YouTube is changing how it counts views on regular videos, with a view now registered as soon as a video begins playing or a user enters a live broadcast, bringing its approach in line with how it already counts Shorts views and how rivals TikTok and Instagram measure engagement.

The change takes effect on 24 August. YouTube said the decision followed creator feedback expressing a desire to eliminate metric confusion and understand their true exposure across different video formats. "Historically, we've used multiple view counting systems across different formats," the company said in an announcement to creators.

The update is likely to inflate view counts substantially, particularly for videos where viewers scroll past quickly without watching for more than a few seconds. To address that, YouTube is retaining the original, engagement-based view metric under a new name — "Engaged views" — accessible through creator analytics tools. The company confirmed that the change will not affect creators' earnings or their eligibility for the YouTube Partner Programme.

The announcement arrives shortly after YouTube separately raised the thresholds required for new creators to begin monetising their channels, a decision that has drawn significant backlash from the creator community. 

Starting next year, new creators will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views over the past 90 days, roughly double the current requirements.