I'm sort of surprised by this too. Perhaps it comes down to titles and time of day? Most of the posts I've had hit the front page get >20k hits the first day,

I'm sort of surprised by this too. Perhaps it comes down to titles and time of day? Most of the posts I've had hit the front page get >20k hits the first day, but I also word my titles carefully (no linkbait, but make it catchy) and time the submissions when I know that the maximum number of people will see them.