YouTube News

YouTube promised reactors live ad revenue on React live streams

The platform expanded live reactions from tentpole tests to eligible long-form uploads and livestreams, with rollout set for later in 2026.

YouTube said at Made on YouTube that creators can tap React live on eligible long-form videos and livestreams to broadcast their reaction beside the original once the feature rolls out later this year.

In the layout YouTube showed, the source video sits above the reactor’s camera feed. The person streaming the reaction keeps live ad revenue and fan funding earned during that session, while the uploader gets clear attribution, added view credit in YouTube Studio, and control over which videos others may react to live.

YouTube did not say in the announcement whether that Studio view credit converts to revenue for the original creator, or how reaction views are counted relative to a normal view.

Watch With began as a way to react to premium tentpole broadcasts, and YouTube began testing reactions between creators’ livestreams earlier in 2026. Barbara Macdonald, who leads product for YouTube Live, wrote that more than 600 million logged-in viewers watched live content on average each day in August 2026.

In July 2025 YouTube warned that reaction videos with little original insight could lose monetization.