Facebook is the most widely used social media site in the United States, making up around 72 percent of all social media site visits in the country. As a content creator, you’re probably aware of the importance of using Facebook, and Facebook videos in particular, to drive engagement and conversions.

As you publish videos, you may become curious about who’s watching them. Is it possible to see who viewed your videos on Facebook, and how?

Why You May Want to Know Who’s Viewing Your Facebook Videos

Being able to track engagement is one of the most important things you can do as a content creator. You need to know who is responding to which content, so you can understand how different types of content and topics appeal to different target audiences.

However, even if you’re not a content creator, it’s normal to be curious about who’s watching your videos and interacting with your content. You might share a funny clip and want to see if your friend viewed it – if they didn’t, you might want to send the clip to them directly.

How Do I See How Many People Viewed My Facebook Videos?

If you simply want to know how many people viewed your video, then you’re in luck. Facebook provides that information, and it’s pretty easy to see it.

Simply go to your profile in the Facebook app and navigate to the specific video in question. There, under the video, you will see the number of total views.

According to the Facebook Help Center, this feature is only available when using the Facebook app for Android or iOS. Furthermore, it will only work if you set the video to public. If you share it privately, you will not be able to see the number of views.

That’s if you have a Facebook profile. What if you have a Facebook page? In that case, you can see your video views by going to your Facebook Insights or Video Library in Publishing Tools.

When you have a Facebook page as opposed to a Facebook profile, you get access to additional insights that you would otherwise not be able to see. Facebook will show you your top-performing videos and tell you the number of views each received.

Furthermore, you will see additional important information, such as the total number of minutes people viewed the video, the amount of 3-second (or longer) views, and engagement. You will also see audience demographics for videos receiving at least 100 views.

How To See Who Viewed Your Regular Facebook Videos

Unfortunately, while you can see the number of views a video has received, you cannot see who viewed your video. Facebook does not allow you to see the people who viewed your video.

You might be surprised to learn that. However, the only way to see who viewed your video is by checking who interacted with it. It will not give you a complete picture of who viewed your video, as most people who viewed it will not engage with it. Nevertheless, it will show you some of the people who have viewed the video you posted.

You can check who liked or commented on your video. If someone reacted by liking or hearting your video, they most likely watched it. Sometimes, though, they might click the like button by mistake while scrolling through their feed without paying attention to your video, so it’s not a foolproof method of figuring out who’s viewing the videos you post

Similarly, if someone shared your video to their profile, they have also obviously seen it.

How To See Who Watches Your Facebook Live Videos

While you can’t see who is watching your regular Facebook videos, you can see who watches your Facebook Live videos. However, there is a caveat – you can only see this information while still live.

When someone joins your Facebook Live, you will get a notification. You will be able to see who is currently watching your live video in real-time.

Once the live stream ends, you will no longer be able to see the list of participants who have joined. However, you will still be able to see other statistics, such as how many views you got.

How To See Who Watched Your Facebook Stories

When you upload videos or pictures to your Facebook stories, you can see who watched your stories.

Stories are posts that last for 24 hours. They appear at the top of users’ apps in a horizontal feed separate from the main post feed.

Snapchat was the first social media platform to introduce stories. Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp followed in its footsteps – all of those apps are owned by the same company, Meta (formerly Facebook).

Your friends and followers can view your stories for 24 hours after you post them. Once those 24 hours have passed, they will no longer be able to view them.

You can set your story privacy settings so only people you are friends with can view them. Alternatively, you can make them public so anyone can watch them.

Click on your story to see who has seen it. On the bottom-left side of your screen, you will see the story viewer list; click on it and scroll through the list of people who have watched your story.

What if 24 hours have passed? You can go to your archive to access your past stories and see who has watched them.

You will also be able to see who reacted to your story. Different emoji reactions are available.

Why You Can’t Always See Who Watched Your Videos

There are only two types of videos on Facebook that show you who viewed them. The first is when you livestream a video, although you can only see viewers while the video is still live.

The second is when you upload a video to your Facebook story. In that case, you will be able to see everyone who has viewed or interacted with your story.

Other than that, nobody will be able to see your watch history.

Privacy is a big concern online, and Facebook wants to protect its image as an app that cares about privacy and discretion. For that reason, it no longer shows your friends your most recent activity on Facebook, such as the posts you just liked – it removed that feature long ago.

Similarly, it won’t show you which people viewed your video. It also won’t tell your friends when you viewed their video without reacting to it.

That allows you to keep your online activity hidden. If Facebook were to tell people when others viewed their video, you would no longer be able to stalk someone’s Facebook profile, for example.

Right now, you can visit someone’s profile and check out their posts undetected. The only way they would know that you visited their profile is if you engaged with their posts, such as liking a picture.

However, if you simply scroll through their page and view their videos and pictures, they won’t know that you were checking them out. You have control over whether they know you saw their video or not – you can let them know by reacting (liking or commenting) or keep that information hidden.

Conclusion

You can’t see who viewed your regular Facebook videos. You can only see who is watching your Facebook livestream while it is still live and who viewed your Facebook stories. However, you can see the number of views a video got.