Insights from analysing “Show HN” posts, 2008 to now

215,785 posts and 1,019,933 comments from Hacker News, analysed215K+ posts, 1M+ comments analysed

How did HN take it?

Average thread score by category and year
Category08091011121314151617181920212223242526
Every category
Dev tools
Languages and libraries
Data
Infrastructure
AI
Web and SaaS
Productivity
Consumer and social
Games
Creative
Hardware
Security and privacy
Finance and crypto
Learning and science

Every category

Dev tools

Languages and libraries

Data

Infrastructure

AI

Web and SaaS

Productivity

Consumer and social

Games

Creative

Hardware

Security and privacy

Finance and crypto

Learning and science

Warmest tenth (above +0.08) Warmer Middle Cooler Coolest tenth (below -0.12) Too few threads
2008 to 2026

Hardware got the warmest welcome from 2008 to 2026, and Security and privacy the coolest.

© 2026 P2P.AI (opens in a new window), Inc. · How it's made