The move raises the bar significantly for creators hoping to turn their audiences into a sustainable income stream from YouTube advertising, and could further intensify the battle between YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels for short-form video attention. “TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are all competing aggressively for audience attention and creator talent,” he told B&T. “For emerging creators, the new thresholds will undoubtedly make monetisation harder in the short term, but building a sustainable creator career has never really been about reaching a single subscriber or view threshold.” The shift also comes as creators increasingly look beyond platform advertising as their primary source of income. “So yes, it makes YouTube ad revenue harder to reach, but that doesn’t make smaller creators any less valuable,” she said.