Your YouTube video views are about to skyrocket. Here's why.

Matt Binder

Updated Mon, August 17, 2026 at 8:36 PM UTC

YouTube is changing how video view metrics are counted on the platform. - CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Your YouTube videos are about to get a lot more views. At least, that's what it'll appear like on the YouTube video view count.

On Monday, YouTube announced that it was changing how it counts video views on the platform. According to YouTube, starting on Aug. 24, the platform will start counting a view on a video from the moment it starts to play – or as YouTube puts it, "from the very first frame."

The company says the change will bring the way it counts views on long-form videos in line with its method for YouTube Shorts. Since March 2025, YouTube has counted a Shorts view from the moment the video begins playing. (YouTube Shorts are videos up to three minutes long that use a vertical or square format.)

This is a big change from how YouTube previously counted a view on a long-form video.

Until Aug. 24, a view on long-form content will be counted only if a viewer watches at least 30 seconds of the video. Viewers who watch less than that won't be included in the video's view counter. That threshold, however, has provided creators with useful data about how many people were actually watching their videos.

While the view count change will mean videos will look like they're receiving more views from before, YouTube appears to recognize that its previous metric remains useful to creators. The company announced it will continue counting the original view metric as "Engaged views" in creators' YouTube Analytics under Advanced Mode.

YouTube was the last of the major tech platforms to quantify video views as a viewer actually consuming a substantial amount of the content. Typically, platforms better known for short-form content like TikTok or Elon Musk's X all count views from the moment a video plays, even if the video autoplays and a user immediately scrolls past it or swipes to the next clip.

According to YouTube, this change won't affect the monetization requirements for creators' channels. YouTube just changed the YouTube Partner Program eligibility requirements for YouTubers earlier this month. Those changes will make it more difficult for creators to monetize their channels by requiring more watch hours or YouTube Shorts views than before.

In addition to the new view metric, YouTube says it will now refer to the "valid public Shorts views" and "valid public watch hours" monetization requirements as "qualified Shorts views" and "qualified watch hours," respectively.

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