> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.yousonder.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How a video goes viral

> The exact rule Sonder uses, relative to each author's own videos.

200,000 views is ordinary for some authors and 5,000 is a breakthrough for others. So Sonder judges each video against the author's own typical video, with a floor so a tiny account doesn't call 300 views viral.

## The rule

A video has **gone viral** when its total views reach **10 times the author's typical video**, and at least **5,000**.

If the author has fewer than 5 videos to compare against, the line is simply **5,000 views**.

## The details

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Total views">
    Views added up across every platform the video was posted to through Sonder: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The author's typical video">
    The **median** total views of the author's other videos first posted in the **90 days before** this one. The median, not the average, so one earlier hit doesn't raise the bar for everything after it.

    Videos less than **3 days old** aren't counted yet, because their views are still coming in.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="When it went viral">
    `went_viral_at` is the hour the video's total first crossed its line. Sonder checks every hour, so it's accurate to the hour.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Once viral, always viral">
    The line is fixed at the moment a video crosses it. If the author's median later rises, a video that already went viral stays viral, and its date never moves.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Worked example

An author's last 23 videos from the past 90 days have a median of **1,200** views.

* Their line is 10 × 1,200 = **12,000** views, which is above the 5,000 floor.
* A new video reaches 12,840 views at 14:00 UTC on 15 September. It went viral then.

```json theme={null}
"viral": {
  "is_viral": true,
  "went_viral_at": "2026-09-15T14:00:00.000Z",
  "views_when_viral": 12840,
  "threshold": 12000,
  "author_median_views": 1200,
  "compared_videos": 23
}
```

For a video that hasn't gone viral yet, `threshold` is the line it has to reach right now, which is useful for showing "8,400 views to go".

## Where it shows up

* `viral` on every [video](/api-reference/videos/list-videos)
* `is_viral` and `went_viral` on each day in [daily stats](/api-reference/stats/get-daily-views)
* a `video.went_viral` [event](/api-reference/events/list-events)

<Note>
  A viral day is a strong hint, not proof, that a sales spike came from the video. Sonder only sees views; your sales data completes the picture.
</Note>