To get new eyes on your channel, try one of these popular YouTube challenges. Plus, we have some tips to make your content shine.

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If you're looking to grow your YouTube channel but are out of ideas, then YouTube challenges might help boost your creative juices.

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YouTube challenges have been all the rage since the early days of the video site, and they won’t be running out of style any time soon.

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Grab a pen, or open your notepad. Let's take a look at some of the most popular YouTube challenges that will help you get noticed on the platform.

11 Best YouTube Challenges to Get Eyes on Your Content

YouTube gets about 889 million monthly active users on smartphones alone, so there are plenty of opportunities to attract plenty of traffic with the right content. Here are some trending and classic YouTube challenges. With no further ado, here are some challenge ideas you can have a lot of fun with.

1. One Chip Challenge

In the daredevil Paqui One Chip Challenge, you or the person you’re filming has to eat a fiery Paqui tortilla chip.

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The challenge is about how long you can wait after eating the hot chip before reaching for something to drink. The food packaging brand, Paqui, warns that people who are pregnant, have a medical condition that makes spicy foods dangerous, or are sensitive to capsaicin — the substance in hot peppers that makes them so spicy — should skip the challenge.

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However, if you plan on taking this challenge, get some milk and ice cubes on standby. 

2. Reaction Challenges 

Reaction challenges allow you to create original content by reacting to videos of other content creators. 

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Here are some tips to help you choose the best content to react to:

• Choose a controversial YouTuber or personality. 
• React to one of their recent popular videos while filming yourself. Laugh, gasp, or roll your eyes at the right moments.
• Do a blind reaction so your performance doesn’t look too rehearsed. 

Check out this video, which shows how YouTube star KSI handles reaction videos.

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Here are two popular examples of reaction challenges:

Try Not to Get Scared Challenge

Search social media for the most terrifying clips you can find, and compile them into a single video (or have a friend do this for you). Play the video and try not to flinch. Record and upload both the video and your reaction to it. Here’s a video showing how to do it.

Try Not to Laugh Challenge

This fun challenge follows the same format as the “Try Not to Get Scared Challenge” but aims to see if you can avoid laughing at funny videos. 

3. 24-Hour Challenges 

24-hour challenges are a test of grit and determination. In this challenge, you'll have to perform an activity for 24 hours straight. The YouTube god of viral hits MrBeast introduced these mission-impossible types of challenges and pranks in his early days, when his life’s mission was to crack the YouTube algorithm. 

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With these sorts of content, he cracked the code to user engagement, and his viral YouTube videos gained over 17 billion views on his main channel.

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Now, there’s no restriction to your creativity here – as long as your video idea is legal and in line with YouTube’s community guidelines. Spend 24 hours on a beach, challenge your family to go an entire day without touching their mobile devices, or don’t say anything from 9 am Tuesday to 9 am Wednesday. Unleash your imagination and let them run wild with this YouTube challenge. 

4. Color Challenge

The color challenge can work as a type of 24-hour challenge. In the color challenge, you perform a task using one color for an extended period.

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Some popular forms of color challenges are the food challenge, in which you eat just one color of food for 24 hours, and the shopping challenge — for 24 hours, you can only buy products in one color.

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To spice it up, do this with siblings or a couple of friends, and offer a prize for the winner. For some inspiration on how to nail this challenge, check out this 123 GO! video.

5. 7-Second Challenge

The 7-second challenge allows you to do anything with a time limit of 7 seconds. From harmless dares to time-bound quizzes, the ideas to implement are endless. 

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This YouTube challenge is currently trending among football lovers. Call some friends to help with this video. Here’s how it works:

• Ask your friend to answer as many fun questions as possible before time runs out. 
• Dare them to complete a simple task, such as calling their crush, tying a ponytail, or drinking a bottle of water.
• Include multiple 7-second challenges in one video.

6. 10-Second Challenge

This is an extension of the 7-second challenge and follows the exact pattern, except you have 3 extra seconds to get stuff done.

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You can do this YouTube challenge with family, a best friend, or a group of friends. Try making it a competition, in which the person who performs the most activities within the time limit wins the challenge. 

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Some content ideas include:

• See who in the group can jump rope the most in 10 seconds.
• See who can answer the most questions in a quiz or trivia round.

7. Chubby Bunny Challenge

Find a couple friends. Each person stuffs their mouths with marshmallows without chewing, then says the words “chubby bunny.” Keep adding marshmallows until they all tumble out when the person tries to speak. The last person to mouth the words without spilling their marshmallows wins.

8. The Bean Boozled Challenge

This YouTube challenge is dedicated to Harry Potter fans, or "Potter heads." It's played with a group of friends.

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In this YouTube challenge, each person will have to eat Bean Boozled jelly beans, which include some interesting and some plain nasty flavors. We’re talking barf, spoiled milk, canned dog food, stinky socks, booger, dead fish, dirty dishwater, and stink bug.

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Here’s the thing: You can't tell which flavor you have until you put them in your mouth. You gain a point when you eat the gross jelly beans, but whoever spits out the jelly bean or drinks water loses a point.

9. Random Exercise Challenge 

Roll an exercise dice – a six-sided workout dice with an exercise on each face. Do whatever exercise you roll. This YouTube challenge is a fun way to keep your heart pumping and system running. It’s a smart way to get in a workout while trying something new.

10. Yoga Challenge

This is similar to the random exercise challenge. Roll the dice and perform whatever pose it lands on. You can end the video by telling the audience what you learned from the challenge and the lessons you would work on.

11. Stick It Challenge

The Stick It challenge is about balance. In this YouTube challenge, do as many jumps or flips in a row as you can without slipping or falling. For example, do a double bounce, double barrel, or backhand spring, landing on your feet with each jump or you lose. 

16 Classic YouTube Challenges

We also rounded up popular YouTube challenges from years past. While some of these trends are no longer active, they’ll show you what has resonated with audiences and what sort of content can go viral. Maybe one of these will inspire you to create your own type of challenge video.

1. Baby Food Challenge: Do a blind taste of six jars of unidentified baby food. 
2. Accent Challenge: Select a couple of countries and enact their accent in 60 seconds.
3. Ghost Pepper Challenge: Pick some peppers from a ghost pepper jar and chew them raw.
4. Mystery Cotton Candy Challenge: Melt mystery mix cotton candies to see what sort of fruits they contain.
5. Cinnamon Challenge: Put a spoonful of cinnamon in your mouth and see what happens.
6. 100 Layers Challenge: Be 100 times extra. Layer your makeup foundation or nail extensions.
7. Spicy Noodle Challenge: Eat a bowl of spicy noodles with a friend.
8. Blindfolded Makeup Challenge: Have a friend or partner do your makeup with their eyes closed.
9. Blindfolded Drawing Challenge: Have a friend call out directions while you draw out the image, blindfolded. 
10. Pancake Art Challenge: Make art with pancake batter. Get a group of friends to join in the fun.
11. 10,000 Calorie Challenge: Cheat day on steroids. Weigh and eat 10,000 calories' worth of takeouts in a day. 
12. No Hands Challenge: Arrange a buffet and eat as much as you dare — without using your hands.
13. Smoothie Challenge: Blend a mix of random food into a smoothie. Make your selection blindfolded or using a mystery wheel.
14. Touch My Body Challenge: Have your boyfriend/girlfriend put on a blindfold and guess what part of your body they touched. 
15. Whisper Challenge: Have your partner guess your words by reading your lips.
16. The Floor Is Lava Challenge: Walk around the house without your feet touching the ground.

How to Make Your YouTube Challenge Videos Stand Out

Your videos need to stand out among hundreds of other videos uploaded every minute. Here’s how to lead potential subscribers to your content and keep them interested:

Optimize Your Videos to Rank for Challenge Keywords 

While the algorithm will recommend your videos to viewers who enjoy similar content, adding relevant keywords to your video title and description can help people find you through the search function. While you can find these manually, third-party software like Tubebuddy or Vudini can help you find these related keywords.

Create a High-quality Thumbnail That Drives Curiosity 

A descriptive video title  isn’t enough. Use your thumbnails to attract viewers. Influencer marketing tools like Canva can help you edit your images to pro-level with no prior experience.

Create YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts are a great way to promote your videos to a wider audience. They are to YouTubers what Reels are to Instagrammers. With YouTube shorts, you can create engaging short-form content that captures interest from new viewers. Here’s a video that proves this can work.

Put Your Best Clip First

When editing your videos, include your best clip in the first three seconds of the video—even before the intro. You want to grab the viewer’s attention and give them a reason to watch your videos. 

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Pro tip: Don’t make the mistake of starting your YouTube journey with vlogs. At this point, your reputation probably isn’t wide enough to attract viewers this way. Instead, strive to either educate or entertain people.

Watch Your Views Climb With YouTube Challenges 

YouTube challenges provide limitless content ideas that help you jump on trends. Jump on engaging challenges like the ones listed above. Be sure to put in the extra effort to help your content attract viewers by using high-quality thumbnails, shorts, and search keywords. 

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Remember to visit the Hype blog for more social media marketing insights.