Glossary

Engaged views

The Shorts views that count for money: plays where the viewer kept watching instead of scrolling straight past. Plain "views" now count every start.

On March 31, 2025 YouTube changed what a Shorts view is: it now counts every time a Short starts or replays, with no minimum watch time. The older count, of viewers who chose to keep watching, is now called engaged views.

Engaged views are the number that counts for the Partner Program’s Shorts threshold and for sharing Shorts ad revenue, so they are the one to watch in YouTube Studio, not the bigger view count.

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All terms

Inauthentic content

YouTube’s name for mass-produced or repetitive videos: content that looks made from a template, with little difference from one video to the next.

Open

Reused content

Videos built mostly from someone else’s material (clips, audio, text) without significant original commentary, editing or educational value.

Open

YouTube Partner Program (YPP)

The program that lets a channel earn from YouTube: ads, memberships and more, once it meets the thresholds and is accepted.

Open

RPM (revenue per mille)

What a creator earns for every 1,000 views, after YouTube’s share: the number that turns views into money.

Open

CPM (cost per mille)

What advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions. It is not what the creator earns: that is RPM.

Open

Faceless channel

A YouTube or TikTok channel whose creator never appears on camera: narration over footage, images or animation.

Open