Dataset

Every case, as data

Name: How It Spread: the public record of viral events
Published: 2026-10-13
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

1,280 viral events with dates, platforms, mechanics and a Spread Score. Free to use with credit.

Latest snapshot

1,280 cases · Spread Score v1.2 · CC BY 4.0

2026-10-22 · sha256 0ea4129e5442de70…

CSV JSON

Cite it

Name the snapshot date, so a figure can be checked later.

citation

How It Spread (2026). How It Spread: the public record of viral events. Snapshot 2026-10-22. CC BY 4.0. https://howitspread.com/dataset

bibtex

@misc{howitspread_2026_10_22,
  title = {How It Spread: the public record of viral events},
  author = {{How It Spread}},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Snapshot 2026-10-22, 1,280 cases, Spread Score v1.2. CC BY 4.0},
  url = {https://howitspread.com/dataset}
}

What it holds

One row per case, keyed by a permanent ID that resolves at /id/HIS-…
The score and its five parts, scored on the method. Definitions for every tag are in the standard.
Each case's verification level, so you can keep only what was fact-checked.
Not in it: timelines, numbers, quotes and sources. Those stay on each case page.
A new snapshot on the 1st of each month. Old ones never change.

Teaching? Classroom exercises use this file.

Columns

id: Permanent case ID (HIS-00042). Never reused; survives renames.
slug: The case's current URL slug.
url: Permanent link to the case.
title: Case name.
owner: Brand, studio or person behind it, when there is one.
kind: What spread: campaign, product, film, series, meme, game and so on.
sector: Industry.
origin: How it started: organic, seeded, stunt, paid or mixed.
region: Country of origin (ISO 3166 alpha-2) or GLOBAL.
seed_date: Date of the first public post we could find.
peak_date: Date of peak attention.
origin_platform: Platform of the seed post.
platforms: Every platform on its timeline, semicolon-separated.
mechanics: Tagged mechanics, semicolon-separated (definitions in the standard).
score: Spread Score, 0 to 100.
band: Score band: Phenomenon, Breakout, Viral, Notable or Niche.
provisional: True when too few parts were measured to settle the score.
coverage: Share of the score's weight that was measured, 0 to 1.
reach: Reach part, 0 to 100.
contagion: Contagion part, 0 to 100.
breadth: Breadth part, 0 to 100.
velocity: Velocity part, 0 to 100.
longevity: Longevity part, 0 to 100.
events: Dated events on its timeline.
sources: Sources cited.
verification: How far it was checked, 0 to 4 (Researched, Deep, Fact-checked, Audited, Maker-confirmed).
verification_label: The verification level in words.
updated: Last change to the case.

All snapshots

2026-10-221,280 cases · score v1.2CSV JSON
2026-10-1424 cases · score v1.2CSV JSON
2026-10-1319 cases · score v1.2CSV JSON

New cases land every week.