# The largest MAX categories: where are the most channels and views > The largest MAX categories for October 26, 2026: which topics are leading in the number of channels, subscribers, posts and views, where the most ads and reactions are, and why channels and views have different leaders. Articles · 2026-11-13 · Евгений Химич · https://hi.datool.ru/en/notes/max-largest-categories/ The largest category of MAX messenger by the number of channels is "Education and Training". According **[](https://datool.ru/)**to datool.ru As of October 26, 2026, there are 90,318 channels in it: this is 24.9% of all channels that have a theme defined, that is, almost every fourth. Ministries and Departments are in second place (24,166 channels), Food and Cooking is in third place (16,619). But if you count not channels, but subscribers and views, the leader is different. The "News and Media" category is only 6,339 channels, 1.7% of the marked—up channels, but they have 41.4 million subscriptions (14.7%) and 37.9% of all views for the week of October 18-24. Education gained only 2.6% of views in the same week. Below are all the largest MAX categories by four measures: channels, subscribers, posts and views per week, and also by reactions, advertising and activity. All the numbers are taken from the [MAX Statistics](https://max.datool.ru/stats/) page, where they are recalculated every hour. ## How channel categories are arranged in MAX **The channel category** is the topic that the channel in the catalog belongs to datool.ru : "News and Media", "Sports and Fitness", "Real Estate" and so on. There are 66 topics in total, the list is constant so that comparisons between weeks and months are honest. The channel can have up to five categories, one of them is the main one. The category is offered by automatic markup based on a set of rules, and confirmed by a moderator. Manual editing is always more important than automatic: if the moderator corrected the topic, the rules no longer change it. As of October 26, 2026, the theme has been identified for 363,329 channels — this is about 60% of the 607,392 active open MAX channels in the catalog. During the week of October 18-24, the marked-up channels released 3.48 million posts, which gained 5.76 billion views. !!! note "Advice" On [MAX Statistics](https://max.datool.ru/stats/), a channel is counted only in its main category, so the sum for all topics is equal to the number of marked channels. On the [Categories page, the](https://max.datool.ru/categories/) channel is counted in each of its topics, so the numbers there are more and the order of places may be slightly different. ## The largest MAX categories by number of channels Twelve of the most numerous topics in the main channel category (share — from 363,329 marked channels): 1. **Education and training — 90,318 channels (24.9%).** 2. **Ministries and departments — 24,166 (6.7%).** 3. **Food and cooking — 16,619 (4.6%).** 4. **Health and medicine — 15,501 (4.3%).** 5. **Fashion and beauty — 13,135 (3.6%).** 6. **Housing and communal services and neighbors — 13,073 (3.6%).** 7. **Sales, purchases and discounts — 12 771 (3.5%).** 8. **Culture and art — 12,392 (3.4%).** 9. **Cars and transport — 9,865 (2.7%).** 10. **Travel and tourism — 9,603 (2.6%).** 11. **Sports and fitness — 8,891 (2.4%).** 12. **Career and work — 7,289 (2.0%).** The gap in education is huge: there are almost four times more channels in it than in the second largest topic. At the same time, the channels there are small — an average of 317 subscribers per channel. Probably, these are mainly channels of educational institutions, classes, clubs and courses: it seems that there are a lot of sites, and each has its own small audience. This is a guess on the size of the channels, not a separate count. "Ministries and departments" (an average of 531 subscribers) and "Housing and Communal services and Neighbors" (167) have a similar picture. There are a lot of them, because there are a lot of organizations and houses, and not because each channel has a large audience. The smallest topics by the number of channels are "Esports" (76 channels), "Space and Astronomy" (140), "Sweepstakes and Contests" (163) and "For adults (18+)" (346). ## MAX categories by subscribers By the amount of subscribers, the order is completely different. Consider: this is the amount of subscriptions, not the number of people — one person can be subscribed to dozens of channels. - **News and media — 41.4 million (14.7%).** The largest audience with a modest number of channels. - **Education and training — 28.6 million (10.2%).** Takes the number of channels. - **Food and cooking — 16.1 million (5.7%).** Third place in both channels and subscribers. - **Ministries and departments — 12.8 million (4.6%).** - **Security and protection — 11.8 million (4.2%).** There are 2,022 channels in total. - **Photos and pictures — 10.5 million (3.7%).** - **Humor and entertainment — 9.7 million (3.5%).** - **Sales, purchases and discounts — 9.7 million (3.5%).** - **Cities and regions — 8.5 million (3.0%).** - **Incidents — 8.4 million (3.0%).** - **Famous people — 8.3 million (2.9%).** - **Games — 7.8 million (2.8%).** The "largest" channels on average are in the topics "Incidents" (7,655 subscribers per channel), "Army and Military Affairs" (6,919), "News and Media" (6,528) and "Security and Protection" (5,856). The most chamber ones are "Culture and Art" (154) and "Housing and Communal Services and Neighbors" (167). The difference is 40-50 times. ## Categories by number of posts per week How many publications were released by the channels of each topic during the week of October 18-24, 2026 (share — from 3.48 million posts of marked-up channels): - **Education and training — 598,741 posts (17.2%).** - **News and mass media — 393,089 (11.3%).** - **Sales, purchases and discounts — 356,731 (10.2%).** - **Ministries and departments — 201,223 (5.8%).** - **Food and cooking — 188 554 (5.4%).** - **Career and work — 147,944 (4.2%).** - **Safety and security — 140,580 (4.0%).** - **Cities and regions — 109,467 (3.1%).** Here you can see the difference in pace. Education produces the most posts of all, because there are a lot of channels. "News and Media" and "Security and Protection" — because every channel writes often: 2,022 security channels have 140,580 posts per week, 6,339 news channels have 393,089. "Sales, purchases and discounts" are written a lot because of Collections of products and promotions. How often should I write to a channel of your size — in the article ["How often to publish in the MAX channel"](https://hi.datool.ru/notes/max-channel-posting-frequency/). ## Categories by views: where MAX is actually read Views are the main measure for the advertiser. During the week of October 18-24, 2026, channels with the theme gained 5.76 billion views, and they are very unevenly distributed: - **News and media — 2.18 billion (37.9%).** - **Security and protection — 763 million (13.3%).** - **Incidents — 354 million (6.2%).** - **Sales, purchases and discounts — 299 million (5.2%).** - **Cities and regions — 266 million (4.6%).** - **Army and military affairs — 259 million (4.5%).** - **Photos and pictures — 212 million (3.7%).** - **Education and training — 151 million (2.6%).** Three topics — news, safety and incidents — are 9,456 channels, only 2.6% marked up. But they collected 57.3% of all views of the week. The news agenda in MAX is concentrated in a small number of major channels. ### Views per post The average post of a marked-up channel for a week gained about 1,650 views. On topics (which have more than 5,000 posts per week), the spread is tens of times: - **Army and Military affairs — 8,495 views per post.** The highest indicator. - **Famous people — 5,692.** - **News and media — 5,553.** - **Safety and security — 5,429.** - **Incidents — 4,876.** - **Education and training — 253.** 22 times less than news. - **Culture and art — 168.** - **Industry and production — 148.** A post in a news channel on average gets 22 times more views than a post in an educational one. Therefore, when choosing a platform for advertising, look at the views, not the number of channels in the topic. For more information on how to count coverage, see the article [on post views and coverage](https://hi.datool.ru/notes/max-post-views-reach/). ## Reactions, advertising, and activity by category ### Where are the most reactions **Reactions per 1,000 views** is an indicator of engagement: reactions - views × 1,000. It is equal to 17.3 for all marked channels per week. Leaders (topics from 5,000 posts per week): - **Religion and faith — 93.9.** - **Animals and pets — 88.6.** - **Charity, volunteering — 72.9.** - **Blogs — 66.3.** - **Agriculture and farming — 60.4.** The least responsive in "Ads and flea market" (2.6), "Sales, purchases and discounts" (4.0) and "Security and Protection" (7.0). This is understandable: the ad is read for the sake of information, not for the sake of emotion. How to count the involvement of your channel — in the article [about ER in MAX](https://hi.datool.ru/notes/max-channel-er-engagement/). ### Where are the most ads **The share of advertising** is advertising posts - all posts × 100 %. A post is considered advertising if it contains an erid tag, an "Advertisement" tag, or a link to the outside with a call to buy. On average, marked channels have 4.3% of posts. Most ads (topics from 1,000 posts per week): - **Sales, purchases and discounts — 27.6%.** This is 98,575 advertising posts per week — 65% of all advertising on marked-up channels. - **Technology — 12.6%.** - **Sweepstakes and contests — 8.6%.** - **Playbill and events — 6.5%.** - **House and interior — 5.8%.** Education has a share of advertising — about 1%, news — 1.7%. ### What topics are written more often The share of topic channels that have published something in the last 7 days is on average 57%. The most "live" topics (from 1,000 channels): "Cities and Regions" (83%), "Incidents" (81%), "News and Media" (79%), "Politics" (75%). The most silent channels are in "Marketing, PR, advertising" (32%), "Housing and communal services and neighbors", "Technology", "IT and programming" and "Construction and Repair" (about 35%). ## Five unexpected conclusions 1. **Education is the biggest topic of MAX in terms of the number of channels**, but not in terms of audience: a quarter of channels give 2.6% of views. 2. **News — 1.7% of channels and 37.9% of views.** No other topic gathers so much attention on the channel. 3. **"Security and Protection" is the second most viewed.** 2,022 channels scored 763 million views in a week — more than any topic except news. 4. **Two—thirds of the ads are in one topic.** "Sales, purchases and discounts" give 65% of advertising posts of marked channels. 5. **The most emotional audiences are not at the major channels.** Religion, animals and charity gather 4-5 times more reactions to viewing than the average. ## How to view categories on datool.ru **"MAX Statistics"** ([max.datool.ru/stats /](https://max.datool.ru/stats/)) — the "All categories" table with all 66 topics: channels, subscribers, the share of those who wrote during the week, posts, views, views per post, reactions per 1,000 views and the share of advertising. The table is sorted by any column. Next to it are the "Largest categories" blocks (12 topics by channels, subscribers, posts or views) and "Most ads". **"MAX channel categories"** ([max.datool.ru/categories /](https://max.datool.ru/categories/)) — all 66 topics in tiles or a table and six topic ratings: by channels, subscribers, activity, new channels, views and reactions. **One category page** — for example, ["Education and Training"](https://max.datool.ru/categories/education/), ["News and Media"](https://max.datool.ru/categories/news/) or ["Security and Protection"](https://max.datool.ru/categories/safety/). There are five tiles on it in 14 days (channels, subscribers, views, new channels, posts), six ratings of topic channels — the largest, growing fastest, writing the most, with the most read posts, with the most reactions and new ones — and a list of all topic channels with a search by name. The guest can see the first three lines in the tables and ratings, the rest open after free registration. ## Practical advice **To the channel owner:** - Find your topic in the "All categories" table and compare the views on your channel's post with the average on the topic. If you have higher — this is a strong argument for the advertiser. - Check out the "Write the most" rating on your category page: so you can see at what pace the competitors are working. - Confirm that the channel is yours: the owner of the verified channel chooses up to five categories and region by himself, and automatic markup does not overlap his choice. How to do this — in the article ["How to confirm your channel in MAX"](https://hi.datool.ru/notes/verify-max-channel/). **To the advertiser:** - Do not choose a topic by the number of channels: education is huge, but the post there gets about 250 views on average. - In topics with a high proportion of advertising ("Sales", "Technology") your post will be adjacent to other people's offers. In topics with a low share and high engagement, there is less competition for attention. - To select specific channels, use ratings within the category and [general ratings](https://max.datool.ru/ratings/). **To the journalist and analyst:** - Specify the date and measure: "the largest by channels" and "the largest by views" are different topics. - Remember that subscribers are the sum of subscriptions, not the number of people. ## Frequent questions ### Which category is the biggest in MAX? By the number of channels — "Education and training": 90,318 channels, 24.9 % marked up, according to **[datool.ru](https://datool.ru/)** on October 26, 2026. By subscribers and views — "News and Media": 41.4 million subscriptions and 37.9% of all views for the week of October 18-24, 2026. ### How many channel categories are there in MAX? In the catalog datool.ru 66 categories. The channel can have up to five categories, one of them is the main one. The topic is defined for about 60% of active open channels — 363,329 as of October 26, 2026. ### Why is the number of channels in a category different on different pages? On the "MAX Statistics" the channel is considered only in the main category, and on the "Categories" page — in each of its topics (there are up to five of them). Therefore, there are more numbers on the second page. In addition, both pages are recalculated in the background once an hour, and pictures can be taken at different times. ### Which MAX category has the most views per post? Among the topics where more than 5,000 posts were published during the week is "Army and Military Affairs": 8,495 views per post for the week of October 18-24, 2026. Then "Famous People" (5,692) and "News and Media" (5,553). The average for marked channels is about 1,650. ### Which category has the most ads? In "Sales, purchases and discounts": 27.6% of posts for the week of October 18-24, 2026 are advertising, this is 65% of all advertising of marked—up channels. Then "Technology" (12.6%) and "Sweepstakes and contests" (8.6%). ### Is it possible to change the category of your channel? Yes, if you are the owner. Confirm the channel via the bot datool.ru — after that, you choose up to five categories and a region yourself, and automatic markup does not overlap your choice. For more information, see the article ["How to confirm your channel in MAX"](https://hi.datool.ru/notes/verify-max-channel/). If the channel is not yours, but the topic is incorrectly defined, report the error using the "Report inaccuracy" form on the channel page. The markup will be checked by a moderator. ## The result The MAX categories show two different messengers. By the number of channels, it is a messenger of educational channels, departments and culinary blogs. By views — a messenger of news, security and incidents. To evaluate the topic, look at several measures at once, and take the latest numbers on the [MAX Statistics](https://max.datool.ru/stats/) page — it is updated every hour. The largest channels within these topics are in the [MAX channel rating](https://max.datool.ru/ratings/channels/) with a filter by category.