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8 Viral Moments Brands Can Count On Every Year

While connecting with Gen Z may sometimes feel impossible, brands can rely on these recurring viral trends to engage with these young consumers…

Written and Edited by the YPulse Editorial Team

Jan 2 2026
North America

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Gen Z consistently embraces seasonal trends, like cable knit sweaters, fall rituals, #RushTok videos, and celebratory college admission “bed parties”
They consistently refresh beauty and luxury trends, giving old aesthetic new names
This gen romanticizes recent memories and uses dark humor around (every new) doomsday

Trends used to move in neat, predictable cycles—coming back around every twenty years like clockwork. But that’s not how Gen Z operates. Now, trends resurface constantly, sometimes yearly, seasonally, or just because the internet feels like it. In fact, they move so quickly that YPulse predicts that this year, the lifespan of the trend cycle will completely collapse, making viral culture faster, more fluid, and harder to pin down than ever before. And Gen Z remixes these past eras, aesthetics, and inside jokes, rebranding them with new catchy names and audio trends. It can seem like there’s no real...