How to Make Trending Videos on YouTube (Now That the Trending Page Is Gone)

Is there still a Trending page on YouTube?

No. YouTube removed the Trending page and the Trending Now list, starting globally on 21 July 2025, and replaced them with category charts on YouTube Charts, such as Trending Music Videos and Trending Movie Trailers, with gaming on the Gaming Explore page. The reason YouTube gave: visits to the Trending page had fallen sharply over five years, and people now find trends through recommendations, search, Shorts and comments.

So making a trending video now means making a video the recommendation system wants to show to more and more people, not getting onto one list.

What YouTube's recommendations reward

YouTube describes its recommendations as built to find videos each viewer will be satisfied with, not only videos they will click. Besides what people watch, the system learns from what they like and dislike, their subscriptions and feedback such as satisfaction surveys. A video that earns clicks and then disappoints is shown less; one that holds people and earns a like is shown more.

That splits the job in two: the title and thumbnail earn the click, and the video has to keep the promise quickly.

The first 30 seconds decide

YouTube Studio's audience retention report has a line for exactly this: the share of viewers still watching after the first 30 seconds. YouTube reads a high share as the first 30 seconds matching what viewers expected. When it is low, YouTube's advice is to change the title and thumbnail so they reflect the video, to rework the first 30 seconds, and to bring the most compelling part earlier, because audiences shrink over a video's length.

• Open on the payoff or the question, never on a greeting.
• Show what the title promised within the first seconds.
• Cut what repeats: dips in the retention graph mark where viewers skip.
• End a Short so it loops back into its first line.

Titles and thumbnails that earn the right click

YouTube Studio can A/B test up to three versions of a video's title, its thumbnail, or both. It does not pick the winner by clicks: the title or combination with the highest watch time is shown to everyone. A clickbait title that brings viewers who leave loses the test.

Write the title as the one question the video answers, and make the thumbnail show the moment the viewer is waiting for.

How to ride a trend without copying it

Find what people are asking this week: Google Trends, the suggestions in YouTube's own search box, the comments under the biggest videos in your niche. Then answer it with your own angle: a clearer explanation, a story, a myth checked, a local take.

Originality is not optional. YouTube's monetization policies rule out mass-produced, generic or repetitive videos: a trend video that only repeats what everyone else said can get views and still not be monetized.

Shorts or a long video for a trend?

Shorts reach people fastest. Since 15 October 2024 a Short can be up to three minutes long when it is square or vertical, so a trend explained in 60 to 90 seconds fits. Long videos earn more per view and build watch hours; a Short that works is often worth a long version the same week.

A trend workflow you can repeat

Trends reward the channels that can publish while a topic is still rising. A fixed weekly routine makes that possible.

• List five questions people in your niche are asking this week.
• Pick the one you can answer best, and write the hook first.
• Make a vertical Short; if it holds viewers, make the long version.
• Publish while the trend is still rising: a week late is usually too late.
• Read the retention graph and fix the next video's first 30 seconds.

Making trend videos fast with FacelessCast

Speed is the advantage in a trend. Type the trend and your angle into the box on our home page, or ask the Agent to turn a news story or a Reddit thread into a Short. The studio writes a hook-first script, reads it with a narrator that fits, makes every scene as AI video, adds captions synced to the voice and shows the price before anything starts; a 30-second Short is usually ready in minutes.

Versions help you act on what the retention report shows: publish the same video with another opening, or a translation for another market, without making it again.

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