YouTube to change how it counts video views

The world's leading video-sharing platform, YouTube, announced on Monday it will soon change its method of counting video views following requests from content creators. The update, set to take effect from August 24, will start counting views from the moment a video begins playing on any device, rather than requiring viewers to watch for a certain duration. Previously, a view was counted after a user watched 30 seconds of a video.

YouTube also changed its approach to tracking video impressions, which are the number of times a video's thumbnail, post or advertisement appears on a user's screen. With the introduction of YouTube Shorts, the platform began counting impressions as views. Historically, YouTube used multiple methods to count views depending on the format, leading to confusion among creators.

Various platforms, like Meta which owns Facebook, have different standards for counting views. Meta requires a minimum of three seconds of viewing before a view is counted. Content creators have been striving to provide clearer data to advertisers and sponsors about their reach and exposure.

According to YouTube, the metric parity across all formats will give creators a clearer picture of their overall exposure, making it easier to express their true scale and value to brand partners and sponsors. Engaged views, which track viewers who continue watching the video after it starts, will remain in YouTube Analytics in Advanced Mode.

The change is expected not to affect creators' earnings, which are based on an engagement metric. Starting February 1, YouTube will require a minimum of 8,000 watch hours or 20 million views on Shorts within 90 days to earn money from ads and subscriptions.