Costs and pricing
Part of How to build a budget for a UK gaming YouTuber sponsored video
How to build a budget for a UK gaming YouTuber sponsored video
Illustrative planning bands in GBP for one sponsored video from UK gaming YouTubers, the scope factors that move a quote, a worked example and sanity checks.
What to take away
- Planning bands for UK gaming YouTubers run from around £150 per sponsored video at the smallest tier to £25,000 and above at the top.
- Price follows scope as much as audience size, because format, exclusivity, usage rights and production load all move the number.
- Ask each channel for a costed scope, then compare quotes line by line instead of comparing headline fees.
- No official UK series publishes creator rates, so replace any band with a written quote before you commit budget.
No official rate card exists
There is no statutory or official rate card for sponsored YouTube gaming content in the UK. The Office for National Statistics publishes digital economy data covering the sector, but nothing that reports what a creator charges for a single video (digital economy data).
The bands below are scoping frames, not survey results. They help you build a budget line and challenge a quote. Replace each one with a written figure from the channel you actually want.
Illustrative rate bands by tier
| Tier | Subscribers | Fee for one dedicated video |
|---|---|---|
| Nano | 1,000 to 10,000 | £150 to £600 |
| Micro | 10,000 to 50,000 | £600 to £2,500 |
| Mid | 50,000 to 250,000 | £2,500 to £8,000 |
| Large | 250,000 to 1m | £8,000 to £25,000 |
| Top tier | 1m and above | £25,000 and up |
These bands assume a UK-weighted gaming audience, one dedicated video of eight to twelve minutes, a single integration and a 30-day exclusivity window.
Avatar-led channels price on different mechanics, so read the figures on UK VTuber sponsorship rates before you merge them into one band.
Subscribers are a weak proxy for price. Watch time, audience geography and comment quality matter more. Divide a fee by the views you expect and you have a cost per thousand, which you can hold against your own paid media benchmark.
What moves a quote up or down
- Audience geography. A UK-heavy audience is worth more to a UK brand than a global one.
- Format. A dedicated video costs more than a mention inside a let's play.
- Exclusivity. Blocking rival categories for 30 or 90 days carries a premium.
- Usage rights. Whitelisting, cutdowns and extended licences are priced separately.
- Production load. Travel, capture sessions, script approval and reshoots add days.
A worked example at £7,500
- Creator fee for one dedicated video£6,000.
- Thirty-day category exclusivity£750.
- Two short-form cutdowns£500.
- Sixty days of paid usage£250.
- Subtotal before VAT£7,500. VAT at 20% adds £1,500, so the gross is £9,000.
Treat every line as a negotiation point. Ask which items are essential and which are bundling. If an agency introduces the channel, its commission usually sits outside this sum, and our explanation of gaming influencer agency fees shows where it lands in a UK deal.
Worked example at £7,500
- £6,000Creator fee for one dedicated video
- £750Thirty-day category exclusivity
- £500Two short-form cutdowns
- £250Sixty days of paid usage
How buyers sanity-check a fee
A fee only makes sense against a benchmark. Build one from the last three campaigns you ran, not from a published average, because UK media buying data rarely isolates gaming creators.
Ask the creator for the last four sponsored videos on the channel and their view counts. Average those, apply a discount for a smaller audience on a paid placement, then divide the quoted fee by that figure.
Hold the result against what you pay for paid social impressions. A sponsorship costing several times your paid benchmark needs a reason: deeper attention, a trusted recommendation, or footage you can reuse.
Briefing and disclosure
Sponsorship is a commercial exchange: money or other value in return for association with an audience (Sponsorship).
The Advertising Standards Authority's codes require marketing communications to be obviously identifiable as advertising. That shapes the brief as much as the price (advertising codes, ASA and CAP).
Put the disclosure wording, the placement and the approval window in writing. Agree the payment terms at the same time, because a 30-day invoice cycle is not the same as a 30-day delivery window.
Common questions
What does a mid-size UK gaming channel charge for a sponsored video?
Planning bands put a 50,000 to 250,000 subscriber channel at £2,500 to £8,000 for one dedicated video. Scope, not subscriber count, sets the final number.
Do UK gaming YouTubers charge more for exclusivity?
Usually yes. A 30-day category block is a common line item, and longer windows or wider category definitions cost more.
Is VAT added to a UK gaming YouTube sponsorship?
Only if the creator is VAT registered, in which case 20% is added to the fee. A creator below the registration threshold cannot charge VAT.
How should I compare quotes from two channels?
Compare the same scope: one video, the same exclusivity window, the same usage rights and the same approval rounds. Then divide each fee by expected views.
