YouTube Changes View Counting Method, Drawing Criticism from Creators

מאת דיגיטל

מרכז

עברית · מערכת חדשות אחת

Plus

YouTube will count views as soon as videos start playing from August 24, increasing view counts but raising concerns about accuracy. The old metric will remain for creators as "Engaged views." New monetization thresholds will also make it harder for creators to earn. Content creator Nas Daily criticized the changes, highlighting low engagement and financial struggles for creators.

הידיעה ב-6 שורות · תקציר של baba

YouTube will count views immediately when videos start playing from August 24.
The previous view metric will be renamed "Engaged views" and remain available to creators.
New monetization requirements raise watch hours and Shorts views thresholds for creators.
The change may inflate view counts and reduce their reliability for measuring popularity.
Critics warn the update could encourage low-quality AI-generated content.
Nas Daily criticized the changes, citing low viewer engagement and creator financial struggles.

YouTube announced a change in its view counting system effective August 24, shifting to count a view as soon as a video starts playing, similar to Instagram and TikTok. Previously, views were counted only after a viewer watched for a certain duration, commonly understood as about 30 seconds. The old metric will remain available under a new name, "Engaged views," for creators to track how many viewers actually continue watching.

This update aligns YouTube with competitors but is expected to significantly increase public view counts, especially for videos that capture only brief attention. Critics warn this could reduce the reliability of view counts as a measure of true popularity and may encourage low-quality AI-generated content. YouTube emphasized that the change will not affect creators’ earnings or monetization eligibility.

In addition to this, YouTube recently raised the thresholds for new creators to qualify for monetization starting next year. New requirements include 8,000 qualified watch hours in the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, up from the current 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views. Creators must also maintain 10 million Shorts views every 90 days to continue earning.

Arab-Israeli content creator Nas Daily criticized the changes, describing social media as being in deep crisis with misleading metrics and low viewer engagement. He noted that most videos have a completion rate of only 5%, meaning a million views actually represent about 50,000 real viewers. Nas Daily highlighted the financial struggles of millions of creators competing for fleeting attention amid increasing bot-driven interactions and toxic comments, which are driving creators away. He expressed uncertainty about how to fix the systemic issues facing the platform and its users.

הסיקור