YouTube Shorts view count update wins over brands — but creators aren’t sold

On March 31, YouTube changed how it counts views for short-form videos. So far, brands and agencies are celebrating — but creators’ reactions range from indifferent to openly skeptical. 

The update — which means YouTube now counts every time a Short starts to play or replay as a view, with no minimum time requirement — has caused some cheer among creators, like Dkdynamite and The Rich Nobody, who have seen their view counts spike as a result. But for the most part, creators see the change as having little to no impact on their earnings or daily workflows — and some are concerned it might sacrifice engagement quality in favor of higher numbers. 

Following the update, there has been no change to the way creators’ actual revenue is calculated; the only change is to the way the view counts displayed beneath Shorts are calculated. Creators’ revenue share payouts are still determined by YouTube’s “engaged views” metric — which uses the same view definition previously used for normal Shorts views. In fact, as a result of the change, creators anticipate that their revenue per thousand views (RPMs) will decrease somewhat as their overall view counts rise.

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