The State of Outdoor YouTube 2026
We tracked 139 active US outdoor channels and 6.9K of their videos. Outdoor brands rarely say "sponsored by" — they pay through discount codes. Here is who pays, and what it costs creators in views.
- Channels tracked
- 139
- Videos analysed
- 6.9K
- Brands seen paying
- 146
- Creators running brand codes
- 58
Finding 1
Outdoor brands pay in discount codes, not disclosures
Only 22 of 139 channels wrote an explicit "sponsored by" line in their latest uploads. But 58 ran a brand's discount code — 2.6× as many. Hunting is the extreme: 39% of hunting channels carry brand codes, 3% disclose a paid partnership. If you only count disclosures, you miss most of the market.
Share of channels with a brand code vs. a written disclosure
Finding 2
Two sponsor markets under one category
Hunters and anglers are paid by the gear they use: tackle, packs, optics, mapping apps. Vanlife, camping and hiking channels have been found by the advertisers you hear on every podcast — mattresses, data-privacy services, therapy apps, eSIMs. Pitching the wrong side means competing with budgets you didn't know were there.
Hunting & fishing
20%
of brand-code deals come from non-outdoor brands (46 deals)
e.g. TideWe, PEAX Equipment, BetterHelp
Vanlife, camping & hiking
68%
of brand-code deals come from non-outdoor brands (85 deals)
e.g. Brooklyn Bedding, Incogni, DeleteMe
Brands on the most outdoor channels
- 1Brooklyn BeddingNon-outdoor brand6 creators
- 2BetterHelpNon-outdoor brand5 creators
- 3SailyNon-outdoor brand5 creators
- 4TideWeOutdoor brand5 creators
- 5DeleteMeNon-outdoor brand4 creators
Finding 3
Code videos don't cost reach — 28 of 43 creators hold it
Against each channel's own norm for the same format, the median video carrying a brand code lands at 1× and breaks out (2× the channel's usual) 20% of the time, versus 19% for everything else. Outdoor audiences treat a gear code as part of the video. Of 43 creators with at least three coded videos, 28 keep them at full reach.
1×
median coded video vs. the creator's norm
20% vs 19%
breakout rate, coded vs. other videos
28 of 43
creators whose coded videos hold their usual reach
Finding 4
Subscribers don't buy views
Barely Camping and Bassresource - The Ultimate Bass Fishing Resource both sit near 141K subscribers. A typical video from the first reaches 111× more people. Across all 139 channels, subscriber count explains only part of typical views (rank correlation 0.52). Channels under 250K reach 17% of their subscribers per video, 1.8× the 10% of 250K–1M channels.
Barely Camping
131K subscribers
342.8K
median views per video, last 90 days
Bassresource - The Ultimate Bass Fishing Resource
141K subscribers
3.1K
median views per video, last 90 days
Benchmarks
Outdoor YouTube, niche by niche
| Niche | Channels | Median subs | Views / sub | Engagement | Shorts share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunting | 31 | 154K | 13% | 1.83% | 34% |
| Vanlife & RV | 25 | 189K | 19% | 4.93% | 3% |
| Fishing & Kayaking | 23 | 146K | 13% | 2.1% | 33% |
In the full report
What brands use to plan an outdoor campaign
The code map
Every brand code we found on 58 channels, with the video and the exact line as evidence.
Who your competitors hired
Outdoor and non-outdoor brands side by side, niche by niche — and the channels nobody has signed yet.
Rate benchmarks by niche and format
Estimated cost per integration and per Short, built from each creator’s real median views.
Breakout channels this month
Channels whose last 30 days are running far above their own norm — before they get expensive.
Code-proof creators
The 28 creators whose coded videos hold full reach, ranked.
A shortlist for your brand
Tell us your product; Marble ranks the outdoor creators your buyers already watch.
Browse the lists
Top outdoor YouTubers by niche
- All Outdoors creators185
- Hunting YouTubers31
- Fishing & Kayaking YouTubers23
- Vanlife & RV YouTubers25
- Hiking & Backpacking YouTubers17
- Overlanding & Off-Road YouTubers12
- Camping & Bushcraft YouTubers12
- Mountain Biking & Gravel YouTubers10
- Climbing & Snow Sports YouTubers9
- Outdoors creators in the United States185
Method
Public YouTube Data API counters for 139 active US outdoor channels (≥30K subscribers, ≥3 uploads and ≥2K median views in the last 90 days), found through 62 sub-niche searches and reviewed by hand. Medians use videos 7–90 days old. Brand deals are read from the descriptions of each channel's last 50 uploads: literal paid-partnership disclosures, plus discount-code lines whose link we matched to a brand by hand — a floor, not a census. Coded-video performance is measured against each channel's own median for the same format.
Data as of 2026-10-23. Observational, not causal; public counters only — no private analytics.
Get the full YouTube outdoor report
Named creators, code and sponsor evidence and rate benchmarks — plus a shortlist built for your product.
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