How YouTube views are counted to change

From the 24th of August, YouTube views will be counted the moment a video begins to play—from the very first frame. This is a change from what are know as ‘engaged views’, a metric we don’t really fully understand, but is thought to be roughly meaning that someone watched at least 30 seconds of a video.

YouTube will keep the original view metric, called “Engaged views,” in YouTube Analytics Advanced Mode so creators can see how many viewers choose to continue watching their video. This brings public YouTube views across all formats into the same metric as already used on the platform for Shorts.

Existing historical views will not change, but in the future it’s likely that public YouTube Views will accrue at a faster speed. This will make year on year metrics a little bit meaningless for the next 12 months. It’s also worth noting that the change will not impact creators’ earnings or how they become eligible for the YouTube Partner Program.

Creator earnings will continue to be based on ”Engaged Shorts views” and “Engaged Watch Hours,” which you can view in YouTube Analytics Advanced Mode. Historically, we’ve used multiple view counting systems across different formats.

However, we’ve heard that creators want to eliminate this metric confusion and accurately understand their true exposure, which is why we’re making this update!

We hope that having metric parity across all formats gives creators a clearer picture of their overall exposure and makes it easier to confidently express their true scale and value to brand partners and sponsors! – YouTube