Limit wp_count_posts to the last 7 days

I want to display the total number of posts within a post type, but limit it to the last 7 days.

This is my current code successfully displaying the total amount of posts within the custom post type.

<?php $published_posts = wp_count_posts($type = 'games')->publish; echo $published_posts;?>

Is there a way by passing additional arguments? How would one go about this?

Answer

Unfortunately, wp_count_posts() isn’t going to get you there, it’s only going to give you a flat number of all of that post_type (and whether it’s readable or not).

The WP_Query class seems a bit intimidating at first, but it should get you exactly what you need since it has a lot more granular control built in, namely the Date Parameters.

After initializing WP_Query, you can use the found_posts property (NOT post_count!) to see how many posts it returned. Something like the following:

$week_query_args = array(
    'posts_per_page' => -1,    // No limit
    'fields'         => 'ids', // Reduce memory footprint
    'post_type'      => 'your_post_type',
    'date_query'     => array(
        array( 'after' => '1 week ago' )
    )
);

$week_query = new WP_Query( $week_query_args );

echo "We have {$week_query->found_posts} for the past 7 days";