YouTube livestreaming now requires fewer followers

YouTube has dramatically lowered the number of subscribers users need to have before they can broadcast live. 

In January, YouTube rolled out the feature to any users with more than 10,000 followers, meaning all the big players could share content with their followers immediately. Now Engadget reports that the requirement has been lowered to 1,000, and we’ve good reason to think the feature will soon be available to all, without any minimum requirement. 

The move makes sense, as Twitter and Facebook have had livestreaming for a while now, with Facebook even adding the ability to broadcast 360-degree live video recently.

Let's go live!

Livestreaming will look pretty familiar to you if you’ve used any of the competitors out there at the moment.

You'll be able to choose a title, whether comments are enabled, and if you want to send a notification to your subscribers, then away you go. The video can be either landscape or portrait, and once you’ve finished streaming YouTube archives the video to your account.

Don’t worry if you’re still far off 1,000 subscribers; when it announced the 10,000-subscriber threshold, someone at Google teased: “The rest of you will have it soon.” Because of this, we’re assuming the lowering to 1,000 subscribers is simply the next stage of Google testing the platform before a global rollout.

The real question is whether the global rollout will have a major effect on the way YouTube is used. Currently the platform is very popular for established content creators, buts lags behind Facebook and Twitter in terms of ‘basic user’ appeal.

It'll be interesting to see if livestreaming does anything to diversify the base of content creators, or if it will simply add to the palette of tools for established users to play with.

TOPICS
Andrew London

Andrew London is a writer at Velocity Partners. Prior to Velocity Partners, he was a staff writer at Future plc.

Latest in Entertainment
A collage of a demasked Spider-Man, Captain Marvel staring into the camera, and Daredevil shouting
17 Marvel heroes I want to see added to the Avengers: Doomsday cast – Spider-Man, Ms Marvel, Wolverine, and more
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin Rennovations
Disney’s giving a classic Buzz Lightyear ride a tech overhaul – here's everything you need to know
Robert Downey Jr reveals himself as Doctor Doom to a delighted crowd at San Diego Comic-Con 2024
Marvel has revealed the full, 27-strong cast for Avengers: Doomsday, and there are plenty of heroes who seemingly won't be part of its roster
Robert Downey Jr sitting in a chair and holding a finger to his lips during Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal
'There is always room for more': Marvel drops big hint that it isn't done with its Avengers: Doomsday cast announcements
A collage of Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch and Tatiana Maslany's She-Hulk
Marvel fans are already tired of Doomsday and Secret Wars cast gossip as two more superheroes get linked with roles in the next two Avengers movies
Venezuela's forward #09 Jhonder Cadiz celebrates after scoring during the 2026 FIFA World Cup South American qualifiers football match between Ecuador and Venezuela, at the Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium in Quito, on March 21, 2025 ahead of Venezuela vs Peru
Venezuela vs Peru live stream: how to watch today's FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier anywhere online
Latest in News
Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con up-close from app store
Nintendo's new app gave us another look at the Switch 2, and there's something different with the Joy-Con
cheap Nintendo Switch game deals sales
Nintendo didn't anticipate that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was 'going to be the juggernaut' for the Nintendo Switch when it was ported to the console, according to former employees
Three angles of the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4 laptop above a desk
Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4) review roundup – should you buy Apple's new lightweight laptop?
Witchbrook
Witchbrook, the life-sim I've been waiting years for, finally has a release window and it's sooner than you think
Amazon Echo Smart Speaker
Amazon is experimenting with renaming Echo speakers to Alexa speakers, and it's about time
Shigeru Miyamoto presents Nintendo Today app
Nintendo Today smartphone app is out now on iOS and Android devices – and here's what it does