Why do Reels views matter more than feed-post views?
Two reasons. First — the view count on a Reel is publicly visible on the Reel itself, where the count on a feed post is not. Every viewer scrolling past your Reel sees the watch count and uses it as a snap-judgement signal: a 50-view Reel reads as 'probably not worth my time'; a 50,000-view Reel reads as 'enough other people watched, let me check'. Second — Reels view counts feed the FYP recommendation algorithm. The For You Page uses watch-count velocity in the first hour as a primary input to deciding whether to push a Reel into wider distribution. Feed-post views are a private metric the algorithm uses for ranking; Reels view counts are a public-and-algorithmic signal at the same time.