Gaming Creator Rates by Channel Size (2026)

Isaiah Photo, a 10.20M subscriber YouTube channel, quoted our team $25,000 for one 60-second ad read in our deal log.

That is the ceiling.

A growth lead at a mobile game studio messaged me Monday asking whether that price was normal for a big gaming channel.

The 90-second answer was no.

The bookable gaming roster prices far lower than one celebrity quote suggests, and the brand pulling the past-deal check spends $0 to learn that before the first email goes out.

Here is the glossary on first mention.

Mobile gaming means free-to-play phone games.

CPI means cost per install.

CPM means cost per thousand views.

I sat on this rate-card post for two months because the gaming version of the rate question is the one operators get wrong on the first roster.

The cost is not only a wasted ad spend.

The cost is a roster built around one expensive name when the repeat-deal data points somewhere cheaper.

Across the deals we track, Raid Shadow Legends alone has booked 192 paid posts with 141 creators since April 2019, which tells you the bookable gaming roster is wider and far cheaper than one celebrity rate suggests.

What gaming creators actually charge

Isaiah Photo at 10.20M subs is the rate ceiling at $25,000 per 60-second read.

The pattern below that line is what most brands miss.

What sets the price is past-deal volume. Subscriber count matters far less.

Invicta at 1.66M subs quoted $3,000 for a 60 to 90 second integration in our deal log.

MarkMcKz at 113K subs quoted $1,000 for a 60-second slot, and Eleven 11 at the same 113K subs quoted $1,500 for a 60-second mid-roll.

Two creators at the same subscriber size, two different rates.

Mid-tail quotes land near $1,000 to $1,500 in the 100K to 250K band.

Above 1M, rates climb past $3,000 and exclusivity windows start eating the budget.

Have your rate card cross-checked against our deal log before you sign.

A coverage note matters here. Only four cluster creators have a hand-collected quote in our log. The rate bands lean on those named quotes plus view-based CPM math, which we label as estimates throughout.

The rate gap between formats

A long-form integration and a short mid-roll get priced as if they reach the same audience.

They do not.

What drives the gap is attention density. Audience size matters far less.

Games & Graphics at 152K subs averaged only 294 views per Raid Shadow Legends drop across 5 deals.

Marshix at 233K subs averaged 52K views across 4 Raid Shadow Legends posts.

The same brand, two channels of similar size, and one slot pulls 175 times the views of the other.

A strong integration on the right channel can beat a bigger channel paid four times the rate.

Pull the past-deal performance table for any creator you are considering.

Most gaming brands open vetting wanting the biggest celebrity name. Our data says the repeat-deal pattern concentrates inside the mid-tail. Of the cluster creators we track, 47 sit in the 250K to 1M band and 41 sit in the 50K to 250K band. Follower count is a weak first cut.

How to spot a padded rate

Chisgule Gaming at 259K subs has run 16 paid posts across Raid Shadow Legends and Rise of Kingdoms, the most-booked name in our gaming log.

That repeat history gives you a clean floor to anchor a rate against.

What you check is verified deal history. The pitch-deck claim matters far less.

A creator with one or two prior gaming deals has no comparable history, and that is when padded rates show up.

The three padded-rate tells in gaming are these.

One, the rate card hides the median view count.

Two, the pitch quotes one viral post instead of the median of the last 10.

Three, the creator has fewer than 3 prior gaming deals, which removes pricing pressure from past deals.

The deal that pays for itself. We cut the padded rate and keep the audience.

• Pay 4x the median rate because the pitch deck looks polished
• Sign a 90 day exclusivity that locks you out of 5 better mid-tail creators
• Book one expensive celebrity slot when 47 mid-tail channels deliver more installs per dollar

A real human reads every paid post on the last 60 videos per creator and hands back the names that ship. Book a 20-minute roster review →

The CPM math that decides fit