Tableau Public hits 1 million vizzes, from data journalism to Game of Thrones

In July 2017, Tableau Public hit 1 million vizzes! Learn about the ways this platform has helped authors make a difference in the world.

Tableau Public has been growing year after year since its launch in February 2010. Our authors have hit some exciting milestones recently, like the day they passed one billion total views this past January, or when the 250,000th author activated their account last year.

Today we’re excited to announce that the community has achieved another mammoth milestone—the uploading of the one millionth workbook since Tableau Public’s launch! That's over 1,000,000 vizzes about a wide variety of topics, from sports to politics to nature. Many of the vizzes are simple charts, but some are quite sophisticated. Some are somber and serious in tone, and others are downright fun and silly. They've been viewed by people in 238 distinct countries and regions this year alone.

Wondering what Tableau Public’s #MillionthViz is? Here it is! A dashboard published by the Iowa Workforce Development Labor Market Information Division showing job posting statistics by county in the state of Iowa:

And anyone in the world can search our repository by keyword to find data on a topic of their interest. Go ahead, give it a try. Just click the search icon in the top-right corner of the Tableau Public website. Maybe you’re interested in climate change? Our authors are all over that. Trump's tweets? You know they've vizzed those, too.

To celebrate this achievement and to thank the Tableau Public authors around the world who have contributed to a rich, data-driven dialog on the web, the leaders at Tableau who launched this platform seven years ago—Andrew Beers, Ellie Fields, Jewel Loree, Elissa Fink, and myself—hosted a Facebook Live session. If you couldn't make it, you can watch it below or here.

Authors speak

We reached out to a handful of Tableau Public authors and asked them to share their thoughts about our platform. They mentioned four different aspects that highlight Tableau Public’s incredible value to the community:

1. An active and vibrant community

Andy Kriebel of The Information Lab who, along with Eva Murray of EXASOL, runs the popular Makeover Monday project, had this to say when asked to share something special about Tableau Public that he loves: "I love the community that surrounds Tableau Public. I love that people can share interactive visualisations with one another, seek feedback, iterate, improve, and learn all in one place. I also love how, if I ever need some inspiration, I'm only a search away from a massive selection of fantastic visualisations that I can emulate." And Andy also agrees with Chloe's point above. "Tableau Public allows us to support charities and causes we care about. We can tell interactive data stories that engage and influence and maybe even change the way people think about the World."

2. A way to grow your career

Tableau Public has proven to be a great platform for career growth for many, and is commonly used by hiring managers to assess talent. Ryan Sleeper, champion of the 2013 Iron Viz contest, underscored this fact when we asked him for his thoughts: "Simply put, I would not have the career I have today without Tableau Public. Tableau Public is the perfect sandbox to learn Tableau and discover innovative ways to analyze data when you return to the office. Nearly every hiring manager I talk to cites a Tableau Public portfolio as one of, if not, the top criterion when reviewing a data visualization/analyst candidate."

3. A place to inspire and be inspired

Tableau Zen Master Bridget Winds Cogley of Teknion Data Solutions had this to say about her experience with Tableau Public: "When I was starting out learning Tableau, one of the key places I’d always hit is Tableau Public for inspiration, methods, and variations. What I never realized is that Tableau Public would become essential in my career: as a place where I play, but also create the same tools that another analyst like me will use to learn. Call me what you will, but I still find it hard to believe that Tableau puts a version of their software out there completely free (Tableau Public) for anyone to use. It’s been a way for me to not just share my work, but to encourage others outside the field to play with data in a way they never thought was possible."

Here's to the next million vizzes

We're proud of the data-driven conversations that Tableau Public authors are generating on a rich variety of topics, and we're excited to see what they will publish next. Improving data literacy all around the world and showing the data angle of the stories of our time are worthwhile pursuits in our estimation, and we're honored to be on this path with so many people of so many different walks of life.

To get a better idea of the wide variety of visualizations our authors publish to Tableau Public, be sure to subscribe to our Viz of the Day gallery. Even better, download Tableau Public yourself and add your own data stories to the mix.