Rising and falling subreddits according to virality trends

Published on May 16, 2014 by Dr. Randal S. Olson

falling front page hotness post ranking reddit rising subreddit virality

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For the past week, I've been mapping out virality trends on various subreddits to better understand how posts go viral on reddit. As a neat side effect, I discovered a method to detect rising and falling subreddits. Basically, a "rising" subreddit is one that has a large, steady increase in hotness over time (blue to red), whereas a "falling" subreddit is going in the opposite direction (red to blue).

Rising subreddits

Here's the rising subreddits I've manage to detect: /r/4chan, /r/AlienBlue, /r/AskWomen, /r/battlestations, /r/Demotivational, /r/Diablo, /r/dubstep, /r/Fallout, /r/IWantToLearn, /r/JusticePorn, /r/learnprogramming, /r/MorbidReality, /r/Steam, /r/TrueReddit, /r/woahdude

4chan-hotness-heatmap

AlienBlue-hotness-heatmap

AskWomen-hotness-heatmap

battlestations-hotness-heatmap

Demotivational-hotness-heatmap

Diablo-hotness-heatmap

dubstep-hotness-heatmap

Fallout-hotness-heatmap

IWantToLearn-hotness-heatmap

JusticePorn-hotness-heatmap

learnprogramming-hotness-heatmap

MorbidReality-hotness-heatmap

Steam-hotness-heatmap

TrueReddit-hotness-heatmap

woahdude-hotness-heatmap

Falling subreddits

Here's the falling subreddits I've managed to detect: /r/itookapicture, /r/MURICA, /r/Frugal, /r/Health, /r/Homebrewing, /r/keto, /r/loseit, /r/progresspics, /r/sex, /r/travel

itookapicture-hotness-heatmap

MURICA-hotness-heatmap

Frugal-hotness-heatmap

Health-hotness-heatmap

Homebrewing-hotness-heatmap

keto-hotness-heatmap

loseit-hotness-heatmap

progresspics-hotness-heatmap

sex-hotness-heatmap

travel-hotness-heatmap