YouTube Question what if I don't reach 4000 watch hrs and 1k subs in 1 year,

[Sciency You]

If, for instance, I reach only 3000 watch hrs and 1k subs in one year, and if by chance I get 1000 more watch hrs in next year, then will my 4000 watch hrs will be considered for monetization of my channel? or do I have to again start from scratch like again getting 4000 watch hrs more to monetize my channel? your experience required. help me out here.

 

[Kindred]

It doesnΓÇÖt start from the beginning after one year (you wonΓÇÖt be back to 0 watch hours) but only hours from the last year will count. E.g. if you have 3050 in your lifetime of YouTube, it might only be 3000 in the last year and 50 before that. Hope that makes sense!

 

[Bears and Butters]

YouTube counts your monetization hours/subs based off a 365 rolling window. You NEED to have 4000 watch time and the 1 K subs over that 365 day rolling span. So you have to remember that if you are not posting consistently, and have content that people are watching, on day 366.. you lose the hours/time associated (for your monetization) for day 1.. as now that's outside of the 365 window. On day 367... you lose the time associated with your 4K/1K from day 2.

 

[Beanie Draws]

If you don't hit your goals withing 1 year, the 1k goal is fine, it doesn't reset.

The watch time hours doesn't reset, but it's a rolling 365 days.

This means If you started YouTube in January, and in January you got a big lump of 1000 watch time hours, but the rest of the year was slow and you got 2500 watch time hours for the rest of the year, by time February comes around the next year, those 1000 watch time hours you made the previous January won't count.

It's not the end of the world though because you SHOULD be accumulating watch time throughout the year anyway, progressively trending upwards.

The reason I believe it's a rolling 365 days is that they want to make sure you make regular content and aren't just doing it for some quick money then leaving. It's all about a quality experience for the viewer.

And it's the viewer experience, and your channel as a package that matters. I've seen channels with thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands of hours of watch time never get accepted into the partner program because their channel followed no cohesive theme and it was obvious the channel wasn't created for the sake of a good viewing experience for the audience.

The audience ALWAYS comes first, remember that. That should help your watch time accumulation, and will help you get accepted into the Partner Program without any hassles.