Viewers Exceeding Plays: How Video Views are Counted

It is possible for the number of viewers to exceed plays in your Dacast video analytics. However, this only occurs in rare circumstances.

In the analytics dashboard, “Viewers” tracks unique traffic while “Plays” tracks all traffic.

However, the two differ in terms of how they treat long-term viewing. For example, if eight viewers tune in at 9:00 AM, they may hit the player several times by refreshing the page. In this example, those eight viewers lead to a total of thirteen plays.

Now, let’s say that all eight of those viewers watch for over an hour and we gain two viewers in the next hour. By 10:00 AM, there would be a total of ten viewers. However, let’s say that only six of our recurring viewers refresh their page to count as a play. If that was the case and we gained two viewers, the view count would be ten and the total plays would be eight.

Now let’s say that all 8 of those visitors watch for over an hour and we gain +2 visitors in the next hour. So by 10 AM we now have a total of 10 visitors. However, let’s say that only 6 of our recurring visitors refresh their page, which would count as a hit. If that was the case, and we gained 2 visitors, our visits would be 10 and our total hits would be 8.

This scenario is rare in Dacast analytics but totally possible. It would indicate a very dedicated audience. In general experience, though, plays almost always exceed the number of viewers.

Any questions or need help/access to this feature? Please contact us.

Not yet a Dacast user, and interested in trying Dacast risk-free for 14 days? Sign up today to get started.

get started for free

Additional Resources

• Real Time Analytics with your Live Streams
• How to Access and Read Revenue Analytics 
• How to Link Google Analytics to Dacast Account
• Will Viewers be Prompted to Add a Promo Code if None is Set?