How Many Steam Keys Do You Need for a Creator Mailing? Data From 48 Campaigns
This week a developer launched a key mailing with 98 keys for 1,000 creators, the day before release. Two hours later 61 of them were gone. He topped up twice before the evening. This post is the answer I wish he had a week earlier: what 48 real key mailings, 122,869 delivered mails and 13,153 claimed keys say about how many keys to request, how fast they go and what a co-op game changes.
| Steam key mailing to creators (2026 data) | What we measured |
|---|---|
| Keys claimed per 1,000 mails, matched list | 189 median, 129 to 231 for the middle half |
| Keys claimed per 1,000 mails, whole base of 22,000+ | about 30 |
| Released games vs coming soon | 208 vs 132 keys per 1,000 |
| Multiplayer vs single-player | 181 vs 196 per 1,000, the same within noise |
| Claims in the first 3 hours | 43% of everything the campaign will ever get |
| Claims within 24 hours / 3 days / a week | 74% / 89% / 96% |
| Campaigns where creators hit an empty pool | 13 of 41 |
| Rule of thumb | 200 keys per 1,000 matched creators, plus 50 in reserve |
Founder, Mad Octopus
Where the numbers come from
Every figure here comes from creator mailings sent through the Mad Octopus Dev Hub in August and September 2026. A mailing is one mail about one game to YouTubers and streamers, with a personal link that hands out a Steam key. 48 mailings had enough volume to count: 41 gave keys instantly, 2 asked the developer to approve every request, 5 were keyless (a demo or a free-to-play game). Most went to a matched wave of 1,000 to 1,500 creators picked by genre and by what they claimed and covered before. Three went to the whole base of 22,000+.
I count claims, not opens. Open rates (67% median here) are inflated by privacy proxies that load every image, so they flatter everyone. A claimed key is a person who wanted your game enough to click twice.
How many keys per 1,000 creators
Median of 41 instant-key mailings to a matched list. The middle half sits between 129 and 231.
Per 1,000 mails. The coldest matched wave got 43. Same list, same mail layout: the game and its page made the difference.
Mail everyone and the rate drops six times. The extra reach is real, the extra keys per mail are not.
So for a matched wave of 1,000 creators, plan 200 keys and keep 50 more ready. The middle half of our campaigns used between 54% and 100% of what the developer deposited, and a quarter used every single key. If your game is released, looks good in its capsule and costs money, lean high: released games were claimed at 208 per 1,000, coming-soon pages at 132, because a key that only activates later is a weaker offer.
The second thousand is not the first thousand. The best-fit creators come first, so each wave after that claims less. If you extend a campaign from 1,000 to 5,000 recipients, do not multiply the keys by five. Something between the matched rate and the full-base rate is what you will see.
How fast they go: the first three hours
| Time after the send | Share of all claims (median) |
|---|---|
| 3 hours | 43% |
| 6 hours | 53% |
| 12 hours | 61% |
| 24 hours | 74% |
| 48 hours | 83% |
| 3 days | 89% |
| 7 days | 96% |
This is the part that catches people. A key mailing is not a slow drip you can top up next week. Almost half of everything happens while you are still refreshing the dashboard. If the pool is empty at hour two, the creators who were most excited about your game, the ones who opened the mail first, are the ones who find nothing.
Which means the keys have to exist before you press send. Valve reviews key requests in Steamworks and it can take days, so ask a week ahead and ask for more than you think. Unused keys cost nothing. A creator who wanted to cover you on launch day and could not is the expensive outcome.
What happens when the pool runs dry
In 13 of the 41 campaigns at least one creator clicked for a key and found an empty pool. In the worst three, more than 50 creators each. Seven campaigns handed out every key they had.
We soften it with a waitlist: a creator who arrives too late is queued, and the moment the developer pastes a fresh batch the waiting creators get their key by mail, in order, without anyone lifting a finger. It works, but it is a repair. The video that would have gone up on launch day goes up four days later, or never. The cheap fix is boring: deposit 200, not 100.
One more data point for the cautious. Two campaigns asked the developer to approve each key request by hand. They ended at 5 and 26 keys per 1,000 mails, against 189 for instant keys, because requests sat unanswered for days. If you want manual approval, that is fine, but then approving requests is a daily job for the two weeks after the send.
Co-op and multiplayer: the crew problem
Multiplayer games get claimed at the same rate as single-player ones (181 vs 196 per 1,000). What changes is what happens next. A solo creator needs one key. A creator who streams a six-player co-op game needs friends in the lobby, and the friends need keys too. On the day I wrote this the same question reached me three times: a streamer on Discord, a crew replying to a mailing, and a developer asking how to give one creator four or five keys.
One key per creator is still the right default, because spare keys are what resellers hunt for. So we built the middle way. In the Creator Hub a developer can switch on crew keys: creators who already delivered coverage on the platform may take the full set up front. In a mailing, a creator who took their key can ask for the crew keys on the same page, and the developer approves each request from the campaign dashboard. For a co-op launch, add a crew reserve of 10 to 15 percent on top of the normal number.
Mail scanners and ghost claims
Corporate mail filters open every link in a message before a human sees it. If your key link hands out a key on the first visit, a robot at an agency just claimed one, and the agency will never know. We put a confirm button on the key page for that reason: the link shows a page, the key only comes after a real click. In the first campaign after the change the key page was opened 80 times and 63 visits confirmed. The 17 that never pressed the button were almost all agency and company inboxes. That is a fifth of the traffic that used to look like interest and was not.
If you send keys yourself, by hand or through a spreadsheet and a mail merge, this is worth copying. Never put the key in the mail body, and never give it away on a plain link visit.
Use this as a benchmark
Here is the uncomfortable use of these numbers. If your last key campaign went to 1,000 addresses and 15 keys were claimed, the problem was probably not your game. It was the list. A matched list of active creators lands between 130 and 230 claims per 1,000 for an ordinary indie game. A scraped list, or a big database where most of the addresses stopped making videos in 2023, lands at a tenth of that, and no subject line fixes it.
So ask whoever runs your mailing for three numbers: claims per 1,000 delivered, how many of the claimers posted a video, and how the list is cleaned. If they cannot tell you, that is your answer. A service that shows you the size of its database instead of what came out of it is selling you the wrong number. Put bluntly: if nobody can show you numbers like these, your mailing is weak. Somebody had to say it.
A simple plan for your launch
- Seven days before: request keys in Steamworks. 250 for a matched wave of 1,000, more if the game is co-op or you plan a second wave.
- Send on a weekday morning, two to five days before release, so videos can land on launch day. Released already? Then today.
- Watch the first three hours. If a third of the pool is gone after one hour, top up now, not tomorrow.
- Approve crew requests the same day if your game is multiplayer. A crew that waits a week plays something else.
- After two weeks look at who posted. Those creators get your next game first.
In the Dev Hub a matched wave to 1,000 creators costs $19.90 (it is included in the paid plan), extra reach is $19 per 1,000, and it can be added after the wave is out. The comparison of key distribution services covers the alternatives, and how we ban key farmers explains what happens to the people who take keys and never post.
FAQ
How many Steam keys should I prepare for 1,000 creators?
200, with 50 more in reserve. The median across 41 instant-key mailings was 189 claimed keys per 1,000 delivered mails, and half of the campaigns landed between 129 and 231.
How fast do creators claim keys?
43% of all claims come in the first three hours, 74% within a day, 89% within three days. Have the keys ready before you send.
How many keys per creator for a co-op game?
One to start. Crews that stream together ask for two to four more, so keep a crew reserve of 10 to 15 percent and hand those out to creators you can verify.
Do I get more coverage if I mail the whole database?
More mails, fewer claims per mail: about 30 keys per 1,000 on a base of 22,000+, against 189 on a matched wave. Start with the matched wave and extend if the game is pulling.
Does Valve limit how many keys I can request?
Valve reviews key requests and looks at them against your sales. Ordinary batches for press and creators are fine, but the review takes time, so request them a week before the mailing.