Given the typical delays in updating the total photo views counter, I believe we might see the effect soon.
They have started running up some photo views.
This is so fun and exciting.
Thanks for sharing the updated graph.
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Best wishes to both of you @MortenCopenhagen & @TerryPG .
Reaching 2 billion photo views is an incredible achievement. Wishing you both all the very best—looking forward to seeing who reaches this amazing milestone first.
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The photo marathon post is now live:
https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t/photo-marathon-report-july-2026/568011
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You say “only 343”!! I just looked at my numbers on the Core Vitals - Maps Contributions chart, and going backwards from my figures for June, I would’ve done 343 from about mid-December to the end of June.
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The predicted days are getting closer. I’m invested now!
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The gap is slowly narrowing but I am running out of time, but still having fun. Weather was interrupted by wildfire smoke. See updated bar graph below.
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Giddy yup yee haa 
all the best .. just don’t stop and smell roses and chew on the grass like I did 
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Hi @everyone
The race is almost over.
@TerryPG is currently at 1,989,024,933 photo views missing only 11 million views.
While I’m at 1,993,938,513 missing only 6 million views.
The photo views totals have not been updated every day lately. This is quite normal. So we might see that we reach the 2B mark in the very same day. I’m checking daily now.
While we wait for the final results, I thought is would be fun to take a closer look and intrepid some of the graphs on LHR where something is happening.
This screenshot is from Terry’s LGR profile
I recall that his strategy is to add several pics and videos and then check the performance before deleting the media with fewest views in stead of guessing.
Having about 160k views on average is truly impressive. But did you notice that this metric lost 3652 this month? That is also a lot. I believe this is due to the fact that Terry has been busy this month trying to catch up while not removing low-performing media and not removing any low-performing media.
The 3652 points made in the last 30 days confirms his dedication
Thecsame graphs look considerably different under my LGR profile.
You see a sudden and sharp drop in average views per photo happening around July 10-13. This is after I uploaded the 343 photos on July 10 as explained in my Marathon photo walk post.
My drop was less than 300 which is not near Terry’s drop of 3752. I believe the difference can be explained by the fact that Terry continuously have been removing low-performing media, while I have a huge amount of low-performing media in Google Maps. It is years back since I last did a deep clean.
I hope you found this analysis interesting. Although also very nerdy.
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Strange Morten ,The numbers I viewed this morning about 12 hours from writing this post differ slightly to yours,
Morten Difference Terry
| July25 | 1,995,648,883 | 4,898,766 | 1,990,750,117 |
Irregardless we may actually go over the within a day or so of each, depending on when Google updates.
You are correct, I have been out walking and taking more photos and videos in the last month and uploading as well. This little race has reaffirmed my love for taking media shots , and rejuvenated my passion for local guides.
I have not cleaned anything in the last few months, once we go over, I will return to cleaning up non productive shots.
I do remember when photo views were booming before the slowdown my photo average was over 220, 000 views per photo. That was Aug/Sept 2023
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Or you both reach the 2 billion the same day, if Google doesn’t update for several days, which did happen before 
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This morning I see this
Only 2 more million views to go.
Terry’s profile shows this:
I could reach 2B in just 2-3 days.
Now it all comes down to when the next updates will happen. Maybe Terry’s numbers have not yet been updated…
So exciting.
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Today’s weekly praise email contains this statement
The number is about 23 million views off.
What the heck, it is probably based on an older dataset pulled from the database. And rounding plays a role also.
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Similar Email for me this morning 
Congrats! Your photos just reached a new milestone. Collectively they have now been viewed over 1,825,000,000 times, helping lots of people get the information they need.
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It definitely looks like you will pass the 2 Billion mark within a couple of days , maybe next update and I will be a couple of days behind.
updated graph below
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The total views were updated while I was sleeping. Now only about 1 million views to reach 2B. Uhhhhhu.
My latest contributions made use of the Golden Hour light in Copenhagen. I hope you like it.
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Posting this at 9.00 P.M. my time Thursday, Morten is 6 hours ahead of me so probably in deep sleep, It looks like you will hit the 2 Billion mark with 24 hours.
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Thanks @TerryPG
Posting at 5 AM! I now see the same count of total photo views as you just reported.
Only 415.000 views to go. So now it all depends on Googles frequency of updating the totals. If it takes a week or more you will win. If it comes today or tomorrow or shortly after, I will get to 2B first.
Following the frequency closely over the past few days I am impressed that they now come in very short succession. I remember once when the totals were not updated for about 5 weeks! Now they seem to come almost daily. The faster frequency could be related to many Googlers taking time off for vacation these days so there are more computer resources available to do the recounting.
Finger crossed and thanks the for match no matter who wins. And very good morning!
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Die Aktualisierung der Zahlen pausiert auch mal wieder @MortenCopenhagen
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Wie so oft am Wochenende @Annaelisa und @MortenCopenhagen. Das hatte ich heute früh auch bemerkt.
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