big-number

When to use

• One metric carries the slide. When the audience needs to remember exactly one number from this part of the deck. The whole slide is the chart — no surrounding context, no comparisons, no axes.
• Headline that earns the canvas. Reach for big-number when the metric is the argument: cost reduced by 4×, audience reach grew 92%, time-to-decision dropped from 14 days to 4. One claim, one canvas.
• Eyebrow names the metric class. The inline-code eyebrow contextualizes the number ("Audience recall", "Q3 revenue", "Latency p99"). The number is the value; the eyebrow is the label.

When not to use

• Multiple metrics on one slide. Two big numbers on one canvas dilute both. Use stats for a row of three metrics or kpi for a grid of four; reserve big-number for genuinely solo claims.
• Caption longer than one line. If the caption needs a sentence to explain, the number isn't carrying the slide. Either trim the number's claim or move to content where prose has room.
• Decorative numbers without an argument. "99.99% uptime" by itself is a boast, not a claim. Big-number works when the number is the answer to a question the audience came in with.

Common mistakes

• Caption authored as a second top-level bullet instead of nested under the number's list item. Indent the caption as a sub-bullet of the number, not a sibling - caption line — a sibling bullet doesn't just miss the caption styling, it matches the SAME top-level rule as the number itself and renders as a second giant hero-sized line.
• The unit or label baked into the number line itself, e.g. - 1,248,500,000 users. Keep the number list item to the numeral plus its own unit symbol (%, $, ×). Put what's being counted in the nested caption (the layout's demonstrated pattern — see the skeleton/sample) or, for a short category name, the eyebrow — not appended prose after the number itself.
• Eyebrow restates the number's value instead of naming its category, e.g. eyebrow 92% above a number 92%. The eyebrow names the metric class ("Audience recall", "Q3 revenue"); the number carries the value. Restating the value in both places wastes the eyebrow's one job.

Authoring

<!-- _class: big-number -->

`Optional eyebrow`

- 92%
  - of the audience remembers a single number from a deck.

Slots

Anatomy

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  header                                 │
│  EYEBROW                                │
│                                         │
│                 ┌─────┐                 │
│                 │ 42× │                 │
│                 └─────┘                 │
│                                         │
│      Caption explains the number.       │
│  footer                           1/19  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Related

• statsrow of 2-3 metrics, comparable visual weight
• kpigrid of 4-6 metrics with status indicators
• split-panelthe metric needs a paragraph of context alongside it
• contentthe argument is mostly prose with a number embedded