The Movie Database Support
Support → API Support
Popularity Ranking
posted by AntonCooperSTAFFMOD on March 14, 2013 at 9:44 AM
HI there, I noticed that the popularity field returned in the API has changed recently. It field used to return figures up to 50,000 for the most popular films but now seems to be limited at around the 40 mark. Can anyone explain how this figure is calculated?
Reply by Travis Bell
on March 14, 2013 at 10:51 AM
It's mostly the same as before. Unique views on the website but improved with taking in account the number of ratings a movie received, number of favourites and number of watched list additions all for the previous day. It also uses the part of the previous days score to help popularity trending and finally, boosts scores a tad if the newer a release date is.
Reply by AntonCooper
on March 14, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Is there an upper or lower limit to the number returned?
Reply by Travis Bell
on March 14, 2013 at 11:46 AM
Upper no, this is the same as before. Lower, 0. It can be anywhere from 0 to essentially infinity.