YouTube is doubling the viewing requirements for new creators looking to earn advertising revenue from the platform, prompting concerns the move will make monetisation increasingly difficult for emerging talent — particularly in smaller markets such as Australia.
From 1 February 2027, new creators applying to join the YouTube Partner Program will need 1,000 subscribers alongside either 8,000 public watch hours in the previous 12 months, up from 4,000, or 20 million valid public Shorts views in the previous 90 days, up from 10 million.
The move raises the bar significantly for creators hoping to turn their audiences into a sustainable income stream from YouTube advertising, and could further intensify the battle between YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels for short-form video attention.
Sam Kelly, CEO and managing director of independent creative group Hello, described the current short-form landscape as “an enormous battleground”.
“TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are all competing aggressively for audience attention and creator talent,” he told B&T.
“I expect we’ll continue to see platforms evolve their products and commercial models to capture first post in this format as that competition intensifies.”
As more money flows into the creator economy, Kelly said platforms would “continue to raise the bar around what constitutes a commercially viable creator and where advertising revenue is shared”.
“For emerging creators, the new thresholds will undoubtedly make monetisation harder in the short term, but building a sustainable creator career has never really been about reaching a single subscriber or view threshold.”
Instead, he said the strongest creators are those “building genuine communities and increasingly monetising across multiple revenue streams; platform revenue, brand partnerships, commerce, subscriptions and even their own products.”
“Social, creators and YouTube are no longer emerging channels sitting on the side of the media plan,” Kelly said.
“They are increasingly where culture is created, where audiences spend their time and where brands can build both reach and relevance. Brand investment needs to reflect that reality.”
Speaking with B&T, Cara Norris, head of partnerships and growth at social agency Social Soup, said the increase represented “a big jump” for creators.
She said while the move made sense from YouTube’s perspective, it comes at a difficult time for creators.
“For creators, the barrier is going up right when more people are trying to make a real go of it,” Norris said.
“We’re a smaller market where audience growth is harder than in the US or UK, so 20 million Shorts views is a serious ask.”
The shift also comes as creators increasingly look beyond platform advertising as their primary source of income.
Norris said “brands are backing creators much earlier”, including micro and emerging talent, because a creator’s value to a brand is ultimately driven by the trust and relevance they have with their audience — rather than whether they have crossed a monetisation threshold set by YouTube.
“So yes, it makes YouTube ad revenue harder to reach, but that doesn’t make smaller creators any less valuable,” she said.
