Unable to record how many times my while loop runs- Python3

I am working on a number guessing game for python3 and the end goal of this is to show the user if they play more than one game that they'll receive an average number of guesses. However, I am unable to record how many times the game actually runs. Any help will do.

from random import randint
import sys

def guessinggame():
    STOP = '='
    a = '>'
    b = '<'
    guess_count = 0
    lowest_number = 1
    gamecount = 0
    highest_number = 100
    while True: 
        guess = (lowest_number+highest_number)//2
        print("My guess is :", guess)
        user_guess = input("Is your number greater than,less than, or equal to: ")
        guess_count += 1
        if user_guess == STOP:
            break
        if user_guess == a:
            lowest_number = guess + 1            
        elif user_guess == b:
            highest_number = guess - 1
    print("Congrats on BEATING THE GAME! I did it in ", guess_count, "guesses")
    PLAY_AGAIN = input("Would you like to play again? y or n: ")
    yes = 'y'
    gamecount = 0
    no = 'n'
    if PLAY_AGAIN == yes:
        guessinggame()
        gamecount = gamecount + 1
    else:
        gamecount += 1
        print("thank you for playing!")
        print("You played", gamecount , "games")
        sys.exit(0)
    return guess_count, gamecount

print('Hello! What is your name?')
myname = input()

print('Well', myname, ', I want you to think of number in your head and I will guess it.')
print("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------")
print("RULES:                 if the number is correct simply input '='")
print("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------")
print("                  if YOUR number is GREATER then the output, input '>'")
print("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------")
print("                  if YOUR number is LESS then the output, input '<'")
print("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------")
print("                                ALRIGHT LETS PLAY")
print("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------")



guessinggame()
guess_count = guessinggame()
print(" it took me this many number of guesses: ", guess_count)


## each game the user plays is added one to it
## when the user wants to the game to stop they finish it and
## prints number of games they played as well as the average of guess it took
## it would need to take the number of games and add all the guesses together and divide it.