Why does iTunes continually reset the play count of select songs to zero?

Many of the recent additions to my iTunes library, including songs that I have bought in the iTunes store and Amazon, keep having their play counts reset to zero. All are songs that I know I have listened to, and iTunes knows this as well; even though the play count has been reset, the "last played" field notes when I last listened to the song. This seemingly has only happened with songs I have added to my library after I installed iTunes Match.

One song in particular, for example, I purchased a week ago in the iTunes store. I listened to it 8 times and that play count appeared. A few days/syncs later, the play count was reset to 0. I listened to it a few more times, the play count then being 5, and after a few more days/syncs it was again reset to 0. The same thing happened again last night after I had listened to the song 5 times in a day (yes, the song is awesome).

I've turned off iTunes Match, and have yet to test to see if this is the real solution. Apple's forums don't seem to have any solid information on this, aside from people just griping that it is happening. Is there any information on why this is happening? Is there a way to override it? Is there a way to restore all my missed play counts?

This is an ongoing bug in iTunes Match. The few users that seem to have any success at all manually update by going to Store > Update iTunes Match. This may or may not work for you because it really is a bug. Play count updates also appear to be delayed by days for some users.