Understanding row limits and ‘Others’ rows in Matomo reports

Matomo reports that display actions, such as Pages, Downloads, Outlinks, and Events, organise data in a hierarchical structure rather than as a flat list.

To keep these reports fast and scalable, Matomo applies row limits during archiving. When a table or subtable exceeds its configured row limit, the remaining rows are grouped under ‘Others’. Because row limits are applied while traversing the hierarchy, the reports are not created by simply sorting every page or download by the highest number of visits.

As a result, a page with more visits may not appear in the report while another page with fewer visits does. This approach keeps reports responsive while preserving the hierarchical structure of your content.

How action reports are organised

Unlike a flat report that lists every page by its metrics, the action reports are built as a hierarchy. For example, this website contains the following page hierarchy:

Each level of the hierarchy has its own rows and, where applicable, its own subtables.

How row limits are applied

Row limits apply to reports that use a hierarchical structure. During archiving, Matomo traverses the report hierarchy and stores a limited number of rows for each table or subtable. Each level of the hierarchy has its own row limit.

Matomo does not build the action reports by globally ranking every page or download and then displaying only the top rows. Instead, rows compete for inclusion only within their own branch of the hierarchy. This preserves the report structure while keeping archive sizes and report generation times manageable.

Why ‘Others’ rows are created

When a table or subtable reaches its configured row limit, Matomo groups the remaining rows into an ‘Others’ row instead of storing every individual item.

You are most likely to encounter ‘Others’ rows when:

• your website contains many pages, downloads, or outlinks within the same section of the hierarchy.
• the configured row limit has been reached.
• you are expanding subtables in the action reports.

This behaviour is expected and is designed to balance report performance with preserving the hierarchical organisation of your content.

Why multiple ‘Others’ rows can appear

Because each level of the hierarchy has its own row limit, an ‘Others’ row can be created independently within different branches of the report. For example:

The Pages report contains the following structure:

Products
    Cameras        2,500
    Lenses         2,000
    Accessories    1,900
    Tripods        1,800
    Bags           1,700

Support
    FAQ              600
    Downloads        550

If the row limit for subtables is three, the Products branch shows ‘Others’. The Support branch still displays all of its rows because it does not exceed the configured limit.

Products
    Cameras        2,500
    Lenses         2,000
    Accessories    1,900
    Others         3,500

Support
    FAQ              600
    Downloads        550

In the example, Tripods has more visits than FAQ, yet FAQ is still shown. This is because the row limit is applied separately to each branch of the hierarchy rather than across the report as a whole.

Rows compete only with other rows in the same branch of the hierarchy, rather than with every page on the website. As a result, a highly visited page in one branch may be grouped into ‘Others’, while a less-visited page in a different branch is still displayed.

Improvements to action reports

Matomo is gradually introducing a new flat report approach, starting with the Pages reports.

This uses a single report-level limit rather than applying limits throughout the hierarchy, reducing ‘Others’ rows and ensuring the most visited pages are prioritised. Over time, this approach will be extended to all action reports.

Next steps

If the default row limits affect your reports, you have several options depending on your Matomo deployment and what you need to analyse.

• Even when rows are grouped into ‘Others’, you can still retrieve the underlying data. See How to extract data from the ‘Others’ row.
• Understand the Default row limits for Matomo Cloud reports.
• Increase the row limits if you manage your own Matomo server. See How to change the report row limit? (On-Premise).