YouTube will soon count Shorts views using the same method as TikTok and Instagram. Starting March 31st, YouTube will count the number of times a Short starts to play or replay, like Instagram and TikTok do, instead of only counting after someone watches a Short for a specific length of time.
“We hope that this deeper understanding of your Shorts performance will help you inform your content strategy, better represent your work to potential brand or agency partners, and give you a fuller picture of your overall reach if you’re posting on multiple platforms!” YouTube says in the update. The company adds that view counts may be higher following the change.
The new view-counting system seems designed to bring creators’ view counts in line with what they see on TikTok and Instagram. Despite the change, YouTube will continue tracking the old Shorts metric under an “engaged views” option in its analytics dashboard. It will also keep using “engaged views” to determine how much a creator earns and their eligibility for the YouTube Partnership Program.
