Aug 18, Kathmandu - YouTube has revealed that starting this Monday, the platform will change how it counts views. From now on, a view will be registered immediately when a video begins playing or when a user enters a live stream.

Owned by Google, YouTube has never publicly disclosed its previous view counting method, but it was widely believed that a view was only counted after a user watched at least 30 seconds of a video.

This change comes a year after YouTube adopted this new approach for Shorts videos. Notably, competitors like TikTok and Instagram have long counted views instantly as soon as a video starts playing.

According to a statement on the YouTube Community Post, the company has experimented with various view counting systems across different formats over the years. The update aims to eliminate confusion among creators regarding this metric and help them better understand their actual reach.

The move is expected to significantly increase view counts, especially for videos that capture viewers' attention only briefly. However, it may also mean that publicly displayed view numbers are less reliable for assessing a video's true popularity.

YouTube will continue to maintain the traditional engaged view metric, now called "Engaged Views," which will be available through analytics tools. This metric will show how many viewers are actively watching the video over time.

The company clarified that this change will not impact creators' earnings or their eligibility for monetization through the YouTube Partner Program. The update, effective from August 24, follows a recent change that introduced higher standards for new creators to start earning via ads and subscriptions.

To qualify for monetization, creators must now meet stricter criteria, including at least 8,000 valid public watch hours or 2 million Shorts views in the past 90 days—up from the previous requirement of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours or 1 million Shorts views. Additionally, creators must maintain 1 crore Shorts views over 90 days to earn revenue.

This decision has faced criticism from users, who argue that it will make it more difficult for creators to qualify and remain in YouTube’s monetization program.