What is the best day to send a press release in 2026?

In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, Tuesday was the busiest day with 23.4% of releases, and Monday through Thursday together carried 83.4%. Busy days mean more competition as well as more attention, so pick a day your audience is working.

What time are most press releases published?

In PR Gun's 2026 study, the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern hour was the busiest, with 14.0% of time stamped releases, and 36.4% went out between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern.

How long is a typical press release?

The median release in PR Gun's 2026 analysis ran 706 words, and the middle half ran 519 to 959 words.

How long should a press release headline be?

The median headline in PR Gun's 2026 study ran 94 characters and 13 words, and the middle half ran 76 to 112 characters.

How many press releases include a quote?

In PR Gun's 2026 analysis, 59.3% of releases included an attributed quote, and 38.9% had a dateline, a quote, and an About section together.

Where does this data come from?

The figures come from 178,863 published press releases distributed across newswires between September 2, 2021 and September 29, 2026. The methodology section lists every filter and detection rule.

Resources

Press Release Statistics (2026), Data From 178,863 Releases

PR Gun Editorial Team

Sep 30, 2026 15 min read

Press Release Statistics (2026), Data From 178,863 Releases

Author PR Gun Research. Updated 30 September 2026.

PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 published press releases found that the typical release runs 706 words under a 94 character headline, goes out on a weekday (96.3%) and most often in the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern hour, and includes a dateline (88.7%) and a quote (59.3%).

Release type pages cover product launches, partnerships, executive appointments, acquisitions, and funding. See the methodology for how the numbers were built.

54 press release statistics for 2026

Each statistic below stands on its own and can be quoted with credit to PR Gun Research.

In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, Tuesday was the busiest publishing day, carrying 23.4% of all releases.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, Thursday was the second busiest day with 21.2% of releases.
Monday through Thursday accounted for 83.4% of the 178,863 releases in PR Gun's 2026 study, while Friday carried only 12.9%.
Only 3.7% of the 178,863 press releases in PR Gun's 2026 analysis were published on a Saturday or Sunday.
Friday was 45.0% quieter than Tuesday in PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases.
Across 19 full weeks from May 18 to September 27, 2026, PR Gun's press release study counted an average of 1,646 releases per weekday against 155 per weekend day.
Weighting each large wire equally, Tuesday was still the busiest day in PR Gun's 2026 study with 22.0% of releases.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 77,773 time stamped press releases, the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern hour was the busiest, with 14.0% of releases.
The 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern hour was the second busiest slot in PR Gun's 2026 press release study, with 10.8% of time stamped releases.
In PR Gun's 2026 study, 36.4% of time stamped press releases went out between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern.
In PR Gun's 2026 study, 24.9% of time stamped press releases went out between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern.
The busiest three hour block in PR Gun's 2026 press release analysis ran from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Eastern and carried 34.4% of time stamped releases.
Only 5.9% of time stamped releases in PR Gun's 2026 study went out in the noon to 1 p.m. Eastern hour.
Just over half (52.9%) of the time stamped releases in PR Gun's 2026 analysis were published between 6 a.m. and noon Eastern.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis, 19.7% of time stamped press releases were published between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Eastern.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, the median release body ran 706 words and the mean ran 845 words.
The middle half of the 178,863 press releases in PR Gun's 2026 study ran between 519 and 959 words.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 38.1% of releases ran 500 to 799 words, the most common length band.
Only 4.5% of the releases in PR Gun's 2026 analysis ran under 300 words, while 13.2% ran 1,200 words or more.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, the median headline ran 94 characters and 13 words.
In PR Gun's 2026 study, 80% of press release headlines ran between 62 and 131 characters (10th to 90th percentile).
The middle half of headlines in PR Gun's 2026 press release analysis ran 76 to 112 characters and 11 to 16 words.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 40.9% of headlines were longer than 100 characters.
Only 17.9% of press release headlines in PR Gun's 2026 study were 70 characters or shorter.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 59.3% of releases included an attributed quote.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 88.7% of releases opened with a dateline giving a place and date.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 55.9% of releases closed with an About boilerplate section.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 50.8% of releases included a phone number.
Only 26.9% of the releases in PR Gun's 2026 analysis included a labeled media, press, or investor contact.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 61.7% of releases included a web address.
In PR Gun's 2026 study, 38.9% of press releases had all three of a dateline, a quote, and an About section.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 148,939 press releases with image information, 85.1% carried at least one image.
In PR Gun's 2026 study, 59.6% of releases with image information carried a photo or graphic other than a logo, and 25.5% carried a logo only.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 9.9% of releases included a forward looking statements disclaimer.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 3.2% of headlines (5,794 releases) were written entirely in capital letters.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 37.6% of headlines contained at least one number.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 14.1% of headlines used a colon.
Question headlines were rare in PR Gun's 2026 study, appearing in 0.7% of releases, and exclamation marks appeared in 0.3%.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 8.4% of headlines used the word announce or announces.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 8.0% of headlines mentioned AI, artificial intelligence, generative AI, or agentic.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, the word innovative appeared in 18.3% of releases.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, next generation appeared in 8.4% of releases and seamless in 6.8%.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, cutting edge appeared in 3.0% of releases, world class in 3.3%, and industry leading in 2.5%.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 39.1% of releases used at least one hype word such as innovative, cutting edge, seamless, or world class, not counting the more generic words leading and unique.
Revolutionary appeared in only 0.5% of the 178,863 releases in PR Gun's 2026 study, and game changing in 0.4%.
Buzzwords mostly stay out of headlines, as only 2.4% of headlines in PR Gun's 2026 analysis used one of the 17 tracked buzzwords.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, 11.4% of releases shared an identical headline with at least one other release.
Setting aside investor litigation notices, 9.2% of the releases in PR Gun's 2026 study still shared an identical headline with another release.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, product launches made up 11.0% of releases, the largest of the five tracked release types.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, partnership announcements made up 3.6% of releases.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, executive appointments made up 2.3% of releases, acquisitions 1.4%, and funding announcements 0.8%.
In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, investor litigation notices from law firms made up 4.8% of all releases.
In PR Gun's 2026 study, 92.2% of executive appointment releases included a quote, compared with 59.3% of all releases.
In PR Gun's 2026 study, 82.8% of funding announcement headlines included a currency amount such as the size of the round.

Releases by weekday

Stored publish date where present, otherwise the date recovered from the dateline. Share of 178,863 releases.

Group	Releases	Share
Monday	33,113	18.5%
Tuesday	41,854	23.4%
Wednesday	36,363	20.3%
Thursday	37,880	21.2%
Friday	23,033	12.9%
Saturday	3,517	2.0%
Sunday	3,103	1.7%

Releases by hour, Eastern time

Based on 77,773 releases with a real publish time. One wire supplies 90.5% of this sample, so read the hour figures as mostly describing that wire.

Group	Releases	Share
midnight to 1 a.m.	784	1.0%
1 a.m. to 2 a.m.	879	1.1%
2 a.m. to 3 a.m.	1,590	2.0%
3 a.m. to 4 a.m.	2,341	3.0%
4 a.m. to 5 a.m.	2,093	2.7%
5 a.m. to 6 a.m.	1,728	2.2%
6 a.m. to 7 a.m.	4,034	5.2%
7 a.m. to 8 a.m.	4,970	6.4%
8 a.m. to 9 a.m.	10,912	14.0%
9 a.m. to 10 a.m.	8,417	10.8%
10 a.m. to 11 a.m.	7,449	9.6%
11 a.m. to noon	5,367	6.9%
noon to 1 p.m.	4,569	5.9%
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.	3,718	4.8%
2 p.m. to 3 p.m.	3,281	4.2%
3 p.m. to 4 p.m.	3,078	4.0%
4 p.m. to 5 p.m.	4,539	5.8%
5 p.m. to 6 p.m.	2,137	2.7%
6 p.m. to 7 p.m.	1,659	2.1%
7 p.m. to 8 p.m.	1,115	1.4%
8 p.m. to 9 p.m.	689	0.9%
9 p.m. to 10 p.m.	839	1.1%
10 p.m. to 11 p.m.	934	1.2%
11 p.m. to midnight	651	0.8%

Body length

Group	Releases	Share
50-299 words	8,129	4.5%
300-499 words	32,231	18.0%
500-799 words	68,151	38.1%
800-1199 words	46,750	26.1%
1200+ words	23,602	13.2%

Group	Releases	Share
Other or unclassified	136,063	76.1%
Product launch	19,720	11.0%
Investor litigation notice	8,555	4.8%
Partnership	6,433	3.6%
Executive appointment	4,091	2.3%
Acquisition	2,521	1.4%
Funding	1,480	0.8%

Read the detail for each type on its own page, covering the product launch, partnership, executive appointment, acquisition, and funding releases.

Methodology

What the data is. The study covers published press releases distributed across 10 newswires. After the filters below, the sample holds 178,863 releases from 9 of those wires, published between September 2, 2021 and September 29, 2026. 99.7% of the sample was published on or after May 1, 2026, so the figures describe mid 2026 releases above all. This edition was updated on 30 September 2026 and replaces a smaller first pass that could only use releases carrying a stored publish date.

Recovering publish dates. 97,329 records in the snapshot have a body but no stored publish date. For these we read the first date written as month, day, and four digit year (for example September 29, 2026 or Sept. 29, 2026) in the first 1,000 characters of the release text, which is normally the dateline. English month names and their common abbreviations are recognized; other languages are left out. A recovered date is kept only if it is a real calendar date, falls on or before the day the record was stored, and is no more than 30 days older than that day. 93,223 dates (95.8%) were recovered this way. For the one wire whose web addresses carry the publication date, 94.6% of recovered dates matched that address exactly and 5.0% were one day off. Recovery rate by wire (wires are labeled by their share of the final sample).

Wire	Undated records	Dates recovered	Rate
Wire A	849	783	92.2%
Wire B	62,201	59,694	96.0%
Wire C	26,135	26,135	100.0%
Wire D	8,069	6,560	81.3%
Wire H	49	48	98.0%
Wire I	26	3	11.5%

Inclusion and exclusion. The starting snapshot held 188,912 records. We removed 5,742 with an empty body, 4,106 with no stored or recoverable date, 0 with a date outside January 1, 2021 to the snapshot date (September 29, 2026), and 201 with a body under 50 words. That leaves 178,863 releases, 85,642 dated by a stored publish date and 93,221 by a recovered date.

Weekday sample. Weekday figures use every release in the sample, dated by its stored publish date where present and by its recovered date otherwise. No wire supplies more than 41.2% of this sample. The headline weekday figures pool all releases. As a check, the same shares with each wire of at least 1,000 releases weighted equally are Monday 19.3%, Tuesday 22.0%, Wednesday 18.6%, Thursday 20.6%, Friday 13.8%, Saturday 3.0%, Sunday 2.8%.

Wire mix of the weekday sample	Releases	Share
Wire A	73,765	41.2%
Wire B	61,690	34.5%
Wire C	26,825	15.0%
Wire D	8,274	4.6%
Wire E	4,674	2.6%
Wire F	3,099	1.7%
Wire G	385	0.2%
Wire H	148	0.1%
Wire I	3	0.0%

Hour of day sample. Hour figures use only the 77,773 releases with a real publish time, meaning a stored publish time or a dateline time written with an explicit Eastern zone (4 releases). The time a record was stored is never used as a publish time. This sample is heavily skewed, because 90.5% of it comes from a single wire; the hour figures therefore describe that wire above all. With each wire of at least 1,000 time stamped releases weighted equally, the busiest hour is still 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern (16.0%).

Wire mix of the hour of day sample	Releases	Share
Wire A	70,357	90.5%
Wire E	4,044	5.2%
Wire F	2,983	3.8%
Wire G	385	0.5%
Wire D	3	0.0%
Wire B	1	0.0%

How figures are aggregated. Every share is the number of releases with a feature divided by the number of releases in the group. Word counts strip any HTML and count whitespace separated tokens. Headline length counts visible characters after decoding HTML entities. Medians and percentiles use the nearest rank method. Stored publish times are in UTC and converted to US Eastern time with the America/New_York time zone rules, so daylight saving time is handled (UTC minus 4 hours in summer, minus 5 in winter). Records stamped exactly at midnight carry a date but no time, so they are left out of the hour of day figures and counted on their calendar date for the weekday figures.

How elements are detected. A quote is a quoted passage of at least 20 characters in a release that also uses an attribution verb such as said, says, added, or noted. A phone number is a North American ten digit pattern or an international number starting with a plus sign. A dateline is a place name followed by a full date within the first 600 characters. An About boilerplate is a line that starts with the word About followed by a capitalized name. An image is any attached image other than a generic wire placeholder, measured only for the 83.3% of releases whose records carry image information; an image whose file name contains the word logo is counted as a logo. An ALL CAPS headline has at least 10 letters and no lowercase letters. Duplicate headlines are identical after lowercasing and collapsing spaces.

Release types. Types come from transparent headline keyword rules, applied in the order below. A release takes the first type it matches, and anything that matches none is counted as other.

Investor litigation notice (excluded from the five types). A release is counted when its headline contains class action, shareholder alert, investor alert, securities fraud, securities litigation, lawsuit, lead plaintiff, investigation of, investigation on behalf, investors who, or investors with.
Acquisition. A release is counted when its headline contains acquires, acquired, to acquire, acquisition of, completes acquisition, completes the acquisition, merger, to merge, merges with, buyout, or takeover.
Funding. A release is counted when its headline contains raises, raised, secures, secured, closes, closed, lands, or nabs followed within 60 characters by a currency amount, million, billion, funding, seed, or Series A to F; or contains funding round, seed round, seed funding, pre-seed, a Series A to F round, venture funding, growth funding, growth equity, or strategic investment. Headlines that also mention a contract, order, award, dividend, guidance, outlook, deal, results, reports, earnings, gala, fundraiser, charity, or donation are not counted.
Executive appointment. A release is counted when its headline contains appoints, appointed, appointment, names, named, hires, hired, promotes, promoted, elevates, welcomes, joins, taps, elects, or elected, and also a role word such as CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, CMO, chief, president, vice president, VP, director, chair, head of, board, general counsel, or officer. Headlines about lists, awards, honors, finalists, or winners are not counted.
Partnership. A release is counted when its headline contains partners, partnered, partner with, partnership, partnering, teams up, team up, teaming, collaboration, collaborates, collaborate, alliance, or joins forces.
Product launch. A release is counted when its headline contains launches, launch, launched, launching, unveils, unveiled, unveil, introduces, introduced, introducing, debuts, debut, debuted, rolls out, rolled out, now available, or available now. This type covers product, service, and program launches.

1,170 releases (3.4% of those matching any of the five rules) matched more than one rule and were assigned by that order.

Limitations. Wires are not named. The largest wire supplies 41.2% of the full sample and 90.5% of the hour of day sample. Recovered dates come from the text of the release, so a release whose dateline differs from its actual distribution day is counted on the dateline day. Some wires republish releases that also appear on other wires, which adds cross wire duplicates. The detection rules are pattern based and will miss some elements and catch some false positives; for example, the word leading also matches ordinary uses such as leading to. Body text can include small amounts of non-release text such as navigation labels, which slightly inflates word counts. Release types use the headline only. Any figure based on fewer than 200 releases is flagged or left out.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the best day to send a press release in 2026?: In PR Gun's 2026 analysis of 178,863 press releases, Tuesday was the busiest day with 23.4% of releases, and Monday through Thursday together carried 83.4%. Busy days mean more competition as well as more attention, so pick a day your audience is working.
What time are most press releases published?: In PR Gun's 2026 study, the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern hour was the busiest, with 14.0% of time stamped releases, and 36.4% went out between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern.
How long is a typical press release?: The median release in PR Gun's 2026 analysis ran 706 words, and the middle half ran 519 to 959 words.
How long should a press release headline be?: The median headline in PR Gun's 2026 study ran 94 characters and 13 words, and the middle half ran 76 to 112 characters.
How many press releases include a quote?: In PR Gun's 2026 analysis, 59.3% of releases included an attributed quote, and 38.9% had a dateline, a quote, and an About section together.
Where does this data come from?: The figures come from 178,863 published press releases distributed across newswires between September 2, 2021 and September 29, 2026. The methodology section lists every filter and detection rule.