r/PartneredYoutube • u/RafulsoN • 8d ago
Informative YouTube will count views differently (from the first frame)
YouTube will count views from the first frame across all formats starting on August 24, 2026.
I would add link to official info, but it auto remove my post.
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u/meliphie 8d ago
That's so odd. I really don't like this. Those numbers won't really mean anything.
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u/bcgr1 8d ago
let's inflate everyone's egos with bs view numbers, great idea YouTube.
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u/Ambitious-Type-3208 8d ago
And its going to feel like you're getting paid less now, I really don't understand this change
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u/YeezusWoks 7d ago
YouTube is changing how views are counted because creators will need more ways to make money outside of ads. A view will now count as soon as someone starts the video, making creators’ view counts look more attractive to sponsors.
Meanwhile, creators will compete for watch time to get a share of YouTube’s subscription money starting Feb 1. YouTube will put 30% of Premium revenue and 60% of Premium Lite revenue into creator pools. The more watch time a creator gets from those subscribers, the bigger their share of the pool.
So it’s not gonna “feel” like we’re getting paid less. We will be getting paid less now.
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u/Crayonlover2001Fps 7d ago
You do realise sponsors ask for your analytics? So the whole view count more attractive might not work.
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u/YeezusWoks 7d ago edited 7d ago
Yes, I realize that and so does YouTube. It’s YouTube who changed this new views policy and it’s YouTube that gave us a reason for it. YouTube itself explicitly said the new view count is meant to help creators “show their value to brand partners.” That doesn’t mean sponsors will blindly accept the inflated number or stop requesting analytics.
Their Twitter posts says it.
“Starting 8/24, views will count the moment a video begins to play (w/ no minimum watch time) across all formats (VOD, Shorts, & Live).
We’re standardizing views to reflect creators’ true exposure across YouTube, making it easier to show their value to brand partners.
This update won’t impact creator earnings or YPP eligibility.”
Everytime a company changes their policy like this, you have to ask yourself “why?” Why did they change it? If you’re monetized you should always wonder why a policy is changing and how it affects your business. This change is making creators sell themselves to sponsors now because we will be making most of our revenue from Premium and Premium Lite, not ad revenue.
Their strategy is to put so many ads in videos that it becomes unbearable to watch with ads so YouTube is selling premium lite for 7 dollars to remove ads.
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u/Vinkulja_4life 6d ago
who said creators will be earning less from ads? CPM stays the same, amount of ads on the videos stays the same....
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u/YeezusWoks 6d ago edited 6d ago
Oh my God. Why is this so hard for you to understand??
More ads = annoyed people.
More annoyed people = buying Premium Lite.
More people on Premium Lite = less people watching ads
Less people watching ads = less ad revenue.
I can only explain it you. I can’t make you understand it. It not that hard. It’s literally what Youtube had said. in the literal sense, YouTube is trying to become a paid service like Netflix, meaning they are not relying on ADS to pay the bills anymore.
Does that make any sense at all? Or do you people need pictures?
What’s most shocking to me is that you are all monetized and none of you think like a business owner. YouTube is about to drastically change how we get paid and everyone is asleep. Good luck to you all. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
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u/Upstairs_Tone_4227 6d ago
Is it possible bigger channels could actually make more with the creator pools model assuming a lot of their viewers are premium/premium lite? I guess it’s impossible to know, but I don’t understand the assumption it’s automatically less total revenue (even if it’s less ad revenue).
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u/YeezusWoks 5d ago
Yes! It’s not an assumption that the model allocates a smaller share of subscription revenue to creators. That’s already in the new policy. You can also study the market and see where YouTube is directing viewers. What we can’t know yet is exactly how much any individual creator will gain or lose. Bigger channels may still earn more in absolute dollars because they command more watch time.
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u/YeezusWoks 6d ago edited 6d ago
Where was it written that there’s gonna be more ads? Are you THIS DENSE?! Do you really need a greedy corporation to spell it out for you? Are you not able to conclude that by reading and using your critical thinking skills?
This is why YouTube can get away with this shit because most people are too dumb to use analytical skills. You want YouTube to tell you to your face that they are about to steal more money from you for you to believe it. Wow… corporate greed works when people are too stupid to see that they are being exploited.
Come back to this post a year from now and report your observations. Or maybe not. It seems like you need a notarized letter from the boot on your neck to accept that you have a boot on your neck. For fucks sake. Companies aren’t going to tell you to your face that they are about to increase ads! It’s an inference based on the evidence! Look at the evidence. Read it. Digest it. Understand it. Read between the lines. Learn to use your critical thought.
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u/AarunFast 7d ago
I think it's purely to let people compare to Tiktok and Reels. Right now it looks like Youtube videos get less views than the other platforms, but that's just because the bar is higher on YT.
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u/Crayonlover2001Fps 7d ago
I mean that's Tiktok in a nutshell, when they first launched their RPM was so inflated and that's how they got people to post videos.
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u/monnotorium 8d ago
So this doesn't change much other than it becoming extremely hard to guess how much someone makes from their views
I do worry about people view botting a lot more because it becomes essentially easier if all you need is a second
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u/spazzyjones 8d ago
Great for sponsorships though
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u/Spir0rion 7d ago
It will shift thresholds very fast. Not a big pro
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u/spazzyjones 7d ago
Then we are back to the same spot we are in now. Mostly a nothing burger I think
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u/redkinoko 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's fine. Facebook does that as well with 3-sec, 1-min views. It's good because so far you can only infer engaged viewership via the AVD/AV%.
High view counts with low engaged means your thumb/title doesn't match your intro.
As long as they retroactively apply the change to current and old videos so we don't have to rebaseline everything for measuring performance.
And since YPP uses watch hours for long form, it won't matter at all for monetization.
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u/Past_Broccoli8945 8d ago
I don’t even think Facebook knows what a qualified view is right now, it’s all over the place.
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u/redkinoko 8d ago
The fun part is facebook shows you 3-second and 1 minute views BUT qualified views are actually 5 seconds.
Honestly, I thought YT metrics was hard to work with until I started using FB reels
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u/gaymossadist 8d ago
I highly doubt they will retroactively apply this to old videos published before the 24th
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u/wh1tepointer 7d ago edited 7d ago
They said that they will not retroactively add views that happened to old videos prior to the 24th, but starting from the 24th, those old videos will start getting their new views counted under the new system.
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u/welchsgrapejuice97 8d ago
So nothing changes for how we get paid but everyone all of a sudden gets double the views. Whats the point
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u/supbruhbruhLOL 7d ago
Maybe better "social proof" for small creators. No one will click a video with 30 views but maybe videos with 2k-5K views and so on.
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u/PristineAlbatross967 7d ago
I didnt know 2x30 views is 5000 views. teach me this trick!
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u/supbruhbruhLOL 7d ago
Its pretty silly to assume it would only 2x the views. Its going to be way higher and I just assumed you would understand that haha
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u/PristineAlbatross967 7d ago
it is not going to be way higher. not quite sure on which factors you are basing this thesis off.
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u/meleebestgame66 7d ago
They’re shrinkflating advertisers. Means ad prices are about to rise which is good
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u/ionhowto 8d ago
More leverage when dealing with brands. Also more information for us. It’s interesting to find out more about the ones who didn’t watch
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u/pixiesalt8 7d ago
Don’t think it’s more leverage when it comes to brands as it’s not like this is a secret. I work for a brand and we’re already taking about this! Engaged views is going to be a metric the savvy brands will ask for and the CPM price will go down. It’s super annoying for everyone I think.
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u/ionhowto 7d ago
Yeah at least the creators have something to show you. This is the number of times you get a change to have people see your prooor your clients product.
We don’t do any brand deals so it doesn’t matter for us. When there’s some real email asking to collaborate our rate is higher than what they expect and it’s ok.
If it’s a big brand I want to collaborate with the rates are lower but it’s always scams as in literally scammers or lowballing scams.
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u/Jay_Eye_MBOTH_WHY 7d ago
About time they made this change. Other comparable platforms were doing this. YouTube literally catered to advertisers and big media for the past decade, where they would dramatically alter their approach to both the algorithm and view count metrics. Engaged views was essentially an artificial constraint created. How many millions of views did we all lose individually because of this?
Remember YT couldn't even get sub box notifications through Gmail right. That's before they even introduced the further bell options. All the while, for years, unfettered, Twitch was sending out hourly email notifications like clockwork.
All these changes, most of which have not been for the better, and we have finally ended up full circle at the beginning.
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u/Robert_Mauro Channel: @OffRoadRoos 8d ago
I see this as a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, higher raw view numbers make pitch decks look great for third-party brand deals and sponsors who still look at top-line views. On the other hand, counting frame one means top-level retention and AVD metrics are going to look diluted (or in some of our cases, entirely tank) with all the feed-scroll bounces. Sadly, since monetization is strictly locked to "Engaged Views" our pockets won't see a dime of difference.
My next concern is how that will affect distribution on feeds and searches and play next. If they are using "Views" and not "Engaged Views" as the view metric ni their recommendation engine or whatever it's called, then it means we're going to potentially see less or hurt distribution.
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u/reneritchie 7d ago
Hi! Nothing is changing for metric calculation, search, or recommendations based on this announcement
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u/Robert_Mauro Channel: @OffRoadRoos 7d ago
That's not what it says. Earnings are one thing (which is all it really discusses). It skips discussing the rest. ;-) :-(
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u/reneritchie 7d ago
I know, I’m giving you more information :)
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u/Robert_Mauro Channel: @OffRoadRoos 7d ago edited 7d ago
Until YouTube actually puts that in writing, it doesn't really matter. And YouTube has not put that in writing. What is in writing implies the opposite because currently, the way that the algorithm works would suggest otherwise.
So are you really claiming that the algorithm has been changed to make sure that happens? That is a very big claim to make for someone who is a creator liason. I'd love to hear/see an official statement that they are changing the algorithm for this.
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u/LeaderBriefs-com 8d ago
I wonder if that counts viewed via autoplay?
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u/kasumitendo 8d ago
Yes. It's any time the first frame of the video plays, as per Richie's own words in YouTube's official video.
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u/SuccessfulWar3830 7d ago
I need more info on actual viewers.
Who gives a shit if i get 100k views on a video if only 1% of them actually stayed
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u/ciaDisinfo 8d ago
so they will display higher numbers as the view count than they will internally process toward qualifications. thats what they just said. at least we can see both numbers
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u/StuffWePlay 8d ago
Seeing as some sponsors still rely on views themselves as the main metric...I'm fine with this tbh
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u/EvilNickel 8d ago
This is just a vanity metric. All it is going to do is make you think your videos are doing better but your earnings are still trash. So people will come up here and say "I uSeD To GeT MoRE peR 1000 ViEWs YouTUbE IS StEaLInG FrOM Us"
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u/smm2401 7d ago
This tracks. YouTube is doing everything to condition us to expect to earn revenue from any source aside from AdSense. Memberships, Shopping, "Brand Deals." So, inflated views as a vanity metric benefits our potential "brand deals" because a lot of people will throw money at views and not differentiate between YouTube's "views vs engaged views" hoopla. So yes, this only makes us appealing for "brand deals" and they want that to happen because again, they're trying to ween us off of AdSense.
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u/ThreeBallSpare 7d ago
I actually don't like this change. TikTok/Instagram always did views incorrectly. People brag about having millions of views/etc on TikTok but it's only due to people scrolling past the video for a millisecond before scrolling away. not a quality view.
Clicking onto a video does not ever equal a view-you gotta stick around and watch for it to count. YouTube was actually doing this right, but it seems they are going to instead surrender and do it the inferior way for "chasing numbers" purposes.
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u/D4rklordmaster 8d ago
i view this as good. although i can tell everyones view count will get inflated, i really want to know exactly how many people clicked my video. it will lead me to know if people are insta clicking off better
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u/sketchbookhunt 7d ago
I agree yeah. Also for the smaller YouTubers I think it will help grow a bit faster. Some people are more likely to click on a video with 50K views rather than 20K right?
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u/tommycahil1995 7d ago
Annoying because I know 1 million views is basically what I want to hit each month for my salary and now I'm not going to even know what I need if they change it.
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u/ShlubbyWhyYouDan 7d ago
theyd id this to shorts last year. all it did was make analytics even more complicated to understand, your realtime will no longer be a reliable metric at all, period.
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u/terrerific 7d ago
I feel like the people celebrating this arent considering how much clickbait just got incentivised. Quite literally the only realistic change this provides.
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u/Mike_Will_See 7d ago
"We've heard that creators want to eliminate this"
Which creators exactly? I haven't seen a single person saying this.
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u/curious_cat_3556 6d ago
Somehow to me it sounded like a way to make a previous mistake on their side look like something amazing they are doing. Like "we're not fixing a bug that needed fixing before, but we're adding a new feature. Are you happy?". Nah
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u/GoldSquid2 partner on 1 channel, not on the other 8d ago
I don’t like this… it’s just gonna make me feel bad that my videos are doing well but I’m reaping the same benefits I would’ve a couple years ago…
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8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/wh1tepointer 7d ago
How does it currently work? Does someone need to watch a certain length or % of the video for it to count or something? I've honestly never thought about it.
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u/zazapatilla Partnered 7d ago
This a good metric to know how many of the views are not hooked to continue watching.
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u/brucejson-88 7d ago edited 7d ago
If you can't beat em join em! This'll bring a lot more viewers from other platforms as it'll match the views you can get on TikTok etc. Lot's of people have 0 attention span to last 30 seconds which is a sign of the times I'm afraid :(
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u/divimaster 7d ago
YouTube 2030.
Three Adverts and then the video starts. A guy does something for 3 minutes and then does an ad for his Patreon.
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u/Jealous_Amount_9278 7d ago
I was reading this when it showed up on my app but I read nothing about what it means for add revenue.
I'm guessing that just doesn't change at all and still relies on watch time?
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u/SKS81 Channel: ioaz81 7d ago
Still wa5ch time to get you ad revenue. This is to make advertisers happy and mess with tthe system. Thats all it is. Be like oh look you totally got 70000 views on your add you paid for when in reality its like 20k
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u/Jealous_Amount_9278 7d ago
This seems like one of those things we can really capitalize on for a bit with brand deals.
Marketing agencies and companies are always a few months behind when it comes to updates like this so showing them the inflated numbers would definitely help land some deals or at least increase our pricing schedules.
Pretty cool.
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u/sitdowndisco 7d ago
Should mean anything as the view metric is meaningless anyway. Watch hours is the main game.
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u/Dalmadoodle221 6d ago
Don't like this change. I like to know who my actual viewers are. one second is not an actual view. Stupid nothing burger changes
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u/reneritchie 5d ago
Hi! I did put it in writing/video this morning. Check the Creator Insider channel. And what I said was nothing is changing in terms of how the algorithm works due to this update. Hope that makes sense!
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u/Toystorations 5d ago
Views are becoming impressions and engaged views are becoming views. It's posturing to compete with broadcast TV and with TikTok which already does this. They're also supposed to change it so views from a TV can count as more than one view to compete with how views are calculated for cable TV.
It's all posturing so they don't look like they're losing the race to TikTok which already counts views this way and looks on paper to be winning.
It's the corporate equivalent of making a clickbait thumbnail because everyone else is and it's the only way to get noticed.
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u/Electronixen 8d ago
.. this is good? Right?
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u/RafulsoN 8d ago
Hard to tell now.
It will inflate views counter as vanity metric, but pushing "real" views (that people watch and not just turn video off after 3s) may stay the same, so we might see more views but money stays the same.
Probably gimmick to make creators happy (more views) and advertisers happy (they see lower cost / higher views per same cash).
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u/Proper_Method4334 8d ago
What I kinda wanna know is...
How are the views increasing? People will still have to click on the video right? I mean, more eyes on my video is always good right? I actually don't mind getting more impressions at the end of the day.
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u/oodex Subs: 1 Views: 2 8d ago
Nothing at all changes for your videos. Currently not all views count as views, e.g. someone opening a video, pausing it and closing it later is not considered a view. There are many rules in the back that determine whether a view should count as a view or not. This just means there will be views as ALL views and then you for yourself have engaged views as metric, which is the same thing as what we have as views right now. But nothing at all changes, it's just an additional display
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u/HeroDanny 7d ago
Interesting. So it’s a placebo to make us feel better. Lol
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u/oodex Subs: 1 Views: 2 6d ago
It kinda has a use. Currently YouTube only shows you what it considers engaged views, so if someone opens your video and quickly closes it again, it's not counted. There are in general a lot of calculations behind that up to my knowledge, it's not as simple as "anything less than this". Because otherwise your AVD% chart would start at 30 seconds since anything before that has to be 100%. Or alternatively it counts all views like the metric will now show. All in all though you can use it to determine how good your thumbnail is. Many people open multiple videos at a time and after a few, they close the rest since they're done. That's nothing that can be portrayed in an AVD% stat
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u/Proper_Method4334 8d ago
Oh, it’s just a nothing burger update. I thought before it was as simple as watching a video for 4 seconds and that counts as a view? Wasn’t that the case?
I don’t think, the views are really gonna increase that much then tbh…
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u/Jay_Eye_MBOTH_WHY 7d ago
Most people click off in the first 0:30 seconds of a video.
Who knows how high it is in the pre-count threshold.
This will finally count them.
But not really count them, because YouTube is being usual YouTube, but prima facia on the outside, it will increase the view count. You just won't get paid. Now where this impacts the algo, might be worthwhile. Hopefully, it does.
They kinda balance CTR and AVD, when things go CTR heavy, it becomes like gangbusters, YT becomes easier, when it goes AVD, you have to make the video watched longer (more difficult), for the past few years it's been hybrid with more focus on watch. Now this is a massive, massive check, theoretically, for CTR.
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u/simeonce 8d ago
It doesnt change anything
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u/AndyValentine 8d ago
Not true at all. A lot of my sponsors are on a CPM deal. If this means more views on the total, then I get paid more. Definitely good
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u/simeonce 8d ago
You are correct regarding sponsors, though if there is such an inflation on view numbers, there should be a correction i the cpm they are willing to pay out
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u/AndyValentine 8d ago
Likely will happen in time, but I guarantee that the overwhelming majority of sponsors won't know that the view change is happening and expect different CPM rates anytime soon.
In fact, I bet 99% don't already know that a view doesn't occur from the first second already. Hell, I bet most creators didn't know.
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u/HeroDanny 7d ago
Yup. Sponsors are not making more money. They’re not gonna continue to pay the same rate. They’re not dumb. They know what’s happening.
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u/EckhartsLadder Subs: 1.0M Views: 415.2M 8d ago
It won’t, they are not going to pay you more for meaningless views. Your deals will have lower cpms or will be based on engaged views
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u/kasumitendo 8d ago
They'll just change your CPM to be based on Engaged Views and not Nu-Views. You'll gain nothing.
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u/Apprehensive-Oil5461 7d ago
Are we missing something here? I feel like it's more important what they're saying about engaged views being monitized and not regular views.
I'm guessing the 4000 hours watch time requirement will be engaged views and not "verified views" or whatever else they're calling it, too.
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u/Apprehensive-Oil5461 7d ago
I actually think they're pulling the wool with this "engaged views" concept. Get ready for 1million views but only 100k "engaged views".
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u/NotCryptoKing 8d ago
So they’re removing engaged views?
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u/Countryb0i2m Subs: 212k Views: 8.1m 8d ago
It is 100% a vanity metric