When to Post on HN: Analyzed 23k posts(June 2025)

[sophianara]

Conventional wisdom says: Post Tuesday morning for max traffic. Data says: That’s wrong. (at least, in June 2025)

1. Best Time of Day Post between midnight–1AM → 2x more comments than average, yet only 2% of posts are made then.

Avg votes: 25.7 (vs 18 overall) Avg comments: 20 (vs 10 overall)

Other high-performing time slots: Votes: 4AM, 7AM, 8–10PM, 10PM+ → Avg votes > 20 Comments: 9PM, 11PM → Avg comments > 11

2. Best Day of Week Upvotes: Saturday/Sunday → Avg votes > 19 Comments: Sunday/Monday → Avg comments > 10

But beware:

18%+ of posts happen on Monday → high competition

Sunday has lower competition, yet performs well—easiest day to hit the front page with the same vote count.

TL;DR For the best shot at visibility: Post Sunday, between midnight and 1AM.

See link for full data analysis

[ofalkaed]

Midnight-1AM also seems to be peak time for creating accounts so you can reply to your own submissions.

[mardesay]

You should’ve sprinted in 15 minutes earlier—your own research called it!

[sophianara]

Like most things—way easier said than done

[treetalker]

> See link for full data analysis

Link is missing.

[sophianara]

oops! thank you

[hele486]

PST??

[sophianara]

Yes!

[WalterGR]

It’s PDT not PST.

Pacific Time Zone: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Time_Zone

Yes, colloquially, people use “PST” when they mean “PT” - but if we can’t split hairs here, then where?? :)

[sophianara]

Fair enough — PDT it is! Thanks for the precision... and the follicular finesse!