YouTube Shorts has introduced a change that brings analytics for its bite-sized video option into closer parity with rival services TikTok and Instagram. The video platform will remove the minimum play time requirement it previously had for a user watching a clip to count as a view.
Beginning March 31, a “view” will be added any time a YouTube Short is played or replayed. This will likely mean that creators will see higher view counts after the change takes place. YouTube will continue to track “engaged views,” which measure the number of times a clip was played “for a certain number of seconds.” YouTube clarified that the shift would not impact Creator earnings or their eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program; both will continue to be assessed by the engaged view metric.
Both Instagram and TikTok have defined a “view” as the number of times a video starts playing, although those…