Photo Credit: YouTube
YouTube Shorts will change the way it counts ‘views’ to match industry standards starting March 31. This change will have no impact on monetization.
Beginning on March 31, YouTube will change how it counts views on Shorts to align with industry standards. Currently, YouTube only registers a view after a Short has been watched for a minimum number of seconds. But the upcoming change will count a view whenever a Short starts to play or replay, with no minimum watch time requirements.
This change may result in higher view counts for creators, but notably, it will not affect YouTube Partner Program (YPP) eligibility or earnings. Both metrics are based on “engaged views,” which represent the current way YouTube counts views, and which will be preserved under the new name.
Creators seeking YPP eligibility must still meet the following requirements:
- 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or;
- 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.
After March 31, the new Shorts views metric will be displayed wherever Shorts views are currently shown. The “engaged views” metric will be available in YouTube Analytics’ “Advanced Mode” only. For performance comparison, YouTube advises using engaged views when comparing content published before March 31.
According to YouTube, the change reflects creators’ request to understand how often their Shorts are actually seen. Creators should be able to better showcase the full extent of their reach, making it easier to inform their content strategy.
This update also aligns YouTube Shorts metrics with those of Instagram Reels and TikTok, both of which track the number of times a video starts or replays. As a result, YouTube says creators will be able to better understand how their short-form content is performing across multiple platforms. Since TikTok’s status in the United States has been thrown into the air, both Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have been growing.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.