You are definitely not the only one @Trachemysta , My Star Photo and many other guides have photos that have not moved in over 3 months and I doubt if the majority ever will again. Gone are the days when we received a million views in a couple of months.
I checked leaderboard #405 for the last 2 months and I checked the top 20 guides , Only one guide had any movement on a Star photo
There has been many conversations on this topic and I will tag some of the guides who were part of it. But part of the conversation was that newer guides may never reach the numbers that old timers like myself did.
One idea, was maybe it was possible to create an new leaderboard for newer published “star photos” but what parameters could we use. It got me thinking.
Maybe we could create a “Yearly Star Photo”.
Obviously the best place to show this would be within @AdamGT 's top 100 leaderboards. I don’t know know if this would be even possible. Adam already spends so much time on the leaderboards and I just don’t know if its feasible.
What would be the parameters for this .
Photo has to be uploaded in the calendar year 2026. to check this Desktop shows and mobile show a date. See examples.
Yes you would have to manually go through your photos for the current year, easy to do now but would be much tougher in December of this year.
The purpose of this leaderboard is to put all us guides on a level playing field for the year. We would all start at Zero .I believe it would encourage even more guides to join the Yearly Star Photo board.
@TerryPG - It would certainly be interesting to see a new star leaderboard that featured photos uploaded March 2024 or later.
That would accomplish 2 things.
First, we would all now know what is possible under the new system.
It’s my estimate that the view numbers dropped 90% to 95% when the new system was installed Feb. 2024.
Second, it might get NEW members to upload their star photos.
It’s no fun unloading a star photo that will NEVER move up the leaderboard.
That said, I don’t think it is @AdamGT job in life to create more leaderboards.
But there is no denying that anything that happened BF ( before Feb 2024 ) as any relationship to what happens AF ( after Feb 2024 )
Very interesting point of view indeed @TerryPG I never thought of that possibility, it looks interesting and as you said it would take time but it would also be more “fair”. I am also relieved that I am not the only one with my views getting stale for long periods of time. Thanks for the valuable opinion!
Hello @Trachemysta, similar to what @TerryPG, @Yaryman and @tony_b said, the views of my “star photo” did not change since two years. Furthermore showing the value it had by the end of 2023. Because of the changes Google implemented on February 7, 2024, I don’t expect the number of views of that photo to increase within the next couple of years.
Watching the 32 most viewed photos of mine regularly, the one with most views posted after 02/2024 is now on position 13, but has only a fraction of the number of views (265,781) compared to the star photo with 1,982,879. This will also take years to reach the top, if it does at all.
Thank you for sharing your detailed thoughts. I see we all feel a similar problem: our stars have not moved for months, years, since Feb 2024. I don’t find fun in posting the same star views every month.
I agree with TerryPG’s idea- Yearly Star Photo board.. It feels fairer, gives newer photos a chance, and makes it more fun when our views move up on the leaderboard.
Just a question to everybody:
Do we really need the star photo leader board? In my opinion, it is is only luck to get the highest number of views. We have many leader boards to follow up and @AdamGT is getting more and more busy to create all those monthly and yearly boards, maintaining the system and implement other new functions (the HUB and the gallery for example).
I certainly get what you’re thinking @WilfriedB. This is a number that we have no control over, and in many cases seemed unrealistic. The number of Leaderboards has grown over the years since @AdamGT first started this project, and if one Leaderboard has become irrelevant, there’s no harm in dropping it.
Good point @Yaryman. I was near 30000 in early 2024, but there was a steady decline after the changes that were implemented. Recently I’ve seen a reversal of that trend and I’m back up to a 24386 average now.
@WilfriedB Yes, I think we do, way back when , the original leaderboards were created for this parameter.
My idea is to update it with yearly photo views, if possible and to encourage newer guides to jump in and join. what new guide is going to try and enter when looking at guides with millions of views? Just my thoughts.
@TerryPG - Thanks for the link. Some amazing numbers there.
But, a little research finds out all those amazing numbers were done under the old system.
Checked a couple profiles, one of the top 100 had 300,000,000 total views in 11 months. ( 2018 - 2019 )
Another’s top views were all from 2016-2018. No way anybody just starting under the “New system - 95% fewer views” will ever catch those in the Top 100.
Some perspective. I uploaded what was to become my star photo in Aug. 2023.
It reached about 1.65 million views by Feb. 7th. 2024. Some weeks were 50K views.
Since then I still do get updates, but the 1% kind. So my star is up to 1.71 million views two years after the update.
I think the best new Leaderboard would be by year. How many views does your photo get in 2026 under the new system.
Just a side note. I’ve done Google Takeout downloads. In Feb. 2025 my star photo showed 4.2 million views ( takeout keep counting views under the old system - then by Sept. 2025 they changed the views to the current system in the past year )
I know there are 100’s of leaderboards, but most of them have become an apples to oranges comparison.
Interesting numbers @Yaryman ,
My Red star was 9.462million in Feb 2024 and has since very slowly moved to 10.028 million. It’s no longer the featured photo as of November 2025 and it’s last movement was longer than I thought May 2025. My #2 photo is no longer moving and no longer the featured photo.
Maybe we do need a fresher leaderboard with actual movement and I do think a yearly leaderboard would encourage that for all.
With 1% of 9.4 million being a lot higher than 1% of my 2.1 million, I’m really surprised that you still get a little movement on your Star while I do not. Maybe yours is not so “red” after all @TerryPG.
Photo uploaded listed date or later
Beginning of time (Aug. 2023) - 1,714,438 - Restaurant - Mexican
March 2024 ( after the change ) - 379,304 - Restaurant - Pizza
Jan 2025 - 310,618 - Restaurant - Southern Louisiana cuisine
Jan 2026 - 44,538 - Restaurant - Saloon
It would be interesting to compare views on photo/video uploaded after the Feb. 2024 change.
( Total views/number of photos )