YouTube will overhaul how it counts video views beginning 24 August, registering a view the moment playback starts or a viewer joins a live stream, with no minimum watch time required. The shift mirrors systems already used on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube's own Shorts format, which adopted similar counting roughly a year ago.
The company says the change will not affect creator earnings or eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program. Revenue and monetisation thresholds will continue to rely on engaged watch hours and Shorts views measured under the previous method. The legacy metric, [now renamed