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5 million views at a waterpark
Years of nothing
Gary Vee's advice that everyone should post content reached a man who left the SEAL teams in 2017 and spent a couple of years floundering, with a small pension, a wife, and three kids. He started posting because he already paid for the internet and owned a phone, and the worst outcome was embarrassment. Nothing worked, and nobody paid attention.
The waterpark video
In 2020, at the Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark in Pennsylvania, he tried something different: a true mystery he loved, told his own way instead of copying trends. He recorded a 60-second version of the Dyatlov Pass story, told viewers to Google those two words, and left his phone in the room while he went to the waterpark.
The payoff
Two hours later the TikTok had around 5 million views. Soon a single upload was earning $20,000 overnight, and less than a year after starting a podcast, he signed a $62 million deal with Amazon.
How does TikTok decide what goes viral?
TikTok's recommendation system shows a new video to a small initial group of viewers. If those viewers watch to the end, rewatch, share, or comment, the system sends the video to a larger group, and the cycle repeats. The company has described this process in its public explanations of the For You feed. Because the first test group does not depend on follower count, an account with no audience can reach millions with one video.
Why does Dyatlov Pass still draw millions?
The 1959 case file stayed classified for decades and opened to the public in the 1990s. The official finding of a compelling natural force named no cause, which left room for theories from avalanches to weapons tests. Russian prosecutors reopened the case in 2019. In 2020 they announced that a slab avalanche was the most probable cause.
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