YouTube has announced stricter requirements for new creators seeking to earn money through its platform.
Under the new policy, creators will need to achieve higher watch hours or YouTube Shorts views than before to join the YouTube Partner Program and earn through advertisements and YouTube Premium.
According to Google-owned YouTube, the new requirements will apply to new applicants from February 1, 2027. Under the revised criteria, new creators will need to have 8,000 eligible watch hours in the previous 365 days or 20 million eligible YouTube Shorts views in the previous 90 days.
Previously, 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views were required for the YouTube Partner Program, meaning both targets have now been doubled.
However, YouTube has not changed the minimum subscriber requirement, which remains at 1,000 subscribers.
It is worth noting that more than 3 million creators worldwide are currently earning income from their videos through the YouTube Partner Program.
YouTube attributes these changes to the rapid growth of its global platform. Apart from this, users watch over one billion hours of video content on television screens daily. The new system scales alongside this massive growth.
However, these new changes will not affect creators who are already part of the Partner Programme. Existing members will pursue to earn money as usual. For others, crossing these higher limits remains the only path to access ad and subscription revenues.
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