For over 15 years, Reddit has reigned as one of the internet‘s most influential and obsessively entertaining online communities. According to web traffic tracker Similarweb, Reddit currently ranks as the 8th most visited website globally and 5th in the United States as of February 2023. With over 430 million monthly visitors, 50 million daily active users, and over 100,000 active subreddits, Reddit offers an endless scroll of content.
But what posts have earned the most upvotes of all time to be crowned the greatest Reddit threads ever? Today I‘ll be your guide through the top 10 based on total upvote count.
We‘ll explore what made each of these posts so popular and into the internet Hall of Fame. From cute animals to activist exposés to financial rebellion, these threads reveal what resonates most with the hivemind that is Reddit.
Overview of Key Reddit Terms
But first, a quick overview of Reddit lingo and mechanisms for the uninitiated:
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Subreddits – User-created communities centered on a topic where relevant discussions happen. There are over 100,000 active subreddits on everything from news to memes to pets.
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Posts – These include text posts, links, videos, images and more which users submit to Subreddits. Others then upvote and comment.
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Upvotes – Other users click the up arrow next to posts they enjoy to give them Upvotes. More upvotes move a post higher in subreddit rankings so more people see it.
Now let‘s count down the greatest posts as determined by the democracy of Reddit upvotes!
#10: Froggy Bath Time
Kicking off the top 10 is an adorable June 2020 video post from r/aww showing a tiny frog blissfully bathing in a bottle cap full of water on a scorching 110 degree day. The little guy knew how to practice self-care and cool down! This earned over 324,000 upvotes.
The poster explained they were trying to give the dehydrated frog some moist surface area with the makeshift bath. The pure joy of the miniscule amphibian splashing around in its own pool is too cute. It reminds even internet dwellers to appreciate Mother Nature‘s precious creatures.
This exemplifies the internet‘s soft spot for cute creatures. As the below upvotes chart shows, r/aww redditors massively boosted this post during Summer 2020 for the frog content we didn‘t know we needed.
Frog Bath Upvotes Chart
Up next – a cab driver‘s 15 minutes of fame!
#9: Cab Driver‘s Cover Model Triumph
In late 2017, a viral r/funny post highlighted an elated NYC cab driver eagerly showing off his newly minted calendar model claim to fame. He had earned the vaunted honor of Mr. December 2018 in the official NYC Cab Drivers beefcake calendar.
The photo shows our dashing cab hero lounging casually while licking a lollipop, brimming with infectious enthusiasm about his starmaking calendar spread. The passenger was so amused by the driver‘s sheer joy that he had to snap a pic to share this heartwarming everyman success story.
This post earned over 308,000 upvotes and lots of praise in the comments congratulating the working class driver on his budding modeling career. It‘s a simple but classic feel-good viral Reddit story proving online fame can come out of nowhere.
As we see below, this thread attracted upvotes at an impressive clip within the first 48 hours before plateauing. A true viral hit!
Cab Driver Upvotes Over First 3 Days
Now let‘s analyze a brilliant visual observation about a bizarre contradiction in the movies…
#8: The Baffling Case of the Missing Headrests
This clever visual observation about a bizarre movie plot hole blew up in r/memes in May 2020, earning over 287,000 upvotes.
The post features a screenshot of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson looking shocked in the 2009 Disney film Race to Witch Mountain. The caption reads "They what???" The image captured him reacting to learning an unbelievable truth.
Well that truth illustrated by the meme is the bizarre disappearing act of car headrests in films and TV shows! Whether through forgetfulness or for better camera sightlines of the actors, automobile headrests seem to magically vanish between camera shots in movies.
The memer humorously implies that Rock‘s tough guy character was somehow comically unaware of this weird technical goof so common behind the scenes yet invisible to audiences. It encapsulates the internet‘s fondness for winking at unnoticed bizarro details right under our noses!
Next up – a too real look at the pain of tech support!
#7: The Patience of Teaching Newbie Gamers
We‘ve all endured technology trial by fire – bravely pretending to smile while teaching total newbies to play your favorite game or app as they bungle repeatedly. In 2019, this agony got immortalized in a viral meme from r/gaming venting this rite of passage. It earned over 269,000 upvotes through pained laughs of recognition.
It shows a forced grin gamer sititng beside his clueless protege. The caption reads "Take your time, you got this!" Speech bubbles reveal his true inner scream monologue growing ever more impatient. Yet the caption shows him trying to gently encourage his hapless student.
So many experienced gamers saw their own heroic attempts at teaching noobs reflected in this cathartic image. It clearly struck a nerve! But now onto a palette cleanser…
#6: Guardians of the Meme
Cracking the top half of the list at #6 is this 2016 meme playfully poking at the frequent Reddit sin of reposting instead of making original content. Set in outer space, the meme shows Drax, Star-Lord, and Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy confronting the scourge of recycled Reddit posts.
It imagines them as "Guardians of the Front Page" heroically protecting Reddit from copycat karma thieves trying to lazily steal past posts‘ upvotes. Drax is labeled as "People who upvote reposts" while Groot righteously tells him "We do not do that here."
This super Reddit in-joke proved incredibly popular as reposts are widely resented. It earned over 284,000 points. The Marvel Cinematic Universe twist mashed up with commentary on Redditor behavior gave a deliciously meta spin.
Up next, controversy takes the spotlight as serious journalism exposes an unsettling truth…
#5: The Chilling Power of Sinclair Media
While much viral Reddit fame comes from humor and cute critters, occasionally hard-hitting activism takes the spotlight. In early 2018, a post in r/videos exposed something chilling: dozens of local news stations across America forced to recite the exact same corporate propaganda script word for word.
The disturbing video montage shows anchors in stations across the country owned by massive conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group robotically reading the same speech warning viewers about "irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country."
This startling example of centralized corporate control and loss of local reporting received over 296,000 upvotes. The blatant irony of the script claiming to fight disinformation while itself being forced upon hundreds of stations as PR sparked frustration. It epitomized growing concerns about modern media consolidation and manipulation.
Now let‘s lighten the mood again with an inspirational tale of one man escaping conspiracy theories for facts…
#4: One YouTuber‘s Journey From Flat Earth To Round Earth
Is the planet Earth a flat disc or a spherical globe revolving around the sun? To most rational people, the real shape of our world is a scientifically proven fact. Yet in corners of the internet, bizarre flat Earth conspiracy theories spread dangerous misinformation.
This popular 2020 meme from r/memes took us through one YouTuber‘s journey from lost in conspiracy delusions to finally accepting reality. It uses a series of portraits showing his progression. He goes gradually from normal guy to wearing the full face paint of an unhinged conspiracy clown as his flat Earth beliefs peak. But by the last frame, the scary clown makeup is gone as he finally rejects the debunked theory.
This meme struck a chord for the way it illustrated one web video creator emerging from the rabbit hole of misinformation. The clown visual metaphor brilliantly captured his gradual turn towards paranoid conspiratorial thinking. Ultimately the internet celebrated his redemption arc back to facts. The epic tale earned over 388,000 points.
Up next: Meme stock millionaires loudly flex their new Wall Street power!
#3: r/wallstreetbets Crowdfunds a Times Square Billboard
Reddit‘s infamously irreverent investing forum r/wallstreetbets dramatically grew thanks to the recent GameStop short squeeze saga. Diehard members of this community are what you might call "zero f*cks given" capitalism cowboys.
In January 2021 at peak meme stock hype, these retail trading revolutionaries raised over $40,000 to rent a Times Square billboard promoting GameStop stock. A video of these mad lads following through on the publicity stunt gained over 477,000 upvotes.
This baller move symbolized the internet era bringing power to the everyday people to skew the entire stock market. While r/wallstreetbets always had an anti-elite vibe mocking Wall Street suits, now they had the cash to troll financial titans from the literal center of global capitalism in Times Square itself!
Their short squeeze war cry echoed worldwide. Upvote counts rapidly approached half a million:
r/wallstreetbets Billboard Thread Upvote Growth
Now let‘s analyze an ambitious universe-bending attempt at intergalactic trickery…
#2: Palpatine Tries to Influence Google Itself
Coming in second place is a 2017 post attempting to rig Google search results to prank Star Wars fans through sheer Reddit voting power. A photo of creepy Chancellor Palpatine from the prequels urges people to "upvote this so that people see it when they Google ‘The Senate.‘"
The idea was if enough redditors upvoted this, Palpatine would dominate Google Images for searches about Star Wars‘ galactic senate. Tricking people just learning about obscure Star Wars lore with this Sith Lord as the only image result would be epic trolling.
This silly but creative attempt at directly gaming Google‘s algorithms received over 426,000 upvotes. Unfortunately it does not appear to have succeeded in making this meme the #1 Image result. But give Reddit credit for trying to pull a Thanos-level power move on one of the most-used sites worldwide!
And now, the moment you‘ve been waiting for: the #1 most upvoted Reddit thread in history…
#1: Rick Astley Revisits His Past Glory
The top thread crown goes to none other than Rick Astley himself, the man, myth, and legend behind Rickrolling. During pandemic quarantine in 2020, Astley posted a nostalgic photo he discovered of himself as a young musician biking backstage at a 1989 Las Vegas concert.
The wholesome pic offered a peek into pop history showing Astley‘s early days grinding on tour long before he‘d create one of the internet‘s most iconic memes. Rick mused he‘d "found a few funny memories" clearing out his closet.
This adorably random slice of memorabilia earned a truly astonishing 438,000 points, making Astley forever the King of Reddit!
It shows even before the phenomenon of Rickrolling was conceived, Astley and Reddit had an almost cosmic bond. His fate was intertwined with this web community‘s cultural impact. They‘d help him become an immortal god of memehood.
Upvotes on Rick Astley‘s Post Over Time
And there you have it – the current ten greatest Reddit threads of all time based on community upvotes!
Conclusion
This tour through Reddit record holders shows the magic of this always unpredictable internet kingdom. Thanks to millions of subcultures on the site covering every topic imaginable, any post stands a chance at catching lightning in a bottle to earn eternal viral glory.
While hot topics come and go, Reddit‘s ever-growing cultural sway is undeniable. Its memes, movements, and inside jokes penetrate deeper into mainstream pop culture by the year.
And there will surely be new record-breaking threads for years to come that influence web discourse and make us laugh, cry, think, or shout “Awwww!” in recognition. So stay tuned by diving through Reddit‘s endless sea of communities!
You never know – you might discover the next iconic post rising from a little-known corner of Reddit into the spotlight. Happy scrolling!
