YouTube is pattern recognition. What that means is identifying things that keep reoccuring in popular videos, and then implementing them in your own

This can be Title Structure, Intros, or in today’s document, Thumbnail Formats

If other creators already did the hard work of testing what an audience clicks on. You should save yourself the work by using that information for your own thumbnails

Below are 25 layouts that working on YouTube. You’ll see each Thumbnail format is one pattern, and every thumbnail in it uses a similar layout. Click any title to watch the video.

Follow me on 𝕏 if this was helpful: https://x.com/mws

• Table of Contents ← Expand the arrow to jump through the document

Good tools to study thumbnails: 1of10, Thumbsy

1. Overnight in the World's Most ___

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Your brain sees a giant island or a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere and goes looking for the person. Once you spot the tiny ME with the arrow you get how crazy the spot is. It blew up with real life creators like Ryan Trahan and JStu, so Minecraft YouTubers just copied it.

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Overnight in the World's Loneliest House 42M views

Overnight in the World's Most Dangerous Hotel 23.7M views

Overnight on the World's Deadliest Island 10M views

Overnight on the World’s Most Dangerous Bed! 3.9M views

Overnight in The World's Most Dangerous Bed! 1M views

Overnight on NYC's Smallest island 650K views

Overnight In The World's Snowiest Town 549K views

Overnight in America's Most Remote Island 363K views

Overnight in the World's Most Dangerous Hotel 171K views

2. 1 Star vs 5 Star ___

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Split down the middle with the star rating sitting on each side. Everyone knows what 1 star and 5 stars mean, so you get the whole video without reading a word. People use it for hotels, food, games, even trampoline parks.

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I Tested 1-Star vs 5-Star Waterslides! 5.4M views

1 STAR VS 5 STAR Flight Simulators in Roblox 1.7M views

I Tested 1 Star Vs 5 Star Trampoline Parks. 1.7M views

1-Star vs 5-Star Gadgets in Gorilla Tag 1.7M views

1 Star VS 5 Star Gorilla Tag Fan Games! 1.4M views

1 Star GTA RP Servers Vs. 5 Star GTA RP Servers 275K views

1-Star VS 5-Star YouTuber Products 4.1M views

1 Star vs. 5 Star Taco Bell Taste Test 1.2M views

1-Star vs 5-Star Gymnastics Class 1.5M views

3. I Spent 24 Hours in ___

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A clock or hour count in the corner like HOUR 17 or 3:00 AM. That number makes you wonder what happened to get them there. It's basically the overnight idea but the timer makes it feel like a challenge.

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