# Is there a way to see the number of watchers for a category?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-the-number-of-watchers-for-a-category/159696
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [3 augustus 2020 om 18:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-the-number-of-watchers-for-a-category/159696 "2020-08-03T18:49:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@redwolves](https://meta.discourse.org/u/redwolves)
#### Post date: [3 augustus 2020 om 18:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-the-number-of-watchers-for-a-category/159696/1 "2020-08-03T18:49:58Z")
We’re using categories as a way to stay up to date on certain topics and we are encouraging our users to subscribe/watch the category so they get the information in their email fast.
We want to measure the success of this initiative but we can’t seem to find a way to see how many users are watching a category.
Is this possible? Even if the data is in the database we can pull that would be great.
---
### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [3 augustus 2020 om 21:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-the-number-of-watchers-for-a-category/159696/2 "2020-08-03T21:39:47Z")
I imagine you could write a [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) query.
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [3 augustus 2020 om 21:47 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-the-number-of-watchers-for-a-category/159696/3 "2020-08-03T21:47:37Z")
Try:
```plaintext
SELECT c.id as ID,
c.name as NAME,
cu.notification_level as NOTIFICATION_LEVEL,
CASE cu.notification_level
WHEN 0 THEN 'MUTED'
WHEN 1 THEN 'REGULAR'
WHEN 2 THEN 'TRACKING'
WHEN 3 THEN 'WATCHING'
WHEN 4 THEN 'WATHING FIRST POST' END as NOTIFICATION_LEVEL_DESC,
COUNT(cu.id) as COUNT_OF_TYPE
FROM category_users cu
JOIN categories c ON cu.category_id = c.id
GROUP BY c.id, c.name, cu.notification_level, notification_level_desc
ORDER BY c.name, cu.notification_level
```
---
### Author:  [@redwolves](https://meta.discourse.org/u/redwolves)
#### Post date: [4 augustus 2020 om 16:00 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-the-number-of-watchers-for-a-category/159696/4 "2020-08-04T16:00:08Z")
Thank you @merefield that got me 90% of what I needed and I was able to update your SQL statement to my needs like so:
```
SELECT c.name as NAME,
COUNT(cu.id) as subscribers
FROM category_users cu
JOIN categories c ON cu.category_id = c.id
WHERE
c.name LIKE '%Announcements%'
AND
(cu.notification_level = 2
OR
cu.notification_level = 3
OR
cu.notification_level = 4)
GROUP BY c.id, c.name
ORDER BY subscribers DESC, c.name
```
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [3 september 2020 om 16:00 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-the-number-of-watchers-for-a-category/159696/5 "2020-09-03T16:00:33Z")
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