YouTube will change the way it counts views of video content on its platform starting August 24, 2026.
TechCrunch that under the new calculation system, a view will be counted as soon as the video starts playing or when someone joins a live broadcast.
YouTube has never officially explained how it counts views , but viewers and creators generally understand that a view is counted after a user has watched a video for at least 30 seconds.
The change in how views are counted comes about a year after YouTube implemented a similar system for counting views on Shorts videos.
Competing platforms like TikTok and Instagram also count views from the moment a video starts playing.
In an announcement on YouTube Community, the company stated that it had been using different view counting systems for different formats.
According to the company, the update to how impressions are counted was made to eliminate creator confusion about the metrics used on the platform and make it easier for creators to understand the true reach of their content.
However, the changes implemented have the potential to significantly increase the number of views on a video, especially for videos that only attract viewers for a short time.
This means that the number of views may not be accurate enough to be used as a measure of a video's popularity.
