Make a bar chart race video

When a bar chart race is the right chart

Use a race for rankings that changed hands over the years, where the overtaking is the story. If the order barely moves, a race is just a slow bar chart: a ranked bars chart or a line chart will say it faster.

Read the axis as the bars move. When the scale grows with the data, every bar can stay the same length even though the numbers are climbing, so say in the reel's words that the scale is changing.

How to make one

1. Open the maker on the Bar race format. It starts from a finished race, so you can see it working before you change anything.
2. In the Data step, replace the periods and values with your own. A race keeps one set of rows for each period, so the Data step shows it as JSON rather than a simple table.
3. In the Words step, write a title and a hook with a number in its first six words, and name where the numbers come from in the Source field.
4. In the Style & sound step, choose a look and a music mood.
5. Optionally add a voice-over, then export the MP4.

Choose fewer periods than you have

A reel is short: up to 45 seconds without an account, 60 seconds with a free account and 2 minutes with Pro. Forty years of data squeezed into that time is a blur. Pick the years that tell the story, and take every period's numbers from the same source so the bars are comparable.

Free to preview; Pro or a credit to export

Bar race is one of 11 Pro formats. Anyone can open it, edit it and watch the preview with no account. Exporting it takes Pro or a credit, and a new account starts with 2 free videos without the watermark, on any format. See pricing.

Prefer 3D? Race 3D is the same idea as a 3D scene, also a Pro format.