Effective February 1, 2027, monetized creators will need at least 8,000 watch hours over the past year or 20 million Shorts views over the past 90 days. According to an announcement earlier this week, creators who want to make money on YouTube will soon need to amass at least 8,000 watch hours over the past year or 20 million Shorts views over the past 90 days. Tech journalist and consultant Emil Protalinski wrote in a post on LinkedIn earlier this week that the change is “bad news for all YouTube creators who were close to getting into the program.”