Rewarded Video Ads: eCPM, Placement and Policy
A rewarded ad is a deal the player agrees to. They tap a button, watch a video or try a short playable, and get something back: an extra life, a second spin, a handful of coins. Nothing is forced, which is why it sits at the centre of most free-to-play economies.
Updated · Every figure on this page is an estimate from our benchmark tables, not a quote from any network.
All eight mobile networks in our tables support it, and it carries the highest eCPM of any format we model. The figures below are estimates for a typical Android app. Use the calculator to apply your own category, platform and audience mix.
Estimated Rewarded video eCPM by network
Android baseline, USD per 1,000 impressions, before category and platform multipliers. Networks that do not offer the format are left out.
| Network | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | iOS Tier 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AdMob | $12.00 | $5.00 | $1.40 | $15.60 |
| Unity Ads | $13.00 | $5.20 | $1.30 | $16.90 |
| AppLovin MAX | $14.50 | $5.80 | $1.60 | $18.85 |
| Meta Audience Network | $10.50 | $4.40 | $1.10 | $13.65 |
| ironSource / LevelPlay | $12.50 | $5.00 | $1.40 | $16.25 |
| Vungle / Liftoff | $12.00 | $4.80 | $1.20 | $15.60 |
| InMobi | $9.00 | $4.20 | $1.50 | $11.70 |
| Chartboost | $10.00 | $4.00 | $1.10 | $13.00 |
AppLovin MAX has the highest Tier 1 eCPM for this format in our tables at $14.50.
Share of revenue by app category
How much of a category’s estimated revenue this format carries with the typical setup (Google AdMob, balanced audience).
| Category | Share | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Hypercasual Game | 17% | $1,954 |
| Casual Game | 46% | $4,706 |
| Mid-core / Strategy | 87% | $10,303 |
| Puzzle Game | 47% | $5,021 |
| Utility App | Off in the typical setup | - |
| Social / Lifestyle | Off in the typical setup | - |
| Finance App | Off in the typical setup | - |
| Entertainment App | 22% | $1,590 |
| Education App | 44% | $1,423 |
How it earns
Advertisers pay more for a viewer who chose to watch. The creative usually runs to the end, and many buyers are other games paying for installs, so an engaged player is exactly who they want to reach. Our Tier 1 Android estimates for rewarded run from about $9.00 on InMobi to about $14.50 on AppLovin MAX, and iOS audiences are modelled at 1.3 times the Android figure.
Income depends less on price than on how often players reach for the button. An offer that appears at a moment of real need, such as straight after a failed level, gets used. One buried in a shop menu does not. For most games that makes reward design, not the choice of network, the biggest lever.
What it does to the experience
Because the player opts in, rewarded ads rarely harm retention on their own, and a well-judged reward can keep someone playing who was about to stop. The danger is economic. Give away too much for one view and you undercut your in-app purchases or flatten the progression you built.
Two policy points have been standard across the major networks for years. The reward has to be described clearly before the ad starts, and it has to be granted when the ad completes, with no extra hoops. Networks also prohibit rewarding people for clicking an ad or installing an app. Wording changes from time to time, so read the current rewarded policy of every network in your stack before launch.
Best practice
- Place the offer at a point of need, such as continuing after a loss or doubling a daily bonus.
- Show exactly what the player will receive on the button itself, in your own currency or items.
- Grant the reward from the completion callback, and use server-side verification when items have real value.
- Cap daily views per player so the ad stays a bonus rather than the main way to progress.
Common mistakes
- Showing the reward button when no ad has loaded, so players tap and receive nothing.
- Pricing the reward so generously that buying the same item with real money stops making sense.
- Treating rewarded and interstitial as either-or without testing a mix, which our guide to rewarded or interstitial ads walks through.
All figures come from our benchmark tables: Android eCPMs by tier, category or niche multipliers, modelled fill and the iOS multiplier. They are estimates for planning, not quotes.
Questions people ask
Can I use rewarded ads in an app that is not a game?
Yes. Utility, education and content apps use them to unlock a feature for a day or lift a usage limit. The same rules apply: describe the reward clearly and always deliver it.
How many rewarded ads should a player see each day?
There is no fixed number. Our calculator starts from three per user per day as an assumption, but the right figure depends on how many genuine reward moments your game offers. Check that heavy viewers also keep playing.
Why does rewarded eCPM vary so much between countries?
Advertiser budgets follow spending power. A Tier 1 audience on AdMob is estimated at about $12.00 for rewarded, against roughly $1.40 in Tier 3, so a shift in where your players live moves the average more than almost any setting.