Curiosity-Gap Openings Dominate Top Creator Videos, but Visual Spectacle Runs Furthest, Data Shows

Nearly a third of top-performing creator videos open with a curiosity gap, the most common hook type by a wide margin, while a visual-spectacle opening recorded the strongest relative view performance among videos that were already top performers, according to data Ames Create compiled from 1,239 videos across 18 creators.

The independent creative studio analyzed the videos, which drew more than 2.5 billion combined views across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, with a median of 355,954 views per video. Ames Create said each video was classified from the footage itself by an AI model as part of its ongoing research into the creators it works with or studies. Every reported figure pools videos from at least three creators, and no individual creator, video, or brand is named.

Five Openings Account for 86% of Top Videos

A curiosity gap, defined by Ames Create as a hook that opens a question in the viewer’s mind without answering it, opened 28% of the 1,238 videos the studio classified by opening type, and was used by 17 of the 18 creators studied. Pattern interrupts followed at 18%, bold claims at 17%, relatable callouts at 12%, and high-stakes openings at 10%. Together, those five types accounted for roughly 86% of top videos.

Visual spectacle and middle-of-the-action openings each made up 2%, and openings categorized as controversy or as a direct question each accounted for just 1%; 16 of the 1,238 videos opened with a question. Opening types used by fewer than three creators were grouped under “other openings,” which made up the remaining 8%.

Visual Spectacle and Relatable Callouts Outperformed, Controversy and Questions Lagged

Ames Create measured each video’s view count against that same creator’s typical top video, a method intended to let large and small accounts count equally. Among the five most common opening types, a relatable callout ran 19% above a creator’s typical top video, the strongest showing of the common hooks.

Visual spectacle, despite appearing in only 2% of videos, ran 33% above a creator’s typical top video, the largest lift across any category. High-stakes openings ran 5% above normal, and curiosity gaps 3% above. Middle-of-the-action and pattern-interrupt openings ran roughly flat, at -1% and -2% respectively. Bold claims ran 10% below a creator’s typical top video, questions ran 14% below, and controversy-based openings ran 30% below, the weakest performance of any type measured.

Top YouTube Shorts Run 27 Seconds, Sponsored Videos Held Their Own

Among 335 top YouTube Shorts with a length on file from 12 creators, the median length was 27 seconds. Twenty percent ran under 15 seconds, 35% ran between 15 and 30 seconds, 36% ran between 30 and 60 seconds, and 9% ran between 60 and 90 seconds; 55% ran under 30 seconds in total, and 91% ran under a minute.

Sponsored videos made up 9% of the top videos studied, drawn from 14 creators, and Ames Create reported that they performed at their normal rate for views, meaning they did not underperform relative to each creator’s typical top video.

Image source: Ames CreateThe full report is available here