How to See PV (Views) in GA4: Changes from UA and Points to Watch
"I want to see PV (pageviews) in GA4, but there's no 'PV' item anywhere"—this is the first stumbling block for many people who migrated from UA (Universal Analytics). In fact, in GA4 the very name of the metric corresponding to PV has changed.
This article explains the concrete ways to check PV (= Views) in GA4, in both the report screen and Explore. It also organizes the changes from UA's pageviews and the points to watch when reading the numbers, so put it to use in your post-migration access analysis.
To put the conclusion first, UA's "pageviews (PV)" has been replaced in GA4 by a metric named "Views" (表示回数). There is no "PV" or "pageviews" item on GA4's report screen, so just remember: when you want to see PV, check "Views," and you won't get lost.
The reality of Views is the number of occurrences of the event called page_view, which GA4 measures automatically. In GA4 all measurement is done at the event level, and a page_view event is recorded each time a page is displayed. Therefore the relationship is "Views = number of page_view events."
It's not just a name change—there are several differences in how things are counted and in scope. To read PV correctly, let's grasp the changes from UA.
This is the biggest change. The metric called "pageviews" in UA became "Views" (表示回数) in GA4. The column labeled "Views" in reports corresponds to the conventional PV.
Whereas UA's pageviews covered only web page displays, GA4's Views combines both web page displays and app screen displays. If you're measuring across web and app in GA4, note that Views includes the app-side screen displays too. If you operate only a website, it is effectively the same as the web page view count.
UA was a measurement model centered on pageviews and sessions, but GA4 changed to a model that captures every action as an "event." A page display is also handled as a kind of event called page_view. Thanks to this design change, user actions other than page displays can now be measured flexibly within the same framework.
From here, we introduce the steps to actually check Views in GA4. Let's look at them in three patterns: whole site, by page, and free-form analysis.
When you want to quickly grasp PV for the whole site, the Home screen or the report summary is handy. When you log in to GA4, Views is shown on the top summary cards, letting you immediately check how many pages were displayed across the whole site. You can freely switch the period from the top of the screen.
Page-level PV—"how many times each page was viewed"—is best checked from standard reports. You can display it with the following steps.
This "Views" column corresponds to per-page PV as it was called in UA. Sorting lets you quickly grasp the popular pages with the most Views.
Standard reports only let you see data in fixed shapes, but with "Explore" you can freely combine dimensions and metrics to create original reports. For example, the following analyses are possible.
In Explore, by adding dimensions (such as page path) and metrics (Views) onto a blank canvas, you can do flexible analysis tailored to your purpose. Use it when fixed reports aren't enough.
Even once you can check Views, misreading the numbers leads to flawed analysis. Let's organize the points to watch when reading PV.
Besides Views, GA4 lines up metrics such as users (the number of people who visited) and sessions (the number of visits). Because Views is "the cumulative number of times pages were displayed," if one person views the same page three times, Views is counted as 3 and users as 1. It's important not to mistake what number you're looking at.
As noted above, GA4's Views also combines app screen displays. If you want to see purely web pageviews, you need to extract only the web data by filtering by platform or stream in the dimensions. If you only measure a website, there's no need to worry about this.
Because the measurement mechanism changed, you should avoid comparing UA's pageviews and GA4's Views as if they were the same number. Due to the presence or absence of app displays, the change to event-based measurement, and differences in measurement tag implementation, the two numbers can diverge. When discussing increases or decreases from UA, judge carefully with this premise in mind.
UA (Universal Analytics) stopped collecting new data on July 1, 2023, and after that, referencing past data also became impossible. If you do access analysis now, using GA4 is the premise. Keep in mind that the option of "seeing PV in UA" no longer remains.
When you want to see PV in GA4, check the metric "Views," which replaced UA's "pageviews." Its reality is the number of page_view event occurrences—for the whole site, use Home or the summary; by page, use "Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens"; and for free analysis, use "Explore."
The main changes from UA are three: the name change, the combining of app screen displays, and the move to event-based measurement. When reading, it's important to be aware of points such as the difference from users and sessions, the mixing in of app displays, and the impossibility of direct comparison with UA numbers. Start by looking at your site's per-page PV in "Pages and screens."
PV is the starting point of access analysis, but chasing Views alone won't lead to results. Only when you look across traffic sources, conversions, and cost-effectiveness by channel can you judge whether a measure is good or bad. Xtrategy, as a platform that integrally supports data and budget allocation across all of marketing, provides the practical infrastructure to connect access-analysis numbers to measure-level decision-making.
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