Gaming niche · 2026 data
What to charge as a gaming creator
A community that values technical authenticity and spots a badly integrated sponsorship instantly. That is why peripherals, hardware, energy drinks, snacks and platforms looking for credibility inside the match: the gaming CPM moves between 7–25 USD per 1,000 impressions depending on the network, with an average of 263 USD per deliverable.
- Average per deliverable
- 263 USD
- CPM range
- 7–25 USD
- Rate range
- 50–780 USD
- Platforms compared
- 6
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35,900 people on Instagram
Instagram · Gaming benchmark: 3.1%
Highest CPMs and the largest ad budgets.
The brand only reposts on its own channels.
Deliverables included
Add 2 or more pieces to apply the volume discount
References built on 2024–2026 market CPMs. The calculator stores nothing and needs no account.
CreatorRates · Estimate
Instagram · Gaming · 35,900 followers
Suggested rate per deliverable
$435USD
Walk-away floor
$350
Premium rate
$610
- Estimated reach
- 33,028 impressions
- Engagement applied
- 3.8 %
- Effective CPM
- $13.17 / 1k
- Rights
- Organic only
First quote and PDF free · no card
See how it was calculated+−
Estimated reach
35,900 followers × 92% typical reach
33,028 impressions
Reference CPM
Instagram · market base × Gaming
12.60 USD
Engagement quality
3.8% actual vs 3.1% benchmark
+5 %
Audience value
US, Canada, UK, Australia
+0 %
Usage rights
Organic only
+0 %
Market references built from public CPMs and creator campaigns between 2024 and 2026. This is not a guarantee of income: use it as the opening position in your negotiation.
CPM and engagement, head to head
Open the full comparisonThe six networks get the same gaming audience and pay for it very differently. Switch niches to watch the list reorder: the highest CPM is not always on the network with the most followers, and engagement does not follow the same order as price.
Niche
Sorted by CPM, highest first
- LinkedInHighest CPM25 USD CPM·4.2 % ER
- YouTube20 USD CPM·3.6 % ER
- Instagram13 USD CPM·3.1 % ER
- Twitch11 USD CPM·5.4 % ER
- TikTok8 USD CPM·4.8 % ER
- X7 USD CPM·1.8 % ER
What these numbers say in gaming
LinkedIn pays the highest CPM (25 USD, 3.6× X) and Twitch holds the best engagement (5.4%, 3.0× X). If you sell impressions, the first; if you sell community, the second.
Average account in the niche: 35,850 followers · average rate $263
Suggested rate by platform
Sorted from highest to lowest suggested rate for the average account in this niche. The difference is not the format but the CPM each network assigns to this audience.
| Platform | CPM | Followers | Engagement | Suggested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| InstagramSponsored reel / short video | 13 USD | 48,300 | 3.1 % | 560 USD |
| YouTubeSponsored long-form integration | 20 USD | 35,700 | 3.6 % | 390 USD |
| TikTokSponsored long-form integration | 8 USD | 78,200 | 4.8 % | 350 USD |
| LinkedInSponsored feed post | 25 USD | 12,600 | 4.2 % | 150 USD |
| TwitchSponsored sponsored live | 11 USD | 18,400 | 5.4 % | 65 USD |
| XSponsored sponsored thread | 7 USD | 21,900 | 1.8 % | 65 USD |
Market references built from public CPMs and creator campaigns between 2024 and 2026. This is not a guarantee of income: use it as the opening position in your negotiation.
What these figures explain
Gaming carries a 0.9 multiplier — the only one below 1 — because its audience, large and loyal, has less purchasing power per impression than finance or tech. CPM lands at $13 on Instagram, $20 on YouTube and $11 on Twitch, and the average account is 15 % bigger than in lifestyle: on Twitch, 18,400 followers against 16,000.
The practical consequence is that this niche sells volume and technical credibility, not price per impression. A peripherals brand pays for the demonstration inside the game, not for gross reach, which is why the format that converts is the commented match or the challenge where the product solves a real setup problem. That context defends the rate better than any follower count.
The risk is saturation: accept three campaigns from the same sector in a month and the audience notices, engagement falls, and the next brand negotiates from a worse position. Category exclusivity — 35 % on top of the base — exists precisely for this, and in gaming creators ask for it more often than they charge for it. Read the table as a floor, not a ceiling: a stream community that returns every week is worth more than its follower count suggests.