YouTube Shorts RPM Explained: Why Some Niches Pay 50¢ and Others Pay 7¢ Per 1,000 Views

The most common advice about YouTube Shorts RPM is: "It depends on what country your viewers are from." That's partially true. But it's missing two-thirds of the equation.

"It's influenced by the country, the age, and the gender."

Three variables. Not one. If you only optimize for country — targeting US viewers — you're leaving money on the table by ignoring the other two factors. A 50-year-old American man watching football content generates dramatically more RPM than a 14-year-old American kid watching Roblox content. Same country. Completely different ad value.

Each variable compounds on the others. Understanding how they interact is the difference between a channel earning $7,000/month and one earning $50,000 on the same view count.

Variable 1: Country. Americans have higher buying power. Advertisers pay more to reach them. US > UK > Western EU > Southeast Asia > India. This is well-known.

Variable 2: Age. Older viewers have more disposable income and are statistically more likely to convert on an ad. A 50-year-old is a higher-value ad impression than a 13-year-old.

Variable 3: Gender. Certain demographics attract more ad spend. Male, 35+, US-based viewers in categories like finance, sports, and automotive attract the highest bids.

"Let's say you're a man in the United States and you are 50 years old. You probably have a very strong buying power. Advertisers will see that and they will increase the RPM for that individual."

These are live RPM figures shared during a screen-share from an operation running 38 automated Shorts channels:

American football (sports commentary): approximately 50¢ RPM. The highest figure the creator has seen on any Shorts channel. The audience skews older, male, and American — the trifecta for ad value.

Anime commentary (English voiceover): approximately 24¢ RPM. Three channels, each generating around $3,000/month on roughly 30 million views. English voiceover is a significant RPM driver here.

AI-generated animal content: approximately 7¢ RPM. Low RPM because the audience skews young, international, and the content has no niche-specific advertiser demand.

The spread is staggering: 50¢ vs. 7¢ is a 7x difference in revenue per view. A channel generating 100 million views per month at 50¢ earns $50,000. That same view count at 7¢ earns $7,000. Same effort. Same views. Seven times less money.

RPMs on Shorts have climbed every year since the partner program launched. In the original beta, RPM was 1–2 cents. The increase isn't because YouTube expanded the revenue pool — it's because advertisers are spending more on short-form content.

"2025 was the biggest year for RPM. It wasn't because they increased the pool. It's because advertisers now — when they're targeting specific viewers — Shopify is also targeting short-form. So the RPM for ecom videos you're uploading will be higher because advertisers are willing to spend more on that video."

This is the crucial insight: RPM is becoming more niche-specific, not just country-specific. If you make fitness content, supplement companies are bidding for your viewers. If you make e-commerce tutorials, Shopify and its competitors are bidding. The more tightly your content aligns with a high-spend advertiser category, the higher your RPM climbs.

The implication is clear — niche selection isn't just about views anymore. It's about which advertisers are competing for your audience. A niche with aggressive ad competition can pay 3–5x more per view than one without.

Every Shorts creator faces this tension: English voiceover increases RPM (because it concentrates viewers in higher-RPM English-speaking countries) but limits total audience. Languageless videos reach everyone globally but dilute RPM across low-value geographies.

The math on this trade-off at different scales:

English channel example: 30M views × 24¢ RPM = $7,200/month. Languageless channel example: 300M views × 7¢ RPM = $21,000/month.

At scale, volume wins. But if you're running one or two channels, the English RPM premium often makes more money with less effort — and far fewer views.

"It really just depends on your business model. If you only want to run a couple channels, you can run only English."

The creator's own verdict after testing both approaches at massive scale: "Doing non-language videos is probably better because you make more money when you get more views. And it's worth the drop in RPM just because you can hit such a larger audience."

You don't need to abandon your niche to improve RPM. You need to shift who within your audience is watching. Three tactics that work without changing your content format:

First, add English text or captions to languageless content. This doesn't add a voiceover — it just makes the video more accessible to English-speaking viewers, pulling in a higher-RPM demographic without reducing global reach.

Second, shift posting times to peak US hours. Even if your content is global, posting at 6–10 PM EST means the initial engagement wave comes from American viewers — and YouTube's distribution often mirrors the demographic of early engagement.

Third, choose topic angles within your niche that attract older demographics. The sports niche is a perfect example: a generic "top 10 sports moments" channel might earn 15¢ RPM. But a channel specifically covering NFL nostalgia content earns 50¢ — because the audience skews older, male, and American. Same broad niche. Completely different RPM.

The question isn't "what niche should I be in?" It's "within my niche, what topic angle attracts the highest-value viewer?"