YouTube announced on Monday that it is changing how it counts views on its platform. Starting August 24, a view will count as soon as a video starts playing or a viewer enters a live broadcast.
YouTube never disclosed exactly how it previously counted views, but it was generally understood that a view registered only after a user watched at least 30 seconds of a video.
The change follows a similar update YouTube made to Shorts a year ago, when it began counting Shorts views the same way. Rivals TikTok and Instagram already count views as soon as a video starts playing.
“Historically, we’ve used multiple view counting systems across different formats,” YouTube said in a Community post. “However, we’ve heard that creators want to eliminate this metric confusion and accurately understand their true exposure, which is why we’re making this update.”
The shift could push view counts significantly higher, especially for videos that only briefly hold a viewer’s attention. That means public view counts may become less useful for creators and advertisers trying to gauge how popular a video really is.
YouTube says it will keep the original view metric, now renamed “Engaged views,” available to creators through its Analytics tools, letting them see how many viewers chose to keep watching.
The company also confirmed the change will not affect creator earnings or eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program.
The update comes a week after YouTube announced a separate change to its monetization criteria.
Starting next year, new creators will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to begin earning money from ads and subscriptions.
Currently, creators need 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours over the past year, or 1,000 subscribers plus 10 million Shorts views over 90 days, and must maintain 10 million Shorts views every 90 days to keep earning.
