How post popularity is calculated

Where the data comes from

We collect public posts of MAX channels ourselves: text, publishing time, format (text, photo, video, link, repost), the ad mark, views and reactions broken down by emoji. We re-read views and reactions while a post is fresh, so the numbers in the tab are what the post has now.

What the tab does not have and why:

• comments — we do not collect them;
• forwards to private chats — MAX does not provide them;
• hourly view history — MAX only provides the current number of views, so we estimate how a fresh post grows (see “View growth curve”).

All times are Moscow time.

Period and chart step

The period is chosen at the top of the tab: 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, year, all time or custom dates. “All time” and custom dates cover at most the last 365 days: news channels have hundreds of thousands of posts over their history.

Charts use a step that fits the period:

Period	Chart step
up to 31 days (7 and 30 days)	day
up to 183 days (90 days)	week, starting on Monday
longer (year, all time)	month

The first and last week or month may be incomplete — charts show them paler.

Key definitions

Mature post — a post older than 48 hours. A fresh post's views are still growing, so it is not part of the “regular post”.

Regular post — the median views of mature non-ad posts of the period: half of the posts got more, half got less. We use the median rather than the average because a single viral post would lift the average a lot, while the median barely moves. If the period has no mature posts (the last two days), the median is taken over all non-ad posts.

Multiplier (×) — how many times more views a post got than a regular one: the post's views ÷ the regular post. ×2 means twice as many, ×0.5 — half as many.

For a fresh post it is fairer to compare with a regular post of the same age: a post that is 3 hours old could not yet get what a post gets in two days. So for it: views ÷ (regular post × the share of views the channel's posts usually reach by this age).

Hit — a non-ad post with a multiplier of ×1.5 or more (one and a half times the regular post). Flop — a mature non-ad post that got 1.5 times less than a regular one (a multiplier of ×0.67 or less). The thresholds are symmetric: a hit is as many times above the regular post as a flop is below it. Ads are never hits or flops: they are shown by agreement, not because readers liked them.

Two refinements keep hits from being a matter of chance:

• A fresh post can become a hit no earlier than 12 hours after publication. In the first hours a post has collected a tiny share of its views, and the estimate “against a regular post of the same age” is too rough. By 12 hours a post usually has about 85 % of its views.
• A small channel. If a regular post gets fewer than 50 views, the gap is counted as if it got 50: a hit is at least 25 views above a regular post, a flop at least 17 views below. Otherwise, with 20 views for a regular post, a post with 30 would be a “hit”, which is random fluctuation, not success.

The thresholds are relative to the channel itself. So a channel with very even views (for example, large news feeds where almost every post gets the same) may have no hits at all — this is an honest result, not an error.

ER (engagement) — reactions ÷ views × 100 %. Only posts whose reactions we have read are counted.

Top 10 % — the share of all views of the period taken by the tenth of the most viewed posts (at least one post). 10–25 % means views are spread evenly; 35 % or more means the channel relies on a few hits.

Reach of a regular post — the regular post ÷ the number of subscribers. It can exceed 100 %: non-subscribers see posts too (via reposts, search, links).

Reaction moods — emoji are grouped into moods the same way as on the “Subscriber engagement” tab: approval (👍 🔥 ❤️ …), laughter (😂 🤣 …), surprise (😱 🤔 …), sympathy (🙏 😢 …), negative (😡 👎 …) and “other”.

View growth curve

MAX does not provide hourly view history, so we estimate how fast the channel's posts gain views with a “cross-section”: we take the channel's posts of the last 7 days of different ages and compare the median views of posts of each age (under 1 h, 1–2 h, 2–4 h, 4–8 h, 8–12 h, 12–18 h, 18–24 h, 24–36 h, 36–48 h) with the median of posts older than two days. This gives the share of final views a post of the channel usually reaches by each age.

If there are fewer than three posts of some age, we use a typical MAX curve (in the first 6–7 hours a post gets about 60 % of what it gets in two days). The curve never goes down and never exceeds 100 %.

Tab blocks

1. Key numbers

Five tiles in one row: the regular post, the best post (the most viewed non-ad one), top 10 %, ER and reach of a regular post; each has its own “i” tip, the mini chart is a smooth line. The number and share of hits are in the “Key numbers: now and before” table and in the “Hits and flops” block. Under the number — its value in the previous period of the same length (30 days — against the 30 days before) and a change badge. If the number moved by less than 1 % of the previous value, the badge says “≈ as before”. Growth of the top 10 % share is neither good nor bad, so its badge is grey. Reach is not compared with the previous period: subscriber counts for that time may be missing.

All tiles have the same mini chart — the same number by day, week or month. For fresh posts the regular-post chart uses an estimate of their final views from the growth curve, otherwise the last days would always “drop”. Reach on the chart is against subscribers at the end of each day (week, month).

2. Popularity at a glance

The same numbers in three sentences.

3. Now and before

A table: this period, the previous one of the same length and the change. Shares (hits, top 10 %, ER) are compared in percentage points.

4. Top posts

The ten most popular posts of the period. Sorting:

• views — what the post has now;
• reactions — only posts whose reactions we have read;
• ER — posts with read reactions that got at least half of a regular post (otherwise a post with ten views and one reaction would come first);
• multiplier — without ads and without posts younger than 2 hours (their multiplier still jumps a lot).

If the period has fewer than three posts with views, there is no top.

5. Post No. 1 — what hooked readers and where it spread

The most viewed non-ad post of the period. On the left — its reactions by mood next to the channel's usual mix of reactions for the period (all non-ad posts with read reactions) and its three most frequent emoji. On the right — which public channels reposted it and how many views these reposts got in their feeds. We recognise a repost by the link to the original message that MAX keeps in it; only public channels we collect are counted.

6. Hits and flops

Every post is a square in publishing order: green — a hit, red — a flop, grey — regular. Mature non-ad posts are rated, plus fresh ones that are already hits (no earlier than 12 hours after publication). “Every N-th post is a hit” = the number of rated posts ÷ the number of hits. There are at most 1,000 squares — for a long period the last 1,000 posts are shown, while the numbers cover the whole period. With fewer than 10 rated posts there is no block.

7. All posts — a stack for every day

A column is a day (week, month), squares are posts from bottom to top by publishing time. Colour: hit, above regular (×1 or more), below regular, flop, ad; a dashed frame — a post younger than 48 hours. If any column has more than 24 posts, all columns are drawn as bars of colour shares (the height is the number of posts).

8. Gaining now

Posts younger than 48 hours (non-ad), up to 10 of the strongest by multiplier against a regular post of the same age. The 48-hour forecast = views now ÷ the share the channel's posts usually reach by this age (the growth curve). Row colour: the forecast reaches the hit threshold — going like a hit, ×1.2 or more — above regular, ×0.8 or more — as usual, lower — below regular. This is an estimate, not a promise: a post may accelerate through reposts or fade faster.

9. Channel formats in numbers

For each format (non-ad): how many posts and what share, the regular post of the format (median views of mature posts), the multiplier against the channel's regular post, ER (median), hits and the best post. Ads are a separate row, the whole channel is at the bottom. Formats with fewer than 5 posts are dimmed: conclusions on them are unreliable.

10. Posts by reaction mood

For each mood — five posts where it takes the largest share of the post's reactions (not just the most of them). Non-ad posts with at least as many reactions as the channel's regular post (median reactions of mature posts) are taken — otherwise a post with two reactions would come first. Under the list — the share this mood usually has on the channel.

11. When a post more often becomes a hit

Mature non-ad posts are split into groups: time of day (morning 06–10, day 10–14, afternoon 14–18, evening 18–22, night 22–06), day of the week, format, text length (up to 200, 200–500, 500–1,000, over 1,000 characters). Each group gets its share of hits.

• “More hits” — a group has at least 10 posts and 3 hits, and its share of hits is 1.5 times the channel's average or more.
• “Fewer hits” — a group has at least 20 posts, and its share of hits is half the average or less (up to four such conditions are shown).

With fewer than three hits in the period there is no block. This is an observation of one channel: the more posts in a group, the more reliable the conclusion.

12. Post topics

There is no topic markup for posts yet, so a topic is a frequent word at the start of post texts (the first 200 characters; for a large channel — from the last 3,000 non-ad posts of the period). How words are found:

• words of 4 letters or more, “ё” = “е”; function words (prepositions, pronouns, “reported”, “photo”, “video”, “today”, months, weekdays, etc.) are not counted;
• different forms of a word are merged by their stem: we cut a common ending and take the first 6 letters; the most frequent form is shown;
• a topic is a word found in at least 8 posts and 1 % of the sample, but in no more than 40 % of posts (such a word is a signature or the channel name);
• if almost all posts of a word (75 % or more) already belong to another topic, it is the same topic in other words: it is shown small under it (“companion words”).

Up to 12 topics are shown. For each: posts, the regular post of the topic, the multiplier against the channel's regular post (×1.15 or more — green, ×0.87 or less — red), hits, ER, the mood readers react with most often and the best post. Topics with fewer than 10 posts are dimmed. At least 30 posts with text and two topics are needed.

13. Who reposts the channel most often

Public channels that reposted this channel's posts during the period, by the number of reposts, and the latest repost of each. Self-reposts are not counted; MAX does not provide forwards to private chats.

14. Best post of every month (week, day)

A bar is the views of the best non-ad post of the month (of the week for 90 days, of the day for 7 and 30 days), the line inside is the regular post of the same month (the median of its non-ad posts). The tallest bar is the record of the period. Incomplete months (weeks) at the edges and today are paler: they have fewer posts or views are still growing. At least two steps with posts are needed.

15. Records — best post of every format

The most viewed post of each format over the whole collection time (we search among the channel's 300 most viewed posts), ads are left out. The three best formats get medals. Next to the record — the format's best for the selected period and what share of the record it is; if the record was set in this period, it says so. Under the record — the next most viewed posts of the same format (second, third place and so on, from the same 300 posts). How many are shown depends on the height of the neighbouring “Against similar channels” block: the more channels it has and the fewer formats the channel uses, the longer the list; with few channels only the records remain.

16. Against similar channels

The channel and up to ten most similar ones (the “Similar channels” tab selection) for the last 30 days of the selected period: the regular post of each (median views of posts older than two days), the median of similar channels and reach (regular post ÷ subscribers). “N times higher” is written from ×1.6; a difference under 5 % is “almost like the median of similar channels”. At least two similar channels with posts are needed.

17. What it means for you

Takeaways on three tabs — for subscribers, advertisers and owners. This is not AI but rule-based sentences: each takes the numbers of one block and is shown only if that block is open to you and only when there is enough data (usually 10 posts or more). Main rules:

Takeaway	When shown
Good / low reach	a regular post is seen by 15 % or more / under 8 % of subscribers
Level holds / grows / falls	the regular post changed by under 3 % / 3 % or more / 10 % or more
Often “hits” / regularly / hits are rare	hits are 5 % or more / 2 % or more / under 2 % of posts (most MAX channels rarely have hits — about 1 % of posts)
Even / relies on hits	the top 10 % of posts take up to 25 % / 35 % or more of views
Many flops	flops are 15 % or more (few — up to 5 %)
A format works better	a format gets ×1.3 or more of the regular post (weak — ×0.8 or less)
Best time / day	a time of day or weekday has 1.5 times the average share of hits
No point posting at night	posts after 22:00 get under ×0.9 and less than half the average share of hits
Short posts do better	a length group gets ×1.2 or more
Ads are read like regular posts / worse	an ad post gets ×0.9 or more / ×0.8 or less; ER of ads two times lower — separately
A lot / little advertising	ads are 20 % or more / up to 10 % of posts
Negative reactions	negative is 25 % of reactions or more (calm — up to 10 %)
Close to the record	post No. 1 got 50 % of the channel record or more
A streak of hits	hits 3 days in a row or more
Posts spread across MAX	3 or more reposts in other channels
Fresh posts are gaining	at least 3 fresh posts, the best is going at ×1.5 or more
Against similar channels	3 or more similar channels; regular post ×1.25 or more / ×0.8 or less of their median, reach ±10 %
How the regular post changed by month	at least 3 full months in the period

Who sees what

What is open to guests, after free sign-up and with a subscription is set by the “Access by plan” table — every block and every tile of “Key numbers” has its own row. A closed block is shown as a blurred copy on made-up data (the channel “Город у моря”): it shows what will appear after sign-in or subscription, and there is no data of this channel in a closed block.

Methodology version: 0.84.3 of 12.10.2026.