How to read the metrics

A «view» on different platforms is a different event: half a second of looking in one place, ten seconds of playback in another, one unique person per day in a third. Comparing numbers across platforms, it is easy to compare different quantities.

This page is a glossary of metrics in the platforms' own words, with a link to the document for every definition.

What counts as a view

Facebook. A page video view (page_video_views) verbatim: «The number of times your Page's videos played for at least 3 seconds, or for nearly their total length if they're shorter than 3 seconds» — a threshold of 3 seconds, or nearly the whole length for shorter clips. A content impression (page_impressions) verbatim: «The… source, checked 2026-08-07

Instagram. The views metric verbatim: «The number of times your content was played or displayed. Content includes reels, posts, stories» — that is, a view with no duration threshold: playback or display on screen. The former impressions metric verbatim: «The number of times your posts, stories, reels, videos and live videos were… source, checked 2026-08-07

LinkedIn. A video view (videoViews) verbatim: «A video ad playing for at least 2 continuous seconds 50% in-view, or a click on the CTA, whichever comes first. An interaction with the video (like going to fullscreen mode) doesn't count as a view» — 2 continuous seconds with 50% of the video in view, or a click on the CTA; going… source, checked 2026-08-07

PeerTube. a view is counted after 10 seconds of playback, or after 50 % of the duration if the video is shorter than 10 seconds source, checked 2026-07-28

Pinterest. A video view, verbatim: «Video views — The amount of views for at least 2 seconds with 50% of video in view» (at least 2 seconds with 50 % of the video in view; in the API the metric is called VIDEO_MRC_VIEW). An impression, verbatim: «Impressions — The number of times your Pins or ads were on screen» source, checked 2026-08-07

Roblox. a video impression counts with a gaze of at least 0.5 seconds, occupying at least 1.5% of the screen, at an angle of up to 55 degrees and with at least 50% of the pixels visible; for an image the gaze threshold is 1 second; for click-to-play video — a view of at least 15 seconds source, checked 2026-07-28

RUTUBE. RUTUBE does not publish a view threshold; in the glossary of the partner programme's offer the target action is named (verbatim) ««PLAYERSTART» (старт проигрывания контента в плеере при взаимодействии пользователя с таким плеером)» (our translation: «PLAYERSTART» — the start of playback of content in the player when… source, checked 2026-08-07

Snapchat. Organic: on Spotlight a view is the fact of starting, with no threshold, verbatim: «Views — The number of times viewers started watching your Spotlight»; on public stories, verbatim: «Snap Views — The sum of views across each individual Snap in your Story». Advertising: 2-Second Video Views, verbatim: «The total… source, checked 2026-08-07

Telegram. Every channel post has a view counter; the counter includes views of forwarded copies, verbatim: «Views from forwarded copies of your messages are also included in the total count». The counter is not unique by person: after about 4 days the fact of a view is forgotten and reopening the post counts again. The figures… source, checked 2026-08-07

Threads. A post view (views) verbatim: «The number of times your post was played or displayed» — playback or display, with no time threshold; the metric is marked «in development». A profile view is a separate views metric for a user, verbatim: «The number of times your profile was viewed» source, checked 2026-08-07

TikTok. Video Views verbatim: «Number of times your video started to play. For each video impression, plays are counted separately and replays are excluded» — a view counts from the start of playback, with no minimum duration, and replays are excluded. Separately, 2-Second Video Views verbatim: «Number of times your video… source, checked 2026-08-07

Twitch. In game analytics a view is not unique, verbatim: «Live Views — Number of times any stream of this game was viewed on Twitch, live. This includes live streams and Premieres. If someone watches a game 5 separate times in a day, that counts as 5 views»; for extensions a view is the visibility of part of the screen… source, checked 2026-08-07

vc.ru. an impression is counted if at least 50% of the ad block is on screen for a second or more; by default an ad is shown to one user no more than 5 times a day source, checked 2026-07-28

X (Twitter). A video view in the advertising analytics follows the MRC standard, verbatim: «The video_total_views metric within the VIDEO metrics group will report on any views which are at least 50% in-view for 2 seconds, as per the MRC standard» (at least 2 seconds with at least 50 % of the player in view); the former definition… source, checked 2026-08-07

YouTube. No view threshold for ordinary video is published. For Shorts, from 31.03.2025, verbatim: «Views will count the number of times a Short starts to play or replay, with no minimum watch time requirement»; the previous method is preserved as the «Engaged views» metric (verbatim: it shows «how many viewers chose to… source, checked 2026-08-07

VKontakte. VK Ads (video): «Старт просмотра — количество стартов просмотра видео» (verbatim; our translation: view start — the number of video view starts); «Просм. 3 сек — просмотр рекламного видеоролика до 3 секунд» (our translation: 3-sec views — viewing of the ad clip up to 3 seconds); «Просм. 10 сек — просмотр рекламного… source, checked 2026-08-07

Dzen. Dzen distinguishes four concepts, verbatim: «Показы — Число отображений публикации в ленте Дзена» (our translation: impressions — the number of times the post is displayed in the Dzen feed); «Просмотры» of a post — «Число пользователей, которые прочитали текст или посмотрели приложенные изображения» (our translation… source, checked 2026-08-07

Odnoklassniki. OK deliberately does not call impressions impressions, verbatim: ««Отрисовки» — количество загрузок контента в ленту» (our translation: «renderings» — the number of times content is loaded into the feed) and «Поскольку нельзя утверждать, что пользователь видел пост, в статистике ОК этот показатель называется именно «отрисовки», а не «показы»» (our translation: since it cannot be asserted that the user saw the post, in OK's statistics this metric is called precisely «renderings» rather than «impressions») source, checked 2026-08-07

TamTam. one view counts as a message being viewed by one unique user per day; the total is the sum of the daily values source, checked 2026-07-28

What is called reach

Facebook. Page reach (page_impressions_unique) verbatim: «The number of people who had any content from your Page or about your Page enter their screen» — unique people, with the metric marked as estimated; the difference from impressions is that impressions count every appearance on screen while reach counts people once source, checked 2026-08-07

Instagram. Verbatim: «The number of unique accounts that have seen your content, at least once, including in ads» — unique accounts, including the reach of advertising; the metric is estimated and supports time_series aggregation (day/week/28 days) source, checked 2026-08-07

LinkedIn. approximateMemberReach verbatim: «The estimated number of unique member accounts with at least one impression» — an estimate of unique member accounts with at least one impression; available only for periods no longer than 92 days. For organic page content — uniqueImpressionsCount, verbatim: «Number of unique… source, checked 2026-08-07

Pinterest. The equivalent of reach is Total audience, verbatim: «The total number of people who have seen or engaged with your Pins»; monthly reach, verbatim: «Monthly total audience — The total number of people who have seen or engaged with your Pins in a 30 day window up to and including each day» (a rolling 30-day window) source, checked 2026-08-07

Snapchat. Organic: viewers are unique, verbatim: «Viewers — The number of unique viewers for your Story» (the same for Spotlight); for lenses reach is defined explicitly, verbatim: «Reach — The total number of users that have played with your Lens(es)». Advertising: Paid Reach, verbatim: «The number of unique paid impressions» source, checked 2026-08-07

TikTok. Verbatim: «The number of unique user accounts that were exposed to an ad impression at least once» — unique accounts (not people and not devices); the difference from impressions is that impressions count «every exposure, even if that unique user account has already been exposed before». In the basic help, verbatim… source, checked 2026-08-07

Twitch. Unique viewers are counted by devices rather than by people, verbatim: «(Unique Viewers) are collected based on device IDs. At a given moment, a device ID is assigned to a single hardware device. For example, if someone loads an extension or watches a game on 2 devices, that involves 2 device IDs and counts as 2… source, checked 2026-08-07

X (Twitter). X publishes no reach metric; in its place are impressions, which are expressly defined as non-unique, verbatim: «Count of times the post appeared on a user's screen. Not unique—the same user viewing twice counts as two impressions» source, checked 2026-08-07

YouTube. The Reach tab is built on impressions and unique viewers. An impression verbatim: «Impressions are counted if the thumbnail is shown for more than 1 second and at least 50% of the thumbnail is visible on the screen» (counted only inside YouTube: home, search, recommendations; not counted in external embeds, YouTube… source, checked 2026-08-07

VKontakte. Verbatim: reach is «количество уникальных пользователей, которые увидели ваши объявления» (our translation: the number of unique users who saw your ads); «Охват на конец периода — количество уникальных пользователей, которые увидели ваши объявления от даты старта кампании до конца выбранного периода» (our translation… source, checked 2026-08-07

Odnoklassniki. Verbatim: «Охват — число пользователей, которым хотя бы раз был показан контент из группы» (our translation: reach — the number of users who were shown content from the group at least once); it is counted in unique users and split into two parts: «теперь охват делится на участников группы и людей вне сообщества» (our translation: reach is now divided into members of the group and people outside the community) source, checked 2026-08-07

What goes into engagement

Facebook. page_post_engagements verbatim: «The number of times people have engaged with your posts through reactions, comments, shares and more» — reactions, comments, shares and more, counted as occurrences (not unique people); the platform does not define an engagement rate source, checked 2026-08-07

Instagram. accounts_engaged verbatim: «The number of accounts that have interacted with your content, including in ads» (estimated; the interactions are likes, saves, comments, shares and replies). total_interactions verbatim: «The total number of post interactions, story interactions, reels interactions, video interactions and… source, checked 2026-08-07

LinkedIn. Organic engagement of a page is a calculated share of impressions, verbatim: «Number of organic clicks, likes, comments, and shares over impressions» (clicks+likes+comments+shares / impressions; not over followers). In advertising, totalEngagements verbatim: «The count of all user interactions with the ad unit».… source, checked 2026-08-07

Pinterest. Verbatim: «Engagements — The total number of engagements on your Pins. This includes saves, Pin clicks, outbound clicks, carousel card swipes, secondary creative (collections) clicks»; the rate, verbatim: «Engagement rate — The total engagements with your Pins divided by the total number of times your Pins were seen.… source, checked 2026-08-07

RUTUBE. Behavioural activity is aggregated into IMBA, verbatim: ««Индивидуальный Медиаиндикатор Поведенческой Активности» (ИМПА/ IMBA) — сформированный Системой RUTUBE идентификатор, представляющий собой совокупность метрик и показателей поведенческой активности в разрезе Площадки Партнера» (our translation: the «Individual… source, checked 2026-08-07

Snapchat. There is no aggregate «engagement» metric — the glossary defines the actions separately, verbatim: «Screenshots — The number of times that a viewer has screenshotted your Snap»; «Clicks — The number of times a viewer has clicked or swiped-up to a destination from your Snap (such as driving to a web URL or viewing a… source, checked 2026-08-07

Telegram. There is no single engagement metric; the channel statistics have «shares per post», verbatim: «total_sharecount/postcount, for posts posted during the period in consideration», and an interactions graph (views and forwards by hour) — with no definition of what the interactions consist of source, checked 2026-08-07

Threads. Interactions are counted as separate metrics: likes, replies, reposts, quotes. Replies verbatim: «The number of replies on the post. When the requested media is a root post, this number includes total replies. If the media is itself a reply, this number includes only direct replies»; at account level replies includes… source, checked 2026-08-07

TikTok. There is no single «engagement» metric in the open definitions. Clicks (all) verbatim: «Number of clicks from ads, including social interactions» — the clicks include likes, shares, comments and follows. Paid likes verbatim: «Number of times an ad was liked during the ad impression». Separately, an «engaged view» is… source, checked 2026-08-07

X (Twitter). In the open documentation engagement is given only as a formula: Engagement Rate = engagements/impressions; the composition of the actions is not spelled out — the engagements field is described tautologically («Total number of engagements») source, checked 2026-08-07

YouTube. Verbatim: «engagement metrics (views, likes, dislikes, and subscriptions) reflect how many times your YouTube video or channel has been interacted with». Only confirmed human actions are counted, verbatim: «We want to make sure that your metrics are high quality and come from actual humans and not computer programs»… source, checked 2026-08-07

Dzen. Engagement is disclosed only through retention and time: the retention graph shows (verbatim) «вовлеченность аудитории в просмотр видео» (our translation: the audience's engagement in watching the video) — up to which fragment interest is retained; «вовлечённое время просмотра» (engaged viewing time) is counted… source, checked 2026-08-07

Odnoklassniki. Verbatim: «Вовлеченность — число тех, кто заходил в группу, открывал контент или оставлял обратную связь» (our translation: engagement — the number of those who visited the group, opened content or left feedback); the engagement rate, verbatim: «Рассчитывается как среднее по дням за последнюю неделю по формуле… source, checked 2026-08-07

Why numbers do not compare across platforms

Different events. Ten seconds on PeerTube and half a second on Roblox are both a «view», but there will always be many times more of the second for the same clip. 2. Different uniqueness. Counting by people, by sessions and by «person per day» gives different numbers from the very same traffic. 3. Different window. Reach over a day, over 28 days and over «all time» are three different numbers, and platforms choose the window themselves. 4. Silence about methodology. Where there is no definition, comparison is guesswork. We show such numbers, but we do not propose comparing them.

What platforms give to no one

Platforms are silent about metrics more often than they speak. Neither an analytics service nor an export will give you a number the platform does not hand out.

Instagram. A threshold on the number of followers: "Some metrics are not available on Instagram accounts with fewer than 100 followers"; "follower_count and online_followers metrics are not available on Instagram business or creator accounts with fewer than 100 followers" source, checked 2026-08-05

Instagram. "You cannot get insights for Facebook Pages"; API access "cannot be used to get data for media owned by personal Instagram accounts"; "You can only get insights for a single user at a time"; "Live video Instagram Media can only be read while they are being… source, checked 2026-08-05

Instagram. The impressions metric has been withdrawn: "deprecated for v22.0 and will be deprecated for all versions on April 21, 2025". For posts created on 2 July 2024 and later, a request for impressions after 21 April 2025 returns an error; the replacement is the views metric source, checked 2026-08-05

Instagram. "If insights data you are requesting does not exist or is currently unavailable the API will return an empty data set instead of 0 for individual metrics" source, checked 2026-08-05

LinkedIn. "This endpoint returns organic statistics only. Sponsored activity is not counted in this endpoint." source, checked 2026-08-05

LinkedIn. "Time-bound follower counts are aggregated and not segmented by facet"; "Time-bound follower statistics (queries that include a timeIntervals parameter) do not return demographic breakdown fields. The following fields are unsupported when a time range is… source, checked 2026-08-05

LinkedIn. "This endpoint no longer returns totalFollowerCounts" source, checked 2026-08-05

LinkedIn. "The results for any individual facet are limited to the top 100 results. For example, if a page has followers in more than 100 countries/regions, only the top 100 countries/regions will be returned." source, checked 2026-08-05

LinkedIn. "Time-bound statistics is not supported for specific share queries"; "The /organizationalEntityShareStatistics endpoint doesn't support pagination"; "Shares with no actions or impressions are not included in the list of elements" source, checked 2026-08-05

LinkedIn. "The shareCount for the time-bound statistics won't match the lifetime statistics because the time-bound data won't include the count from instant reposts"; on likeCount: "This field can become negative when members who liked a sponsored share later unlike… source, checked 2026-08-05

Pinterest. "If Pin was created before 2023-03-20 lifetime metrics will only be available for Video and Idea Pin formats" source, checked 2026-08-05

Pinterest. "The reporting endpoints covered in this guide are only for organic Pins, any new performance a Pin receives once its been promoted will be reported on in our ad analytic endpoints" source, checked 2026-08-05

Pinterest. The rolled-up metrics for 1, 7 and 30 days are "unique to this method of fetching and not available in other analytics endpoints" source, checked 2026-08-05

RUTUBE. "How can I see the revenue for a specific video in the RUTUBE Studio app? At the moment there is no such option in the app, but you can view the analytics in the web version of Studio"; "Can the sections in the "Overview" tab of the RUTUBE Studio app be… source, checked 2026-08-05

RUTUBE. For a user with limited viewing rights "the "Monetization" section is not available for viewing" source, checked 2026-08-05

Telegram. The threshold for access to statistics is not published: "Administrators of channels of a certain size (the exact limit is a server-side config, returned in the can_view_stats flag of channelFull) can invoke stats.getBroadcastStats to get detailed channel statistics" source, checked 2026-08-05

Telegram. The Bot API reference has not a single method for obtaining the statistics of a channel or a group: the word "statistics" occurs there only in the descriptions of administrator rights — "access supergroup statistics" and "access channel statistics; for channels only" source, checked 2026-08-05

Telegram. About the channel statistics method it is said directly, "Only users can use this method"; a call on a supergroup gives the error BROADCAST_REQUIRED — "This method can only be called on a channel", and without rights — CHAT_ADMIN_REQUIRED, "You must be an admin in this chat to do this" source, checked 2026-08-05

Threads. There is no data earlier than the spring of 2024: "The earliest Unix timestamp that can be used is 1712991600" (13 April 2024); "User insights are not guaranteed to work before June 1, 2024" source, checked 2026-08-05

Threads. "Returned metrics do not capture nested replies' metrics"; "An empty array will be returned for REPOST_FACADE posts"; for a post that is itself a reply, the replies metric "includes only direct replies" source, checked 2026-08-05

Threads. The followers_count and follower_demographics metrics: "This metric does not support the since and until parameters" source, checked 2026-08-05

Threads. About views and shares the documentation says that they are "in development" source, checked 2026-08-05

TikTok. The list of Display API fields contains neither viewer demographics, nor retention, nor the sources of impressions, nor the number of unique viewers — only like_count, comment_count, share_count, view_count source, checked 2026-08-05

TikTok. "Videos returned are for the given user's public TikTok video posts"; "It is possible that the API returns less videos than the max count due to reasons such as videos deleted/marked as private by users etc." source, checked 2026-08-05

Twitch. There is no API access to the statistics of one's own channel — views, viewers, subscriptions, stream time — in the Twitch API reference: the Analytics section contains only reports on extensions and on games source, checked 2026-08-05

Twitch. The threshold for a game report is named as a number: "a report is available only if the game was broadcast for at least 300 minutes (5 hours) over the time period covered by the report" source, checked 2026-08-05

Twitch. "Clips data is available via the Get Videos API endpoint" — the game reports contain no data about clips; "New data fields may be added in new versions of the report" source, checked 2026-08-05

X (Twitter). "Non-public, organic, and promoted metrics are only available for posts created within the last 30 days." source, checked 2026-08-05

X (Twitter). The advertising API: "We do not support multi-segmentation" — a breakdown is possible only by one attribute at a time, and only from four of them: AGE, GENDER, METROS, PLATFORMS. Some of the ENGAGEMENT metrics "are not available at the account and funding… source, checked 2026-08-05

YouTube. The platform does not publish the thresholds at which it hides data: "The actual thresholds at which data is limited are not published and subject to change at YouTube's discretion". What gets limited: "Demographics data, such as age and gender", "Geographic… source, checked 2026-08-05

YouTube. "You won't see demographics data for private or unlisted videos, regardless of the amount of traffic"; "You won't see any geography data for the following, regardless of the amount of traffic: Realtime reports" and for private videos and videos available by link source, checked 2026-08-05

YouTube. "one-off search terms and URLs that drive little traffic may not show"; when a filter or a dimension that falls short of the threshold is selected, "only the top results are available" source, checked 2026-08-05

YouTube. Through API access: "YouTube Analytics API responses do not contain metric breakdowns for deleted items" source, checked 2026-08-05

YouTube. Withdrawn annotation metrics: "YouTube Analytics API reports only return data for the annotationClickThroughRate and annotationCloseRate metrics as of June 10, 2012. In addition, YouTube Analytics API reports only return data for the remaining annotation… source, checked 2026-08-05

YouTube. The export limit in the dashboard: "Downloaded reports are limited to 500 rows. Use the YouTube Reporting API to download more than 500 rows of data." source, checked 2026-08-05

YouTube. The stipulation about revenue: "Estimated revenue metrics are subject to month-end adjustment and don't include partner-sold and partner-served advertising"; "Estimated earnings data in YouTube Analytics doesn't reflect invalid activity adjustments in real… source, checked 2026-08-05

VKontakte. "The statistics of posts are at present available only for communities with 5,000 members or more." source, checked 2026-08-05

VKontakte. "The method returns data for the 300 most recent posts published no earlier than 9 December 2015." source, checked 2026-08-05

VKontakte. The composition of the stats.get response is not disclosed in the documentation: "After successful execution it returns an object with statistics data" — with no list of fields source, checked 2026-08-05

VKontakte. The date_from and date_to parameters are "deprecated"; since version 5.86 timestamp_from and timestamp_to are used instead source, checked 2026-08-05

Dzen. "For videos published before 1 June 2019, the metric Subscriptions after viewing is unavailable." source, checked 2026-08-05

Dzen. The display thresholds are named as numbers: "Read-through map... The value is shown if the publication has gathered more than 100 read-throughs"; "View depth... The value is shown if the publication has gathered more than 100 views" source, checked 2026-08-05

Dzen. Thresholds in geography: "if there is not enough data for some city or country, it will be shown in the field Other. This field takes in all cities with a value below 0.5% and all countries with a value below 0.1%" source, checked 2026-08-05

Dzen. The dates before which there are no metrics: "You cannot view data earlier than 25 January 2022" (for subscribers); "You cannot view data on events earlier than 21 June 2021"; "Data on engaged viewing time has been counted since 1 August 2023. You cannot view… source, checked 2026-08-05

Dzen. The figures knowingly differ from what is visible under the publication: "All comments created during the selected period are counted, including deleted ones, so the number of real comments at the present moment may not match the number in the table"; the… source, checked 2026-08-05

Dzen. Real-time statistics "do not go through preliminary processing and may contain robot and SEO traffic"; the data of this section "does not affect monetization" source, checked 2026-08-05

Traps in reading

An empty answer is not a zero. If a field is empty, there is no data; it must not be counted as zero (see platform metrics). 2. Small numbers are hidden. YouTube says outright that the data-hiding thresholds are not published: small values disappear from reports without becoming zero. 3. Time zone. Analytics is sometimes in UTC (Vimeo's export, for one) — the platform's «yesterday» may not match yours. 4. Reduced impressions — by the rules, not by rumour.

Bluesky. There is no direct promise to reduce distribution. In the community guidelines restrictions on an account and removal are named, not a reduction: "Accounts that engage in extreme or persistent toxic or disruptive behavior may face… source, checked 2026-08-05

Instagram. Reduced distribution is promised directly and in various ways. For a breach of the recommendation rules: "Content that goes against our Recommendation Guidelines can still be distributed normally to your followers, but we try not to… source, checked 2026-08-05

LinkedIn. Reduced distribution is promised directly, but in general words. Word for word, 12 March 2026: "Less generic content and engagement bait: We're reducing recycled and click-driven posts to make the Feed feel more useful. We want the Feed to… source, checked 2026-08-05

Pinterest. Reduced distribution is named as a separate measure and defined word for word: "Limiting distribution: When we limit the distribution of a Pin, board or account, it will continue to be accessible on Pinterest to the user who posted it and… source, checked 2026-08-05

Reddit. There is no direct promise to reduce distribution for violations on the accessible pages; removal and downvoting by readers are named, not a reduction. Word for word: "Low-quality or manipulative content is quickly downvoted by users… source, checked 2026-08-05

Threads. Only one thing is directly promised not to be recommended — political content from accounts you do not follow: "On Threads, we aim to not recommend political content from accounts you don’t follow." There are no other promises to reduce distribution on the accessible pages source, checked 2026-08-05

TikTok. Reduced distribution is named by the words "ineligible for recommendation". Word for word: "Reviewed content found to depict things like graphic medical procedures or legal consumption of regulated goods, for example – which may be… source, checked 2026-08-05

Twitch. The platform does not promise reduced distribution as a separate measure; removal is named. Word for word: "Our recommendation systems are designed with focus on your safety, so we may remove content that we determine has violated Twitch's… source, checked 2026-08-05

On method. Every definition is a quotation from, or a restatement of, a platform document, with a link and a date. We do not compute derived metrics and do not appoint a «correct» one.