How to display most popular posts without any plugin

In to post i will explain How to display most popular posts without a plugin in your wordpress website. This code will display most popular post by post read count – without using any plugin.

When i was junior wordpress developer i got request from one of my current client to display only most popular posts in sidebar without using any wordpress plugin. So i have done and think to share with my blog visitors.

wordpress-hacks

Copy below snippets and paste at the end of in your functions.php page.

function count_post_visits() {
    if( is_single() ) {
        global $post;
        $views = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'my_post_viewed', true );
        if( $views == '' ) {
            update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'my_post_viewed', '1' );   
        } else {
            $views_no = intval( $views );
            update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'my_post_viewed', ++$views_no );
        }
    }
}
  
add_action( 'wp_head', 'count_post_visits' );

function count_post_visits() {

if( is_single() ) {

global $post;

$views = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'my_post_viewed', true );

if( $views == '' ) {

update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'my_post_viewed', '1' );

} else {

$views_no = intval( $views );

update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'my_post_viewed', ++$views_no );

}

add_action( 'wp_head', 'count_post_visits' );

Now add below in your template where you want to display.

$popular_posts_args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => 3,
    'meta_key' => 'my_post_viewed',
    'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
    'order'=> 'DESC'
);
  
$popular_posts_loop = new WP_Query( $popular_posts_args );
  
while( $popular_posts_loop->have_posts() ):
    $popular_posts_loop->the_post();
    // Loop continues
endwhile;
wp_reset_query();

$popular_posts_args = array(

'posts_per_page' => 3,

'meta_key' => 'my_post_viewed',

'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',

'order'=> 'DESC'

);

$popular_posts_loop = new WP_Query( $popular_posts_args );

while( $popular_posts_loop->have_posts() ):

$popular_posts_loop->the_post();

// Loop continues

endwhile;

wp_reset_query();

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How to display most popular posts without any plugin

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