New partners will now need twice the number of watch hours or Shorts views in order to qualify. Starting on February 1, users will need at least 1,000 subscribers and either 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. That's a leap from the current requirements of 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views. Additionally, Shorts creators must maintain 10 million views every 90 days to earn money.

Current partners face new rules next year: they must maintain either 1,000 watch hours each year or 1 million Shorts views, unless they post two long-form videos or five Shorts every 90 days. YouTube will also remove creators who haven't uploaded content for at least six months.

YouTube says these changes will be offset by expanding its Premium Lite subscription to all countries where YouTube Premium is available, claiming creators can expect higher earnings from a better revenue pool. However, the impact is unclear. YouTube has 125 million paid users across tiers and nearly 2.7 billion monthly users overall.