What is Youtube Public Watch Time?

To be eligible for the Youtube Partner Program (YPP)

There are a few conditions that YouTube sets. The first is that you must have over 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months. Another requirement is that you have 1000 subscribers. In other words, if you have 4,000 hours of public viewing and 1000 subscribers in the last 12 months, you will be eligible for the Youtube Partner Program and start earning money.

Watch time is essentially the sum of the time viewers spend on your videos. If you have a 1-hour video and a user watches the video from start to finish, this user will earn you 1 hour, ie 60 minutes of watch time. If 1000 people watch the same video from start to finish, you can earn 1000 hours of watch time.

However, if the user does not watch the video until the end, the watch time will be added to your account as much as the time he watched. Youtube states that the channel must have 4000 hours watched in the last 12 months in order to earn advertising revenue, but there is a point that users misunderstand.

The last 12 months are constantly taken into account, not 12 months from the day you opened the channel. So, if you fill your watch time this year and don't watch at all next year, your channel is out of ad revenue eligibility because you will drop below 4000 hours.