(Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Made on YouTube 2025)
YouTube will now skip ads during a live stream if engagement begins to peak.
Ads play during live events if a creator has them enabled, which can sometimes mean you miss key moments as they're randomly inserted for each viewer. Now, YouTube will monitor chat and pause ad playback if engagement is higher than average.
"There are those moments when the entire chat explodes with energy. To protect that collective vibe, our system now recognizes when Live Chat engagement is at its peak and automatically holds back ads for everyone," YouTube says in a blog post.
YouTube doesn't define what "peak" means here, but it should lead to fewer ads during a show's best moments, provided the creator you're watching has automatic ads enabled.
If you send gifts, a Super Chat message, or a Super Sticker during a stream, you’ll also get your own ad-free window to ensure you don’t miss a "thank you" shoutout from the creator. YouTube doesn’t say how long that window lasts, so you have to hope whoever you're watching acts sooner rather than later.
Other changes include the ability for viewers to send gifts during horizontal live streams, in addition to vertical. YouTube is also making it easier for creators to set up events that work across both orientations simultaneously, so the chat and other stream features match across formats and devices.
YouTube recently rolled out 30-second unskippable ads on its TV app, which was swiftly followed by a price hike for its Premium service, raising the average subscription to $15.99 a month. Last week, some users found that their TVs were showing non-skippable 90-second ad breaks, but YouTube said that was a bug.