How do YouTube's Shorts and long-form analytics differ: which reports are format-specific, what is 'Stayed to watch', and how are views counted from 24 August 2026?

Problem: mixing Shorts and long-form numbers when judging a hook or edit. Conditions: channel-level Content tab in YouTube Analytics, with chips for All, Videos, Shorts, Live, Posts, Playlists and Podcasts. Method: use the chip that matches the format. Long-form (Videos) shows a key-metrics card with views, average view duration, impressions and impressions CTR, plus the key-moments retention report. Shorts shows views, likes and subscribers, how viewers find Shorts (Shorts feed, search, channel pages), a 'How viewers engaged' panel and 'Stayed to watch', defined as the percentage of times viewers stayed past the initial seconds of a Short. 'Engaged views' counts viewers who stayed past the initial seconds and excludes loops; average view duration is computed from engaged views. 'Viewers across formats' shows overlap between videos, Shorts and live. The page states that from 24 August 2026 views are counted the moment a video starts to play in all formats, while Partner Program earnings stay on engaged views. Failure modes: comparing raw Shorts view counts to long-form views or to older numbers; treating Stayed-to-watch as a retention curve (the Shorts chip documents no per-second curve). Limitations: documentation excerpt only; the exact 'initial seconds' length is not given; monetization thresholds are covered by an earlier candidate. Version/date: help page read 2026-10-23. Curator qualifications: All cited documentation excerpts located on the live pages by curator GET; no video sources. Limitations: 'Initial seconds' is undefined in the page; page layout flattens by tab so some per-tab attribution is inferred from list order. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/12220281?hl=en",
      "note": "Shorts > glossary: Stayed to watch; Glossary: Engaged views; Page header notice"
    }
  ]
}