YouTube Just Doubled the Bar for Partner Program — After Years of Lowering It

The numbers say it all: 20 million. That's the Shorts view count YouTube will require from new creators starting February 1, 2027 — or alternatively, 8,000 hours of long-form watch time. Both figures are exactly double the current requirements.

For creators already in the Partner Program, YouTube isn't kicking anyone out — but there's a catch. To keep earning ad revenue from the Shorts feed, they'll need to maintain 10 million views within any rolling 90-day window. Fall below that line, and Shorts payouts pause automatically, only resuming once the numbers climb back up. Long-form revenue sharing stays untouched.

YouTube is pointing to the platform's sheer scale as justification — over 200 billion Shorts views happen daily, and TV-screen watch time alone now clears 1 billion hours a day. Read between the lines, and doubling the threshold essentially turns "proving you can consistently pull a massive audience" from a one-time entry requirement into an ongoing obligation just to stay in the club.

Worth flagging: this is a complete reversal from YouTube's recent playbook of lowering barriers to bring smaller and mid-tier creators into the fold. The door used to be opening wider — now it's narrowing, and staying inside means passing a recurring performance check.

In the same announcement, YouTube also confirmed it's rolling out Premium Lite — the lower-ad subscription tier — to every market where the standard plan is available. This tier funnels 60% of net revenue into the creator payout pool, compared to 30% for standard subscriptions. Payouts are calculated based on member watch time, with creators earning 55% on long-form content and 45% on Shorts.

The new rules take effect February 1, 2027. YouTube has yet to release further details on how the 90-day rolling threshold will be enforced or the full timeline for Premium Lite's global rollout.