# Topic\_views vs Topic.views

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-vs-topic-views/97175
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [September 14, 2018, 8:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-vs-topic-views/97175 "2018-09-14T08:25:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![RGJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/rgj/32/523185_2.png) [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2018, 9:56am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-views-vs-topic-views/97175/3 "2018-09-15T09:56:50Z")

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> [@vinothkannans](#):
>
> used to track topic views by registered users

No, that is not entirely true. `topic_views` registers anonymous views as well, in those cases `user_id` is `null`.

So what’s I think that’s left is that `Topic.views` counts for anonymous users are counted once per `topic_view_duration_hours` (default: 8) hours per IP, and `topic_views` for anonymous users are counted [once per IP](https://meta.discourse.org/t/problematic-ip-address-fields/83785/30)?

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