How to Find Trending YouTube Shorts

Jumping on a YouTube Shorts trend can feel like catching lightning in a bottle, instantly boosting your views and subscriber count. But finding that trend before it fades is the real challenge. This guide skips the guesswork and gives you a practical roadmap to not only find viral Shorts trends but also to adapt them for your brand so you can ride the wave of the algorithm.

Why Catching a Trend Matters for YouTube Shorts Growth

YouTube's algorithm for Shorts is designed to push content that people are actively engaging with at that moment. When you participate in a trend, you're tapping into a pre-existing conversation and a built-in audience. It’s like entering a crowded room where everyone is already listening for a specific punchline or song clip. By using a trending audio, format, or challenge, you give the algorithm a strong signal that your content is relevant and timely, which dramatically increases its chances of being distributed to a wider audience outside of your current subscriber base. Participating in trends is one of the fastest ways to gain visibility, attract new viewers who are interested in that style of content, and show that your channel is active and current.

Your First Stop: Finding Trends Directly on YouTube

The best place to find YouTube Shorts trends is often on YouTube itself. The platform gives you several direct clues about what’s currently resonating with viewers. The key is to switch from being a passive viewer to an active researcher.

Scroll the Shorts Feed with a Plan

Mindless scrolling is a time suck, but intentional scrolling is research. Open the YouTube app and dedicate 10-15 minutes to actively analyzing the Shorts feed. Don't just watch - look for patterns. Here’s a simple process to follow:

• Spot Repeating Audio: If you hear the same sound clip, song, or voiceover three or more times within a few minutes of scrolling, you've likely found a trend. Tap the sound icon in the bottom right corner of the Short. This will take you to the audio source page, where you can see how many other Shorts have used that sound. A high number (and a mix of creators big and small) is a great sign.
• Identify Visual Formats: A trend isn't always about audio. It can be a specific camera movement, a particular editing trick (like a jump cut on a beat), or a common setup (e.g., the "point-to-text-on-screen" format). When you see a similar visual style pop up repeatedly, take note.
• Look for Common Themes or Challenges: Are a bunch of creators answering the same question, telling a story with a specific opening line ("The one thing my audience doesn't know about me..."), or completing a simple challenge? These content-based trends are powerful because they're extremely adaptable.

Check the Underused "Explore" Tab

While the main YouTube "Trending" page is mostly filled with long-form videos, it offers valuable clues if you know where to look. On the YouTube homepage (desktop or mobile), navigate to the "Explore" section in the left-hand menu. From there, you have a few options:

• Trending: Scan this page for any Shorts that have managed to break through. It's rare, but when one does, it signals a massive trend. More importantly, check the overall topics here. If a particular gaming announcement, movie trailer, or celebrity news story is trending, that topic is fertile ground for Shorts content giving a hot take or a funny reaction.
• Music: This is a goldmine for Shorts creators. This section shows you the top trending music videos and songs on the platform right now. Popular songs on the main YouTube chart almost always become trending sounds in Shorts. You can get ahead of the curve by picking up on a song as it starts to climb the chart and using it in your Short before it becomes completely saturated.

Spy on Creator Channels in Your Niche

Some of the most relevant trends will come from creators in your own space. Find 5-10 channels in your niche - both large established players and smaller, up-and-coming creators - and check their Shorts tabs.

Sort their videos by "Most Popular." Notice any common threads in their top-performing videos from the last few months? Now, sort by "Latest" to see what they are experimenting with right now. What sounds are they using? What formats are they trying? This isn't about copying their work, it's about understanding what's working for your specific audience. If a particular trend is resonating with your competitor's audience, there's a good chance it will resonate with yours, too.

Look Off-Platform: Where Trends Are Born

Many YouTube Shorts trends don't actually start on YouTube. They migrate from other short-form video platforms, usually with a lag time of a day to even a week. By keeping an eye on these other platforms, you can often spot a trend just as it's about to hit YouTube, giving you a powerful first-mover advantage.

TikTok’s “For You Page”: The Trend Superhighway

TikTok is the undisputed engine of most modern internet culture and viral audio clips. Trends often start here and then get repurposed for Reels and Shorts later. Spending 15 minutes a day studying your TikTok "For You Page" (FYP) will feel like getting a cheat sheet for future YouTube hits.

As you scroll, apply the same pattern-spotting techniques: listen for repeating audio, watch for popular formats, and identify challenge-based videos. On TikTok, the life cycle of a trend is extremely fast. If something blows up on your FYP on a Tuesday, you have a good chance to succeed by adapting it for YouTube Shorts on Wednesday or Thursday. Don't forget to check TikTok's "Creative Center" (accessible via their website), which has a dedicated trends section that shows you top songs, hashtags, and videos in your region.

Instagram Reels: A Great Secondary Source

While TikTok is often the originator, Instagram Reels is a fantastic secondary indicator. Some trends that bubble up on TikTok never make the leap to broader social media, but the ones you see repeated on both TikTok and Instagram Reels are almost guaranteed to perform well on Shorts. Reels trends can sometimes have a slightly different feel - often more polished, aesthetic, or business-focused. If your brand leans that way, monitoring Reels can give you trends that are a better fit for your style. Treat Reels as a confirmation signal: if you see it there after seeing it on TikTok, it's time to start filming.

Found a Trend? Here’s How to Actually Use It

Spotting a trend is only half the battle. Simply copying another video rarely works. The key to successful trend-jacking is adaptation - making the trend your own and making it relevant to your audience and your brand.

Rule #1: Adapt, Don’t Just Copy

Identify the core element of the trend. Is it the punchline delivery? The audio cue? A filter? Once you know what makes the trend work, brainstorm how you can plug your own niche into it. For example:

• If there's a trending audio where someone says, "Nobody's gonna know," a financial advisor could show themselves hiding a small coffee purchase from their budget app.
• If there's a trend of showing a "day in the life," a software developer can show a "day in the code," showing blocks of code being written with a satisfying keyboard-clacking sound.

The goal is to intersect the familiar trend format with your unique insight, humor, or expertise. People will stop scrolling because they recognize the trend, but they’ll stay and engage because you’ve shown them something new within that format.

Rule #2: Act Fast, but Not Recklessly

The lifespan of a YouTube Shorts trend can be painfully short - sometimes just a few days. Once you’ve decided to jump on a trend, you need to create and post your version as quickly as possible, ideally within 24-48 hours. The longer you wait, the more saturated the trend becomes, and the harder it is for your video to stand out.

However, "fast" doesn't mean "sloppy." Make sure your video still aligns with your brand’s quality standards. Poor lighting, muffled audio, or a confusing message will hurt your video's performance no matter how trendy the concept is.

Rule #3: Stay True to Your Brand’s Voice

Not every trend is right for every brand. If your brand is serious, educational, and professional, jumping on a silly dance challenge might feel jarring and inauthentic to your audience. On the other hand, if your brand is playful and humorous, sticking only to dry, text-based videos will miss huge opportunities for connection.

Before you hit record, ask yourself a simple question: "Does this feel like us?" A successful trend video should feel like it belongs on your channel, not like an awkward attempt to be something you're not. Your audience can spot inauthenticity from a mile away.

Final Thoughts

Consistently finding and capitalizing on YouTube Shorts trends comes from a simple process: actively researching on and off-platform, identifying patterns in audio and formats, and quickly adapting them with your unique brand voice. Get into this rhythm, and you'll find that growing your channel feels less like guessing and more like a strategy.

Finding a hot trend is one thing, but getting that content organized and published while it's still relevant is just as important. With our scheduler, we built Postbase specifically for modern, short-form video workflows. You can plan your YouTube Shorts, TikToks, and Reels in one visual calendar, which saves you from the chaos of jumping between platforms when you’re trying to move fast on a new trend. It helps you stay consistent so you never miss another opportunity to go viral.