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) is oriented around: Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices that have failed catastrophically during operation. Recent activity samples show 4.6 posts/day in recent samples (~73% video, ~19% link, ~8% image). Public rules we collected 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” in metadata—link/text expectations may differ from open “any” rooms.
Practical pointers
Read the current sidebar/rules on Reddit before posting; collected rules can lag. Avoid clickbait titles; say what the post actually is. Common flairs in samples include: Fatalities, Structural Failure, Equipment Failure, Fire/Explosion.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Jun 24, 2015, which makes it 11 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 624 subscribers (+0.04%). 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 (13.1).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/CatastrophicFailure went up from 1,794,581 to 1,797,460 subscribers (+2.9K, +0.16%). That is about 65 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
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.
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.
Rules of r/CatastrophicFailure
The moderators of r/CatastrophicFailure list 6 rules. In short:
- No joke/meme submissions
- Titles must only be a neutral description and date
- No Mundane Failures
- Compilations are not allowed
- Be respectful
- 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 1,797,460 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #605 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 2,879 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 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/travel (14.5M), r/gifs (21.5M), r/AccidentalRenaissance (1.6M), r/Zoomies (1.5M) and r/PraiseTheCameraMan (1.4M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). 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.