A playing control method and a playing control apparatus are disclosed in the present disclosure. The playing control method includes obtaining a playing state of at least one of a plurality of terminals playing a same video; and controlling a playing progress of one or more of the plurality of terminals when the playing state meets a preset condition. Using the disclosed playing control method and apparatus for a plurality of terminals playing a same video, playing synchronization of the plurality of terminals can be maintained under a premise of ensuring that the plurality of terminals do not miss each video segment, so that no communication barrier is resulted due to asynchronous video playing during interactions between users who watch the same video, thus being able to improve user experience.