ViewCount & PlayCount - Neither matches IG "Views" readout

Hi!

In your latest run you can see https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/h8Bs8UXa9gqUimB7S/items?clean=true&fields=shortCode,videoViewCount,videoPlayCount&format=json two counters, i.e.

1{
2  "shortCode": "C-oiVa7JQIf",
3  "videoViewCount": 924,
4  "videoPlayCount": 2454
5}

Where videoPlayCount is counter as seen in browser (screen attached)

No any other counters available, so actor getting details as full as possible.

I´m going to close the issue now, but if there would be anything else we could help with, please let us know.

Thanks for the reply, Alexey!

Yes, those specific Reels you screen shotted do indeed align. But check out this Reel https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-TMg7Gyu9d/?igsh=MWZlYm54YjJ6M3Y0eQ==, which is off by ~500% from the publicly-displayed viewership: 366,000 views on Instagram ^

Less than 100,000 views on Apify Reel Scraper data ^

I would love to pull the number as displayed publicly on Instagram — I think it would be more accurate to what users are seeing on app.

Thanks and let me know if that makes sense.

Christian

Hi!

In your case its deviation from views when run was done and views when you re-check counter in browser. Re-running at the same time brings same results: https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/7F9kEc5YBhmfzi7US/items?clean=true&fields=shortCode,videoViewCount,videoPlayCount&format=json

1{
2  "shortCode": "C-TMg7Gyu9d",
3  "videoViewCount": 32818,
4  "videoPlayCount": 74542
5}

Rounded value 74.5k in attached screen

Why is this closed? I've noticed this is a consistent issue. videoViewCount aka "reach" does not seem to exist in the public interface, so I'm not sure how you're scraping it. And the number has never been accurate for a single reel we've looked at, when comparing to the data that creators see inside their instagram app.

I felt like my initial questions were not addressed either. Neither the PlayCount nor the ViewCount as reported by APIFY matches the Instagram in-app viewership number WHEN THERE IS FACEBOOK VIEWERSHIP added into the Instagram reel. This is a large fraction of Instagram reels that APIFY would be reporting viewership incorrectly if you are viewing Instagram from their app. And it’s an app-native platform, not browser.

Hopefully the APIFY team can address this.

Hi!

Issue was closed since counters by run matched with the samples from https://www.instagram.com/macridemore/reels in browser

Mobile app data not available without login, so regardless of differences or naming actor can not get some other counters or other data from native mobile app.

See attached screen with counter 4903 for https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_T2iWIyAPQ/ in browser view and the same play_count value in browser data

View counter inherited from the same data source but not exposed in Instagram web app, so can not be tested under browser. But there is no other data for counters anyways, actor is getting publicly available data following naming conventions from Instagram.

I´m going to close the issue now, but if there would be anything else we could help with, please let us know.