crazier number? PSY’s Gangnam Style was the first YouTube video to pass 1b views. It did so in December of 2012. That means in less than 13 years, we’ve kicked that goal post back 1600%.

Just to cement the statistics here, I’d like to give you one more point of reference. If you were on the internet back in 2009, the title “Charlie Bit My Finger” should be familiar to you. This family video of a teething toddler became the most viewed video on YouTube in October of 2009. When it took the crown, it did so with around 129 million views. It’s been 16 years since 2009 and we’ve moved the goalpost back 12,400%.

What the hell happened? The population of the Earth hasn’t changed that dramatically. We haven’t found a way to slow the passage of time. Across these 13 years, the number of internet users has grown by 318%, but that still doesn’t even nip at the heels of 12400%.