How Many Entries Does a Photo Contest Get?
Half of the upload actions on Gleam giveaways collected fewer than 11 photos or videos. A quarter collected fewer than 2, and a quarter collected more than 81. Those figures come from 8,267 upload, media and submit-URL actions on 5,922 Gleam competitions with 100 or more Entrants, run between May 2020 and August 2026.
Why the range is so wide
The count depends on how the contest is built, far more than on the prize or the brand. When the upload was the only way to enter, every Entrant uploaded. When it was one of two or three actions, about a third did. When it sat on a widget with nine or more other actions, about one Entrant in a hundred sent something, and the typical action collected 4 to 7 submissions. A mandatory upload, which Entrants must complete before anything else counts, was completed by 79 percent at the median.
What a typical result looks like
Among actions that asked for creative content, a photo, a video, a selfie with the product or a piece of artwork, the typical optional action on a widget of four or more actions collected about 5 submissions. Actions that asked for a receipt or a review collected almost nothing when optional.
How to plan
Decide first whether the content is the point. If it is, use the Upload Action as a mandatory step or run it with two other actions at most, and expect a smaller giveaway. If the content is a bonus, expect a handful of submissions and size the prize for the entries you want.
The full benchmark, with the setup-by-setup table and what each setup costs in reach, is in the Gleam Giveaway Benchmarks 2026, Edition 3. Read the complete guide.
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Should the Upload Action Be Mandatory in a Giveaway?
Make the upload mandatory when the content is the reason you are running the giveaway. On Gleam, a mandatory upload was completed by 79 percent of Entrants at the median, an optional one by under 2 percent, and the price is a smaller giveaway.