On your Manage Registry page, the gift count will be reflected based on the quantity of the items you are requesting. If you added 12 dinner plates and 12 mugs you will see that you are asking for 24 gifts.
When your guests view your registry page they will see the gift count based on the products you added, not the quantity requested. This means if you added 12 dinner plates and 12 mugs all from the same brand, they will only see that you have added 2 products to your registry.
When they take a closer look at the product, they will see the quantity you requested.