YouTube’s Surprising Shift: Why Viewership Soared but Long-Form Ad Revenue Plummeted

Here’s a bit of a head-scratcher for you: YouTube long-form videos are raking in way more views than last year—like, a whopping 76% jump—but the ads playing alongside them have been slashed by half. How does that even make sense? I’ve been around the block with SEO and digital marketing long enough to know that more views usually mean more ad revenue, right? Yet, Metricool’s latest deep-dive into nearly 800,000 videos across 71,000 accounts reveals a puzzling divergence—people are watching more, but for shorter bursts, and advertisers are hitting the brakes hard. It’s like hosting a party where more guests show up but decide to ghost before the punch bowl arrives. So, what’s really going on behind the scenes with YouTube’s ad game, and what does this mean for creators and marketers counting on those greenbacks? Let’s unpack the numbers and the nuances because, honestly, this shift could rewrite what “views” even mean in the digital ad world. LEARN MORE.

Views on long-form YouTube videos rose sharply over the past year while the ads running against them fell by half, according to a new report from social media tool Metricool.

The report provides an overview of 799,718 videos from 71,177 accounts around the world, comparing data from February 2025 with February 2026. Most of the figures are averages per post. Metricool sells YouTube scheduling and reporting tools, and this data is sourced from accounts linked to its platform.

Views Rose While Each View Got Shorter

In February 2026, the average long-form video received 5,985 views, a 76% increase from 3,405 in the previous year. The average view duration decreased from 3.98 minutes to 2.51, a 37% drop. Despite shorter sessions, estimated minutes watched per post still increased by 11%, thanks to the higher number of views. Engagement metrics also declined: interactions per view dropped from 2.38% to 1.30%. The total number of interactions per post slightly decreased from 81.14 to 77.93, indicating that the rate decline is due to larger view counts rather than a decrease in user interactions.

Where The Revenue Went

The money figures went the other way.

Ad impressions per post fell from 976.32 to 475.07. Monetized playbacks, meaning views that had an ad run against them, dropped from 576.41 to 237.92. Metricool’s estimated ad revenue per post went from $2.65 to $1.20, and estimated YouTube Premium revenue from $0.34 to $0.19.

Metricool ties this to the drop in view duration, saying less time spent on each video leaves fewer chances to place a mid-roll ad.

What The Report Does Not Settle

Metricool doesn’t indicate if the same accounts appear in both windows; the report only shows two months. It doesn’t have separate account or video counts for each year, so a changing account mix could move the averages. It leaves out accounts that published nothing and posts with zero impressions or zero interactions, does not remove outliers, and offers no geographic data. YouTube states CPM varies with viewer geography as advertisers choose which locations to target, so that last gap bears directly on the money figures.

The report provides monetization figures for long-form video only. It defines its performance metrics but not monetized playbacks, ad impressions or either revenue figure, so how those averages were built is not stated.

Why This Matters

A rising view count no longer tracks with rising ad delivery in this data. The two moved in opposite directions over the year.

The gap changes what a view is worth as a reporting number. A channel that focused only on views would have recorded growth across a period when ad delivery was falling.

Looking Ahead

Metricool doesn’t specify what caused the split. Its data can’t distinguish between changes in YouTube’s ad systems and differences in accounts, videos, and audiences shown in each window.

YouTube’s help pages list several reasons why a view might not have an ad, such as videos that aren’t advertiser-friendly or views where no ad was available. They also explain that CPM is linked to the variety of available ad formats, which the report does not break out. Interpreting this as a platform-wide change might be asking too much of two separate Februaries within one tool’s account data.

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