The kind of fact people read twice, then send to someone
General facts channels live or die on one reaction: 'wait, what?' The best facts reframe something ordinary, like a deck of cards, a banana or the word OK, so the viewer can't unsee it. They're also the most fact-checked videos on the internet, because everyone has an opinion and a search bar.
So every fact here is one that holds up. Where the popular version is exaggerated, the hook uses the accurate version instead. The ideas are grouped by everyday objects, numbers, language, the body, nature and history mash-ups, which keeps a general channel from feeling random.
Updated 29 September 2026 · by Danish, who makes TallyReel
Each one is written as the first line of the video. Copy it, or press Make this and paste it into TallyReel.
Numbers
Every time you properly shuffle a deck, you've probably made an order no one has ever seen52 factorial is about 8 followed by 67 zeros.Make this
In a room of just 23 people, there's a better than even chance two share a birthdayThe birthday paradox. Easy to animate with dots.Make this
There are more possible chess games than atoms in the observable universeShannon's estimate of 10 to the 120 games vs about 10 to the 80 atoms.Make this
There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky WayAbout 3 trillion trees (2015 study) vs 100 to 400 billion stars.Make this
A single fluffy cloud can weigh about 500 tonnesUSGS estimate for a typical cumulus cloud.Make this
Russia has more surface area than PlutoAbout 17.1 vs 16.7 million square kilometers.Make this
Measured from its base, Mauna Kea is taller than EverestAbout 10,200 m from the sea floor.Make this
Lightning is about five times hotter than the surface of the SunMake this
Everyday things
Bananas are berries, but strawberries aren'tMake this
Peanuts aren't nuts. They're legumes, like peas.Make this
The Eiffel Tower grows up to about 15 centimeters taller in summerIron expands in the heat.Make this
Old church windows aren't thicker at the bottom because glass flowsIt's how they were made. Glass isn't a slow liquid.Make this
Ketchup was once sold as a medicineIn the 1830s, tomato pills and extracts were marketed as cures.Make this
The man who designed the Pringles can was buried in oneFredric Baur, 2008. Some of his ashes.Make this
Most carrots were purple or yellow before orange ones took overOrange carrots were developed in the Netherlands around the 1600s.Make this
Nintendo was founded in 1889, making playing cardsMake this
Invention timelines
The lighter was invented before the matchDobereiner's lamp, 1823; the friction match, 1826.Make this
The fax machine was patented before the telephoneAlexander Bain, 1843, vs Bell's telephone, 1876.Make this
Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were born in the same yearBoth in 1929. History feels less far away.Make this
The first traffic light exploded a month after it was installedLondon, gas-lit, 1868 to 1869.Make this
A day on Earth used to be much shorterResearch suggests about 19 hours roughly 1.4 billion years ago.Make this
Words and language
The dot over a lowercase i has a name: a tittleMake this
The ampersand used to be recited as the 27th letter of the alphabetMake this
'OK' started as a joke abbreviation in an 1839 Boston newspaper'Oll korrect'.Make this
September means 'seventh month', but it's the ninthThe old Roman calendar started in March.Make this
The Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters12 letters plus the okina.Make this
Scotland's national animal is the unicornMake this
The word with the most meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary is 'run'Make this
Your body
You're about a centimeter taller in the morning than at nightThe discs in your spine compress through the day.Make this
You can't hum while holding your nose closedInvite viewers to try it. Great for comments.Make this
Your body gives off light. It's just too faint to see.A 2009 Japanese study imaged it with ultra-sensitive cameras.Make this
Your stomach lining replaces itself every few daysMake this
You don't have 10 times more bacteria than human cells. It's closer to one to one.A 2016 estimate corrected the old figure.Make this
Nature
Sharks have been around longer than treesSharks roughly 450 million years; trees about 385 million.Make this
Roughly half the oxygen you breathe comes from the oceanMostly from phytoplankton.Make this
Only about a quarter of the ocean floor has been mapped in detailSeabed 2030 figures. Update the number before posting.Make this
Some trees talk to each other through underground fungus networksSay 'researchers think'. The extent is still debated.Make this
It snows metal on Venus's mountaintops, scientists thinkMake this
A teaspoon of healthy soil holds more living things than there are people on EarthMake this
Honeybees can recognize human faces in lab experimentsMake this
Scripts you can copy
About 30 seconds each when read aloud. Paste one into TallyReel as your own script, or change the details first.
The script behind the video above
No One Has Ever Held This Deck
1
Shuffle a deck of cards properly, and you've probably just made an order no one has ever held before.
2
A deck has 52 cards. The number of ways to arrange them is 52 factorial.
3
That's roughly an 8 followed by 67 zeros.
4
The universe is only about 4 times 10 to the 17 seconds old.
5
If someone had shuffled a deck every second since the Big Bang, they'd have barely scratched the surface.
6
So that messy shuffle in your hands is almost certainly one of a kind.
Script 2
More Trees Than Stars
1
There are more trees on Earth than stars in our galaxy.
2
A 2015 study estimated about three trillion trees on the planet.
3
Astronomers estimate the Milky Way has somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars.
4
Even at the high end, trees win by more than seven to one.
5
The same study estimated humans cut down about 15 billion trees every year.
6
And that the number of trees has fallen by nearly half since human civilization began.
How often to post facts shorts
General facts channels usually post daily, and some post two or three times a day once they have a research routine. The risk with high volume is sameness, so rotate through categories (numbers, language, the body, nature) and keep your own spreadsheet of facts with a source link next to each one.
Watch which categories your viewers finish and share, then lean into them. Many general facts channels slowly become a specific facts channel, and that's usually a good sign.
Ideal length per platform
Short beats long in this niche, as long as the fact is complete.
YouTube Shorts: up to 3 minutes allowed. 15 to 35 seconds suits one fact; loops (where the last line leads back into the first) help rewatches.
Instagram Reels: up to 3 minutes. Aim for 15 to 30 seconds and put the fact in on-screen text in the first second.
TikTok: long uploads allowed. Creator Rewards only pays on videos over 1 minute, so '5 facts that sound fake' compilations work well.
How facts channels earn
General facts pull huge view counts but a broad audience, so ad rates are usually average. Shorts revenue from YouTube's shared pool often works out to cents per thousand views, varying by country. The YouTube Partner Program requires 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 public watch hours in 12 months, or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days, and facts channels often qualify through the Shorts route.
Beyond ads, facts channels earn from compilations and long-form explainers, from sponsors like learning apps and puzzle games, and occasionally from books or newsletters. Treat every number as a range, since results vary enormously.
What gets facts channels flagged or ignored
Fake facts are the main problem: the 'humans swallow eight spiders a year' kind of claim. They get called out, and a channel known for errors stops getting shared. Clickbait that the video doesn't deliver hurts retention. And this niche is where YouTube's inauthentic content policy (renamed from 'repetitious content' in July 2025) bites hardest, since mass-produced fact videos with identical templates are exactly what it targets. Edit every script, add your own framing, and vary the format.
Making facts shorts in TallyReel
Type a fact and TallyReel drafts a script, then finds stock clips from Pexels for each line so you can swap any that don't fit before rendering. Keep a chill music bed low under the voice, and let captions carry the numbers.
Questions
Where do facts channels get their facts?
The good ones use primary sources: science journals, government agencies like NASA or USGS, and reputable encyclopedias. Avoid copying other facts channels, since errors spread that way.
Are 'fun facts' Shorts still worth making?
Yes, if they're accurate and presented with some personality. Generic, mass-produced facts videos are what struggle now.
Is it true there are more trees than stars in the Milky Way?
Yes. A 2015 study estimated about 3 trillion trees, while the Milky Way has roughly 100 to 400 billion stars.
How do I make a facts video go viral?
There's no guarantee, but facts that reframe something familiar, stated plainly in the first second, tend to get shared most.