World ( The cow news digital )
YouTube has announced major updates to its YouTube Partner Program (YPP), introducing stricter monetization criteria for creators seeking to earn revenue from the platform. While millions worldwide rely on the video-sharing giant as a primary or supplementary source of income through ads, channel memberships, and super chats, upcoming modifications will make qualification significantly more challenging.
Under the updated guidelines, the watch-time requirement for long-form videos has been doubled. While creators previously needed 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watch hours over the past 12 months, the threshold has now been increased to 8,000 hours of watch time within a year.
Similarly, the monetization criteria for YouTube Shorts has also been made tougher. Content creators relying on Shorts must now accumulate over 20 million valid public views within a 90-day period, doubling the previous requirement of 10 million views.
YouTube has confirmed that these new terms will officially take effect on February 1, 2027. Existing members of the Partner Program will not be directly affected immediately, though maintainable thresholds for Shorts moving forward will require creators to consistently hit 10 million views over 90 days to retain Shorts monetization.
Explaining the rationale behind the policy shift, the platform noted that the updates are designed to keep pace with rapid activity growth, as daily Shorts viewership surpasses 200 billion views globally, alongside massive engagement on television screens. Industry experts believe these tighter regulations will raise the barrier to entry for aspiring creators trying to secure and sustain revenue streams on the platform.
