YouTube is significantly raising the bar for creators hoping to earn money on the platform, doubling both of its major monetisation thresholds in a change that will affect content creators in Bangladesh alongside the rest of the world.
What Is Changing
Under the current rules, creators applying to the YouTube Partner Program need 1,000 subscribers along with either 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days. Starting February 1, 2027, those thresholds will double. Creators will need either 8,000 watch hours over the preceding 12 months or 20 million qualified Shorts views within a 90-day window. The 1,000-subscriber requirement itself is not changing.
For creators already earning through Shorts specifically, there is an additional wrinkle. YouTube has said that channels must maintain 10 million Shorts views every 90 days to keep receiving a share of Shorts revenue. Dropping that threshold below does not remove a creator from the Partner Program entirely, but it does pause Shorts earnings until the view count climbs back up, while long-form monetisation continues uninterrupted in the meantime.
Why YouTube Is Making This Change
YouTube has attributed the shift to the platform’s sheer scale, pointing to more than 200 billion daily Shorts views and over a billion hours of daily watch time on connected TVs. The company frames the higher bar as a way to keep monetisation standards in step with that growth, though the practical effect is that it will take considerably longer for new and mid-sized creators to reach the income-generating tier of the platform.
What Stays the Same for Now
Creators who are not yet at the main Partner Program level still have access to a reduced entry tier introduced in 2023, requiring 500 subscribers, three public uploads within 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours in the past year or 3 million Shorts views in 90 days. This tier does not unlock ad revenue but does give creators access to fan-funding tools such as Super Thanks, Super Chats, and channel memberships, a stepping stone many Bangladeshi creators currently rely on while building toward full monetisation.
What This Means for Bangladeshi Creators
Bangladesh has one of the fastest-growing YouTube audiences in South Asia, with a large share of newer creators leaning heavily on Shorts because of lower production costs and quicker audience growth compared to long-form video. Doubling the Shorts-view requirement to 20 million within 90 days will make that path considerably harder to sustain, particularly for smaller channels without a viral hit to rely on. Creators focused on long-form content face a similar squeeze, since reaching 8,000 watch hours in a year will typically require either a much larger subscriber base or substantially longer average view durations than the current threshold demands.
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Preparing for the Change
With the new requirements coming into effect from February 2027, creators still working toward monetisation have a little runway to change up their strategy. Once the higher thresholds come into play, diversifying between Shorts and long-form content, focusing on watch time and audience retention rather than raw view counts, and building a subscriber base ahead of the deadline will likely matter more than ever.’ It’s a shrinking window of opportunity for creators already close to today’s standards to meet the current, lower bar before the doubled thresholds kick in.
Summary: YouTube is doubling the requirements to earn ad revenue, raising the long-form threshold from 4,000 to 8,000 watch hours and the Shorts threshold from 10 million to 20 million views, effective February 1, 2027. The 1,000-subscriber requirement stays unchanged.
