When to Post on HN: Analyzed 23k posts(June 2025)
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
Midnight-1AM also seems to be peak time for creating accounts so you can reply to your own submissions.
> See link for full data analysis
Link is missing.
You should’ve sprinted in 15 minutes earlier—your own research called it!
Like most things—way easier said than done
PST??
Yes!
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?? :)