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Studies

What the Most-Viewed TikTok Slideshow Hooks Have in Common

We read the cover text of 3,823 TikTok slideshows and the cover photos of 7,713. Short, list-style hooks did best, and selfie covers did worst.

Published October 25, 2026 by ReelsFarm

median views for numbered-list hooks
4,000
median views for first-person story hooks
1,800
median views for hooks of 1 to 5 words
4,050
median views for selfie covers, against 6,600 for food
2,750

Hook types

Numbered lists, such as "5 habits that keep you sharp", had a median of 4,000 views. First-person stories that open with "I" or "my" had 1,800.

"How to" hooks had a middling median of 3,500 views but the highest save rate, at 2.87%.

Median views by hook type
  • Numbered list4,000

    732 slideshows from 342 creators. 18.2% passed 100,000 views.

  • List without a number3,800

    264 slideshows from 174 creators. 13.3% passed 100,000 views.

  • Other3,500

    1,932 slideshows from 671 creators. 14.9% passed 100,000 views.

  • How to3,500

    409 slideshows from 252 creators. 17.8% passed 100,000 views.

  • First-person story1,800

    308 slideshows from 165 creators. 16.2% passed 100,000 views.

Hook length

Hooks of 1 to 5 words had a median of 4,050 views. Hooks of 11 to 15 words had 2,900.

Median views by hook length
  • 1 to 5 words4,050

    386 slideshows from 256 creators. 18.4% passed 100,000 views.

  • 6 to 10 words3,800

    1,529 slideshows from 636 creators. 17.0% passed 100,000 views.

  • 11 to 15 words2,900

    1,173 slideshows from 507 creators. 14.7% passed 100,000 views.

  • 16 or more words3,100

    735 slideshows from 312 creators. 13.3% passed 100,000 views.

Emoji

Hooks with an emoji had a median of 2,450 views, against 3,500 without. 9.5% of emoji hooks passed 100,000 views, against 16.4%.

Median views with and without emoji
  • No emoji3,500

    3,445 slideshows from 821 creators. 16.4% passed 100,000 views.

  • Emoji in the hook2,450

    378 slideshows from 164 creators. 9.5% passed 100,000 views.

Cover photos

Selfie covers had the lowest median, at 2,750 views. Covers showing food or drink had 6,600, illustrations 5,500 and objects or products 5,400.

One likely reason: a cover that shows the topic tells viewers what the slideshow is about before they read the hook.

Median views by cover photo
  • Food or drink6,600

    171 slideshows from 99 creators. 21.1% passed 100,000 views.

  • Illustration5,500

    242 slideshows from 117 creators. 19.0% passed 100,000 views.

  • Object or product5,400

    988 slideshows from 355 creators. 20.3% passed 100,000 views.

  • Room or interior4,200

    245 slideshows from 116 creators. 19.2% passed 100,000 views.

  • Person, not a selfie3,900

    4,480 slideshows from 788 creators. 17.2% passed 100,000 views.

  • Place or scenery3,800

    359 slideshows from 159 creators. 19.8% passed 100,000 views.

  • Selfie2,750

    1,148 slideshows from 400 creators. 14.5% passed 100,000 views.

How we measured this

We analyzed 7,736 public TikTok photo slideshows from 876 creators that ReelsFarm collected. Most of these accounts promote something, such as an app, a product or a newsletter, so the set leans toward slideshows made for marketing.

Views, likes and saves were recorded once, on 2026-10-05. Post dates are not known, so older posts had more time to collect views. We report medians, because a few viral posts would push averages far up.

Groups with fewer than 80 slideshows are left out. Some niches come from a small number of creators, so we show creator counts next to each group. These numbers describe what performed. They do not prove that a choice caused the views.

Hooks and cover photos come from short descriptions of each cover that an AI model wrote for ReelsFarm when building Slideshow Ideas. For hook wording, we use only the 3,823 covers whose description quotes the cover text exactly. Cover photo types come from all 7,713 described covers.

Questions

What makes a good TikTok slideshow hook?
In our data, short numbered-list hooks without emoji did best. Numbered lists had a median of 4,000 views.
Should a TikTok slideshow cover show my face?
In our data, selfie covers had a median of 2,750 views, the lowest of any cover type. Covers showing the topic did better.
Do emoji help TikTok slideshow hooks?
Not in our data. Hooks with an emoji had a median of 2,450 views, against 3,500 without.

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