Services for YouTube

YouTube is the one platform here where two specific numbers are a published threshold rather than a matter of taste. The Partner Programme asks for 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours in twelve months, and those are counted separately. Subscribers alone do not open the door, and neither do watch hours alone.

That makes the split between the services unusually concrete. Subscribers move the channel. Views, likes and comments move one video, keyed to that video's URL. Watch hours are their own order because they are measured in time watched, not in times clicked, and a video needs to be long enough for the hours to accumulate against it.

Shorts are a separate surface with a separate counter. A Shorts view is not a long-form view, and the hours a Short accumulates have historically not counted toward the watch-hour threshold. If your goal is the threshold, long-form is where the order belongs.

Live viewers work only while the stream is running. Order them once you are on air and the count joins the broadcast; there is nothing to join before it starts.

And the limit worth stating: the thresholds are necessary, not sufficient. A channel still has to pass review.