What are qualified watch hours and Shorts views for the YouTube Partner Program?
To make it into the YouTube Partner Program, you need to meet eligibility criteria, including qualified watch hours for long form or qualified views for Shorts. So, what exactly does “qualified” mean?
Qualified watch hours
To count as qualified, watch hours have to come from public long form videos (including podcasts) or archived livestreams.
Watch hours that do not count as qualified include:
- Private videos
- Unlisted videos
- Deleted videos
- Videos watched as an ad
- Shorts watch hours
- Live streams that aren’t archived
Qualified Shorts views
To count as qualified, Shorts views have to come from public Shorts and be engaged views.
An engaged view means the viewer stayed to watch past the initial seconds, and does not include any loops. Creators can check engaged views per video directly in YouTube Analytics.
Views that do not count as qualified include:
- Private Shorts
- Unlisted Shorts
- Deleted Shorts
- Shorts viewed as an ad
- Long form video views
- Image posts that appear in the Shorts feed