hacker news data story · vol 1

Built something cool?
Show HN.

For over a decade now, Hacker News (especially Show HN, despite being <4% of all HN posts) has held an special place in the tech zeitgeist. Braving HN comments is a rite of passage for side-project enthusiasts and young startups alike. I recently had a Show HN post hit the front page (big ooof). It was, to say the least, as thrilling as it was anxiety-inducing.

It also left me wondering: What kinds of posts do well on Show HN? What are the top posts over the years? How has Show HN held up against the onslaught of AI slop? Is it still where the cool projects hang out? Has HN become meaner over time?

I fired up my clankers and set out to find out in (what has turned out to be) a 3 volume series. You can read more about the data and methodology at the end.

Vol 1: Built Something Cool? Show HN. (you’re here!) Vol 2: Show HN Hall of Fame. Yearly Top 10 → Vol 3: Is HN getting meaner or is that a myth? → (WIP!)

Monthly posts, posters, comments and replies

Fig.01 · 16 years of demos, month by month >3x posts over the last year

SHOW HN Posts

—

1 lvl Comments

—

unique Posters

—

1 lvl Replies

—

Source · Hacker News Big Query data, Jan 2011 – Jul 2026

attention is all the posters need

it's all about the power Law.

More than half of everything ever posted to Show HN received no comments at all. Close to a third finished on exactly one point (submitter's own). The top ~1% posts get most of the attention, love and well, meanness.

Using this plot below, I tried to see how "unlikely" some engagement behaviors were to flag potential "fishy" Show HNs. Results were a wash when I looked at those posts, but there is scope for future work here.

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Fig.02 · every score/comment pair, sized by posts · symlog axes Red line = fitted trend

Scores Distribution

Fig.03 · score distribution · posts per bucket

Comments Distribution

Fig.04 · comment distribution · posts per bucket

I categorized every post title + text + URL using a tiny LLM into 5 buckets: demo, dev_tool, hardware, writing and other. Posts were also categorized by the predicted posting context. Side projects vs startup posts vs big company posts.

Writing/content related Show HNs are dwindling over the years, with Dev Tools growing steadily. Hardware Show HNs were always rare, and continue to be so.

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Fig.05 · artifact category as a share of posts, split by project context Categories assigned by an LLM

What's the reception like?

getting noticed WAS ALways difficult.
It is about to get much, much worse.

Cracking 250 points has always been difficult. Back in 2011, 0.59% of launches made it to orbit clearing 250 points. This conversion has consistently hovered around 1-2% for the last decade.

2025 saw — Show HN posts, up 61% in a single year (250-point-post rate dropped —%). The first seven months of 2026 have already produced — Show HNs. This is more than all of 2025!

HN has a soft spot for Hardware built as side projects. —% of those posts had 250+ points, roughly five times the field. Hardware projects do well across the board. Startup demos don't get much love, which checks out.

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Fig.06 · the odds, year by year Never once above 2%

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Fig.07 · % of each group clearing 250 Categories assigned by an LLM

Has anyone figured out the secret to showHN success?

Only Thirty-four builders have "Made it" more than Twice

— people have posted a Show HN. Only — of them have had posts with 250+ score even once. 34 have done it three times or more. One person has six. Nobody has more. Seems like a pretty exclusive bunch!

Launches that reached >= 250 points

—%

of all — Show HN posts

Builders with a 250+ points post

2.17%

— of all — builders

Builders who did it >=3 times

—%

of all — builders

Pretty clear from here that Show HN is still very high signal, and nobody has managed to "game" it so far. If you manage to get a post to >250 points, you should be very happy!

Curious who they are and what they shipped? Vol 2: Show HN Hall of Fame — the yearly top 10 →

it's all about the power Law.

getting noticed WAS ALways difficult. It is about to get much, much worse.

Only Thirty-four builders have "Made it" more than Twice

getting noticed WAS ALways difficult.
It is about to get much, much worse.