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r/CatastrophicFailure

Catastrophic Failure

r/CatastrophicFailure is a safe-for-work community on Reddit, ranked #605 on SubMouse with 1,798,283 subscribers and about 4.6 new posts a day.

Rank (SFW)#605
Subscribers1.8M
Growth since Nov 2+823
Posts per day4.6
Posts all time45.5K
CreatedJun 2015
Visit r/CatastrophicFailure on Reddit ↗

About r/CatastrophicFailure

In its own words:

Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices that have failed catastrophically during operation.

Community guide

r/CatastrophicFailure (#605, about 1.8 million subscribers) — Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices that have failed catastrophically during operation. A recent sample averaged 4.6 posts a day (~73% video, ~19% link, ~8% image). Its public rules include: No joke/meme submissions; Titles must only be a neutral description and date; No Mundane Failures; Compilations are not allowed; Be respectful.

What belongs here

Stay inside the room’s stated scope rather than adjacent fandoms or general off-topic dumps. Low-effort memes or empty shitposts are commonly removed—add context that fits the room’s purpose. Civility and anti-harassment rules are explicit; personal attacks get you removed regardless of how right you think you are.

How it differs from lookalikes

The length of the public rule list is itself a signal: skim all of them once before assuming defaults from similar communities. Submission type is set to “link”—link/text expectations may differ from open “any” rooms.

Practical pointers

Read the current sidebar/rules on Reddit before posting; rules can change. Avoid clickbait titles; say what the post actually is. Common flairs include: Fatalities, Structural Failure, Equipment Failure, Fire/Explosion.

The community was created on Jun 24, 2015, which makes it 11 years old. Since Nov 2, 2026, it has gained 823 subscribers (+0.05%). It sits just behind r/TalesFromRetail (#604) and ahead of r/DotA2 (#606) in our ranking.

What sets r/CatastrophicFailure apart

r/CatastrophicFailure is far more video-driven than most big subreddits: 73% of its recent posts are videos, against a median of 4% across the Top 100. Posts here spark a lot of conversation: the archive averages 47.9 comments per post, roughly 3.7× the typical big subreddit (13.0). Relative to its huge audience, posting is calm — around 2.6 new posts a day per million members, which puts it in the quietest fifth of the Top 100. A good post has less competition here.

Subscriber growth

1.80M1.79MSep 19Nov 9, 2026

Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 9, 2026, r/CatastrophicFailure went up from 1,794,581 to 1,798,283 subscribers (+3.7K, +0.21%). That is about 73 new members per day. The chart shows 10 weekly subscriber counts.

Top posts on r/CatastrophicFailure this week

What the community upvoted most over the last seven days, as ranked by Reddit (collected Nov 7, 2026).

  1. Crater footage of today's Learjet 60 crash near Greenacres, Floridau/stanxv · Nov 1 · video
  2. 1 November 2026-Learjet 60 Crashes in Florida, USAu/Valyura · Nov 1 · video
  3. Another Video of the devastating Learjet 60 crash in Greenacres, FL 11/1/26u/Left_Reputation_4276 · Nov 2 · video
  4. Nov 1, 2026: Valtteri Bottas' Cadillac F1 car has a suspension failure at high speedu/Branston_Pickle · Nov 2 · video
  5. Fed 12, 2026 - A massive sinkhole opened up at a subway construction site in Shanghai, swallowing a huge section of the roadu/jhovudu1 · Nov 3 · video
  6. On May 12, 1972, a fire broke out at Japan's Sennichi Department Store, killing 118 people. Nov 9, 1973, fire broke out in a Daiyo Department Store, killing 104 people. Two incidents amplified calls …u/BeneficialSide2335 · Nov 6 · gallery
  7. Car catches fire in full-contact racing, 31 Oct 2026u/DV-13 · Nov 2 · video
  8. (2/19/2026) Crane Collapses in Puerto Varas, Chile (2 Angles)u/Scary_Profession7219 · Nov 3 · video
  9. The 2025 Hamburg (Germany) Level Crossing Collision. An insufficiently designed street causes a semi-truck to become stuck on a level crossing where it is hit by a train. 1 person dies. The full stor…u/WhatImKnownAs · Nov 1 · image
  10. Fire in Stourbridge UK, August 13th, 2026. 19 homes destroyed, No deaths.u/Ok-Scale1830 · Nov 2 · image

All-time top posts

The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/CatastrophicFailure, from 2019 to 2022, ranked by Reddit.

  1. 8.4.2020 Beirut - storage before the blastu/chillsnotskills90 · Aug 5, 2020 · image
  2. December 2019 in Detroit: a large amount of chromium-6 leaked into the ground from a chemical storage facility that contained it improperly. It was only found out when it leaked onto a nearby highway.u/drewbdrewb · Jul 22, 2020 · image
  3. Beirut seaport explodes (8/4/2020)Aug 4, 2020 · video
  4. New pictures from the Suez Canal Authority on the efforts to dislodge the EverGiven, 25/03/2021u/ClinicalIllusionist · Mar 25, 2021 · gallery
  5. Water lines are freezing and bursting in Texas during Record Low Temperatures - February 2021u/mouthofreason · Feb 17, 2021 · video
  6. Ever Given AIS Track until getting stuck in Suez Canal, 23/03/2021u/Roche7000 · Mar 27, 2021 · video
  7. Tourist trapped 100m high on Chinese glass bridge after floor panels blow out (May 7, 2021)u/UrungusAmongUs · May 9, 2021 · image
  8. Huge fire at a Huawei research facility in China, September 25, 2020u/ItsaMeRobert · Sep 25, 2020 · video
  9. Container ship ‘One Apus’ arriving in Japan today after losing over 1800 containers whilst crossing the Pacific bound for California last week.u/MV_MerchantMan · Dec 8, 2020 · image
  10. Red wine cistern catastrophically ruptures at Sicilian winery, happened 2 weeks agou/Radec594 · Sep 28, 2019 · 58,520 points · 3,031 comments · image

What r/CatastrophicFailure talks about

Looking at the titles of 37 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 4), the words that come up most are “crash”, “learjet”, “near”, “car” and “florida”. Other frequent themes are train, road, high, greenacres, failure and speed. Recurring phrases include “renfe train”, “crane collapses”, “puerto varas” and “varas chile”. By format, 73% are videos, 19% are links and 8% are images.

  • crash 11
  • learjet 6
  • near 5
  • car 5
  • florida 4
  • train 4
  • road 3
  • high 3
  • greenacres 3
  • failure 3
  • speed 3
  • november 3
  • renfe 3
  • reconstruction 2
  • report 2
  • crane 2
  • collapses 2
  • puerto 2

Popular post flairs: Fatalities (10), Structural Failure (5), Equipment Failure (4), Fire/Explosion (4), Operator Error (2), Malfunction (2).

Activity and best time to post

r/CatastrophicFailure gets about 4.6 new posts a day. The public archive holds 45,492 posts and 2,180,273 comments in total, about 47.9 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Monday (11 posts) and the quietest was Wednesday (2). Posting peaks around 03:00 UTC and is lowest around 02:00 UTC.

00: 10001: 302: 003: 50304: 005: 106: 20607: 008: 009: 10910: 311: 112: 21213: 314: 115: 11516: 317: 218: 01819: 220: 121: 12122: 223: 2
Posts per hour of the day, UTC, Oct 29, 2026 – Nov 4, 2026
Videos 73%Links 19%Images 8%

Rules of r/CatastrophicFailure

The moderators of r/CatastrophicFailure list 6 rules. In short:

  1. No joke/meme submissions
  2. Titles must only be a neutral description and date
  3. No Mundane Failures
  4. Compilations are not allowed
  5. Be respectful
  6. Objects, not People

How to join

Open reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.

Frequently asked questions

How big is r/CatastrophicFailure?

r/CatastrophicFailure has 1,798,283 subscribers (Nov 9, 2026), which makes it the #605 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 3,702 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 9, 2026.

When was r/CatastrophicFailure created?

r/CatastrophicFailure was created on Jun 24, 2015, so it has been around for 11 years.

Is r/CatastrophicFailure still active?

Yes. r/CatastrophicFailure gets about 4.6 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 45,492 posts and 2,180,273 comments.

What is the best time to post in r/CatastrophicFailure?

Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Monday and the quietest Wednesday, and most posts arrive around 03:00 UTC, with the fewest around 02:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.

What kind of posts are on r/CatastrophicFailure?

The community describes itself as: “Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices that have failed catastrophically during operation.” Recent post titles often mention crash, learjet, near, car and florida. Most posts are videos (73%).

Is r/CatastrophicFailure SFW?

Yes. Reddit does not mark r/CatastrophicFailure as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.

What are the rules of r/CatastrophicFailure?

Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/CatastrophicFailure accepts link and media posts (no plain text posts), with images, videos, galleries and polls enabled. It has 6 posted rules, starting with: “No joke/meme submissions”; “Titles must only be a neutral description and date”; “No Mundane Failures”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.

What subreddits are similar to r/CatastrophicFailure?

Communities with similar topics include r/videos (26.9M) and r/FUCKYOUINPARTICULAR (1.3M).

Stats from public data (data updated Nov 9, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/CatastrophicFailure.

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