YouTube to change how it counts video views

YouTube, the world's most widely used video-sharing platform owned by Alphabet, plans to alter how it counts video views beginning August 24. Previously, a view was only counted once a user watched a video for at least 30 seconds. However, with the introduction of YouTube Shorts, which focuses on short-form vertical video content, YouTube began tracking video impressions – the number of times a video's thumbnail or ad appears on a user's screen – as views.

YouTube announced the change in response to feedback from content creators who wanted a clearer understanding of their exposure to better explain their reach to advertisers. The new policy aims to standardize view-counting across different formats, providing creators with a more consistent metric to assess their overall exposure and value to brand partners.

While some analytics, such as engaged views, will remain unchanged, the update is expected to have minimal impact on content creators' earnings, which are based on engagement metrics. As of February 1, the threshold to earn money from ads and subscriptions will also be doubled, requiring 8,000 watch hours or 20 million views on Shorts within 90 days.