A new report has revealed that a trailer at the annual Game Awards could cost developers up to $1 million ot have their game featured.
The news comes from a new Kotaku report, which cites two anonymous sources who told the outlet that a three-minute trailer now costs over $1 million to be featured during The Game Awards, hosted by Geoff Keighley. That’s double the price of what it reportedly costs developers to be featured at Opening Night Live, another show run by Geoff Keighley… Now that’s The Game Business!
Two video game publishers tell Kotaku that although they were not familiar with this year’s rates, it “sounded in line with what they’d expect from previous years.”
The Game Awards last year amassed 14 million views on its YouTube channel, meaning that, as a rough estimate (assuming all 14 million watched all the way through, which is doubtful), that’d be approximately a $70 CPM.
Whether the rates are worth it for developers and publishers is a question only they can answer, but it’s known that Geoff Keighley likes to offer free placements for major announcements and some indie titles here and there. So, unless more sources come forward, it’s somewhat difficult to gauge if such placements are worthwhile.
It’s also worth pointing out that the $1 million figure, despite being eye-catching, is for the longest-running trailers, with lesser run-time trailers costing less. Opening Night Live 2025 was reportedly approximately $500 for a 3-minute ad, $150,000 for a 30-second ad, or $210,000 for a 1-minute ad.
So, assuming the rates for The Game Awards are double, that should be around $300,000 for 30 seconds, or $420,000 for 1 minute.
What do you think of The Game Awards’ rates for trailers? Share your thoughts in the official Insider Gaming Discord.
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Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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