What's working for Cleo Abram right now?

§01

What they're making lately

Cleo Abram primarily publishes short-form content, with 72% of recent uploads being YouTube Shorts. These videos, like "What Time Is It In Antarctica?" and "There's a Telescope at the Bottom of the Ocean," typically run under a minute, with a median duration of 59 seconds. The channel maintains a high upload cadence, averaging 1.5 days between uploads. The content focuses on optimistic science and technology explainers, often posing a question in the title to pique viewer interest.

Compare

No comparison vs same niche vs all channels

§02

What landed

The hits, in context

3 of 25 videos · ≥ 2× the typical view count

A typical video here pulls in around 2.7M views. 3 of them blew past that. The biggest, 3× higher than the rest.

01

What Time Is It In Antarctica?

6,994,024 views·Apr 2026

+159%

vs. median

The hook

The video asks, "What time is it in Antarctica?" and immediately explains that all timezones meet there, setting up a paradox.

The thumbnail

The thumbnail features Cleo Abram centered in a snowy, icy landscape with the word "ANTARCTICA" in bright green text overlay, conveying a sense of adventure and location.

Why it broke

This video broke out due to a highly intriguing, counter-intuitive question in the title and hook. The Antarctica setting, a visually unique and less-explored topic, combined with the short, punchy format, likely captured broad curiosity. The thumbnail's direct text overlay and Cleo's presence add a personal, engaging touch to the scientific query.

02

There's a Telescope at the Bottom of the Ocean

6,418,379 views·Apr 2026

+137%

vs. median

The hook

The video immediately states, "Nearly 3500 meters under the sea off the coast of Sicily sits 51 strings holding 18 spheres each," creating an immediate sense of mystery and wonder about an unexpected scientific installation.

The thumbnail

The thumbnail displays a deep blue underwater scene with numerous glowing spheres and a faint question mark, visually representing the mysterious underwater telescope.

Why it broke

This video's success stems from its reveal of an unexpected and fascinating scientific endeavor: a telescope at the bottom of the ocean. The hook's immediate dive into the specifics of this hidden technology, coupled with the visually striking and mysterious thumbnail, effectively draws viewers into a short, compelling explanation of an unknown marvel. The topic's novelty and the visual intrigue make it stand out.

03

The Scariest Part of Artemis II Hasn’t Happened Yet

5,715,011 views·Apr 2026

+111%

vs. median

The hook

The video opens with the claim, "The scariest part of the Artemis II mission hasn’t happened yet," immediately creating suspense and a desire to know what critical event is still to come.

The thumbnail

The thumbnail shows a stylized animation of the Artemis II spacecraft orbiting Earth, with bright green text "ARTEMIS II" and a subtle "*NOT TO SCALE" disclaimer, focusing on the space mission.

Why it broke

This video leverages a strong suspenseful hook related to a high-profile space mission, Artemis II. By framing a future event as the 'scariest part,' it taps into inherent human curiosity and concern. The clear, direct title and thumbnail, combined with the short format, deliver a quick, impactful piece of information about a significant current event in space exploration, driving high engagement.

What they have in common

2 patterns identified

01

Videos that pose a direct, intriguing question about a scientific or technological anomaly tend to outperform the recent baseline.

What Time Is It In Antarctica?

02

Content exploring unusual or hidden scientific discoveries, particularly those related to space or deep-sea exploration, generates significantly higher views.

2 examples

There's a Telescope at the Bottom of the Ocean The Scariest Part of Artemis II Hasn’t Happened Yet

§03

Rhythm

25 uploads · Apr 2026 → May 2026

How often they posted

They uploaded a few times a week (two or three uploads a week).

Taller bars = more uploads in that window. Gaps are silence.

Apr 2026each column ≈ 1 dayMay 2026

A few times a week

Multiple uploads each week kept the channel feeling alive between bigger pieces.

~2 days between uploads

April 2026

Their busiest month: more uploads landed in April 2026 than any other.

peak month

§04

Length & format

25 videos

How long they ran

Most videos run between a quick 52-second watch and a meatier 1-minute session, landing around the 59-second mark.

Shorts vs full videos25 total

18

Shorts (under a minute)

7

Full videos (longer watches)

How long they actually areshortest → longest

59stypical length

15m30m45m1h

shortest36s

longest1h 5m

Each dot is one video. Most cluster in the orange band, between a 52-second watch and a 1-minute session. The longest stretched all the way to 1h 5m.

§05

Top tags

#cleo abram3#cloe abram3#cleo abrams3#huge conversation2#cleo abram podcast2#cloe abrams2#huge if true2#big if true2#cloe abrms1#big conversation1

§06

How they title things

25 titles read

The voice in the headlines

Their titles are medium-length (a quick sentence), and they really like to ask a question.

?

About half of titles ask a question

48%of titles

“What Time Is It In Antarctica?”

“Can Brain Cells Really Play DOOM?”

About a third of titles shout in ALL CAPS

32%

Just a few titles end with “!”

4%

None of titles use an emoji

0%

None of titles use a number

0%

Typical length

37characters · about a sentence long

3060100

§07

When they hit publish

25 uploads

Day & time of release

Most videos drop on a Wednesday, usually in the afternoon.

Across the weekvideos per day

4

Mon

4

Tue

6

Wed

3

Thu

4

Fri

3

Sat

1

Sun

Wednesdays are the favorite. Roughly 24% of uploads land then.

Time of dayUTC hour

12am6amnoon6pm11pm

They publish most often in the afternoon. The busiest hour is around 2pm UTC. Mornings and middays are mostly quiet.

middaywhen most uploads happen

eveningwhen uploads almost never happen

7 of 7days of the week saw an upload

§08

What to do with this

Not every tactic transfers. Here's the triage: what's safe to copy, what's stuck to this channel, and what looks great until it bites you.

Copy this

Likely to work for similar channels.

Craft titles that pose a direct question or make a bold, intriguing statement to immediately hook viewers.
Produce short-form content (under 60 seconds) that explains a single, fascinating scientific or technological concept.
Use clear, concise language in descriptions to reinforce the video's topic and encourage subscriptions.
Incorporate text overlays on thumbnails to quickly convey the video's subject matter.

Won't transfer

Worked here, channel-specific.

The ability to visit remote locations like Antarctica for content, as seen in "What Time Is It In Antarctica?", relies on significant production resources and travel access that most creators lack.
Interviewing high-profile figures like Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis requires established industry connections and credibility that are not easily replicated.
The channel's established reputation for 'optimistic tech explainers' provides a trust factor that new creators would need to build over time.

Watch out

Worked, but carries risk.

Maintaining a high upload cadence of 4.85 videos per week, with a median of 1.1 days between uploads, risks creator burnout or a drop in content quality if not managed carefully.
Relying heavily on trending scientific or technological topics requires constant research and quick production, which can be demanding.
Focusing predominantly on short-form content may limit opportunities for deeper dives and could lead to audience fatigue if not varied with longer formats occasionally.

§09

Your next move

A testable hypothesis built from this window.

Boiled down: if you wanted to learn from this channel's recent run, here's what to try next.

Test this

Create a short-form video (under 60 seconds) that poses a surprising, counter-intuitive question about a scientific or technological concept, using a visually intriguing thumbnail with a direct text overlay.

Why

Recent breakouts like "What Time Is It In Antarctica?" and "There's a Telescope at the Bottom of the Ocean" demonstrate that curiosity-driven questions about unexpected scientific phenomena, presented in a concise short format with a clear thumbnail, drive significantly higher views. This approach effectively captures attention and delivers a quick, satisfying explanation.

What could break

The effectiveness of this approach relies heavily on finding truly novel and intriguing scientific facts that are not widely known. The signal could decay if the topics become too niche or if the 'surprise' factor diminishes for the audience over time.

§10

Share this snapshot

7 tweets · Cleo Abram

An X thread built from this recent window. Numbers, the breakout, the hypothesis, and a link back. Copy as-is or edit first.

You@yourhandlenow01/07
I read Cleo Abram's last 25 videos with growth-playbook.xyz 📚 Here's what's landing right now 🧵
98/280
You@yourhandlenow02/07
✨ Optimistic tech explainers Cleo Abram is currently driving high engagement and views with short, curiosity-driven videos that explore scientific phenomena and technological marvels.
184/280
You@yourhandlenow03/07
📊 The pace • 25 videos · Apr 2026 → May 2026 • a new upload every ~1 days • ~2.7M median views
95/280
You@yourhandlenow04/07
🚀 The biggest hit: "What Time Is It In Antarctica?" 7.0M views · 3× the typical This video broke out due to a highly intriguing, counter-intuitive question in the title and hook.
181/280
You@yourhandlenow05/07
🎯 What I'd test next: Create a short-form video (under 60 seconds) that poses a surprising, counter-intuitive question about a scientific or technological concept, using a visually intriguing thumbnail with a direct text overlay. Recent breakouts like "What Time Is It In Antarctica?
286/280
You@yourhandlenow06/07
💡 If you'd copy one thing: Craft titles that pose a direct question or make a bold, intriguing statement to immediately hook viewers.
134/280
You@yourhandlenow07/07
Want this for any channel? Paste a YouTube URL → get a snapshot in ~1 min 🚀 growth-playbook.xyz
98/280

Cleo Abram