Breakthrough hits as varied as The Amazing Digital Circus and Skibidi Toilet have shown us that YouTube can be an important platform for new, original animation. Big studios are also on the hunt for creators with viral potential to bring to streaming or the big screen (although, not always the gems, as we saw with the Amazon Gen AI Creators' Fund).
It's worrying, then, that YouTube has decided to double the numbers of views that new channels need to achieve to be able to monetise their content.
From 1 February 1, 2027, creators who apply to join the YouTube Partner Program to monetise their channels will need 8,000 qualified watch hours over the previous year. For YouTube Shorts, creators will need to achieve 20 million qualified views within three months. Both figures are double the current requirement (4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views).
The change won't affect existing members of the programme or the thresholds for Fan Funding and shopping products. YouTube argues that the change is needed because of the platform's growth and says it will help fund new creator incentives. It also says that it expects creators to earn more overall because of an expansion of its Premium Lite subscription tier to more countries.
But although YouTube's framing the changes as "new opportunities", they could make things more difficult for new independent animators. It doesn't pull the ladder up completely, but it removes a few of the lower rungs.
Creators who are already monetising their content may earn more if YouTube's expectations pan out, but new creators need to get a lot more views before they can start earning anything.
For animators that can be even harder than for creators in other field because of the sheer amount of time and work involved in creating a single short piece. This can make it more difficult to keep up a frequent flow of new content to feed the platform's algorithm and get picked up by the recommendation system.
If not YouTube, where else can animators break through? (and don't say Disney's TikTok for Disney+ progromme).
Meanwhile, some animators are also expressing frustration with YouTube's review process. Adam Mickiewicz, the animator and co-creator of the Bridge Kids, complains that the show's latest episode will be set as "for kids" despite it being an adult animation with swearing.
One might presume that "for kids" would be a more restrictive category for safe content, but it seems not.
The geniuses at @YouTube have decided that our latest episode of Bridge Kids will only be set as "for kids" and that their decision is final. They claim a real human reviewed the video and made this decision too!Here is what a real human at YT thinks a video for kids looks like pic.twitter.com/uz1nmxzqdiAugust 11, 2026
