YouTube is set to double the entry requirements for its Partner Program (YPP) starting February 1, 2027. This marks the platform’s first major overhaul of the monetisation programme since 2018, the company announced this week.
New applicants to YPP will need either 8,000 qualified public watch hours in the previous 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the previous 90 days, up from the current 4,000 hours or 10 million views. The 1,000-subscriber requirement remains unchanged. YouTube said existing YPP members will not be affected by the new entry thresholds, but must accept updated programme terms in YouTube Studio by January 31, 2027, to continue monetising.
The company also introduced a separate, ongoing requirement affecting all creators, new and existing: channels must sustain 10 million qualified Shorts views within a rolling 90-day window to keep earning ad and subscription revenue from Shorts specifically. Channels that fall below the threshold remain in YPP and continue earning from long-form video, with Shorts revenue sharing resuming automatically once the threshold is met again.
YouTube said the changes are intended to reward sustained engagement over raw view volume, citing more than 200 billion daily Shorts views and over a billion hours of daily television viewing on the platform. The company said it expects to pay creators more overall in 2027 than in 2026, but did not disclose specific payout projections or estimate how many creators would be affected.
Alongside the entry and Shorts changes, YouTube is expanding its lower-cost Premium Lite subscription tier to every country where YouTube Premium is available. Creators earn a 30 percent share of net subscription revenue from standard Premium and 60 percent from Premium Lite, split 55 percent for long-form video and 45 percent for Shorts. YouTube said it also plans new incentive programmes tied to YouTube Shopping, brand deals and trend participation, with details to be announced later. Access requirements for fan funding and shopping products are unchanged.
The changes carry particular weight for Nigeria, Africa’s largest single market for YouTube ad revenue. YouTube AdSense paid Nigerian creators more than $10 million in 2024, according to creator-economy research firm Contemeleon, even though YouTube holds an estimated 6.8 percent platform market share across Africa, behind Facebook and TikTok. Nigeria accounts for roughly 40 percent of the value of Africa’s creator economy, according to data compiled by Coachli and TechCabal. Another industry research shows most African creators earn relatively little from platform payouts generally.
The African Creator Economy Report 2.0, published earlier this year, found that six in ten surveyed creators earn less than $100 a month, and that direct platform payouts account for about 11 percent of income even among top earners, with product sales and brand sponsorships making up a larger share. TikTok, which has the largest reach among Nigerian creators, does not currently offer direct creator monetisation in the country.
YouTube has not issued a Nigeria- or Africa-specific statement on the changes beyond its global announcement. No Nigerian creator association or individual creator have issued public comment on the changes at the time of this report, and YouTube has not published country-level data indicating how many Nigerian channels currently qualify for Shorts revenue sharing or how many may fall short of the new threshold.
