YouTube Is DOUBLING the Requirements to Get Monetised! - 8,000 Watch Hours?!

Theres an update coming to monetisation on YouTube, at the moment you need 1000 subscriber and 4000 watch hours to monetise but its going to be increasing 8000 watch hours in the past year or 20million Shorts views in 3 months. The changes become effective on the 1st of February 2027.

Do you think 8k watch hours is too much for new creators? Why do you reckon they are implementing this change?

Quote from Symph

I only saw a MoistCritikal video on it and he theorized that they are having trouble with all the AI channels coming out automating their uploads, and cashing out before they can find them and weed them out. He thinks that this is to give them more time to find them and ban/strike them or whatever before they have to pay money for content that generates no value. Makes sense, it is only a theory though.

Well I hope it helps with that, surely with AI they could use AI to detect and combat the issue hmmmm has me wondering about that AI vs AI haha. I think the shorts must be having issues with it being like a rolling threshold thing. They seem to be most likely to be done with AI too with the video length limits when using AI to make video clips.