United States
Rusty Cage is a US-based creator who built his following through darkly comedic original music and absurdist internet humor across more than a decade on YouTube.
Total Followers +11.9%
1.9M
Across YouTube, Instagram
Primary Platform
YouTube
1.7M followers · 88% of audience
Engagement
7.6%
vs. 1.5% category median
Sponsorship Tier
Macro
Est. $4.8K–$12K / IG post
He posted on X that he was "starting over on YouTube from scratch with a new channel," signaling a deliberate pivot away from his legacy account to build a new audience from zero.
His first YouTube upload in many months served as a formal reintroduction, directing fans to the new @RustyCageShow channel and coinciding with a Patreon and merch push.
| Window | YouTube | Combined | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 7 days | +0 +0.0% | +8K +3.1% | +0 +0.0% | +8K |
| Last 30 days | +0 +0.0% | +230K +96.3% | +0 +0.0% | +230K |
| Last 90 days | +0 +0.0% | +243K +101.7% | +0 +0.0% | +243K |
| Last 365 days | +0 +0.0% | +243K +101.7% | +0 +0.0% | +243K |
Daily follower snapshots from CreatorDB's longitudinal index.
Rusty Cage is a US-based creator who built his following through darkly comedic original music and absurdist internet humor across more than a decade on YouTube. His content spans morbid curiosity investigations — testing guillotines against ballistics dummies, probing obscure legal questions like whether collecting rainwater is illegal — alongside extended experiment series, most notably his ongoing documentation of lone star tick behavior, including freeze-survival and laser-revival trials. That blend of musical comedy roots and weird-science execution has earned him a macro-scale audience with engagement rates running well above the category median.
His audience skews heavily male and concentrates in the 18–34 age range, the demographic most receptive to ironic, morbid humor. As of mid-2026, Cage has redirected his primary video output to a new channel (@RustyCageShow), with the original YouTube presence dormant — signaling a deliberate content reset rather than a slowdown. The tick experiments have even spawned their own dedicated web presence, reflecting an appetite for building focused micro-verticals around recurring series. For brands positioned in outdoor, survival, or irreverent consumer goods categories, his concentrated and highly engaged young-adult male following represents a precise placement in a niche that is genuinely difficult to reach through conventional media.
Rusty Cage reaches an audience concentrated in United States primarily through YouTube, and is best activated via long-form YouTube integrations, Instagram Reels and Stories. As a comedy creator they map naturally to brands targeting that space. With no brand deals logged yet, they read as an available, category-aligned partner for advertisers building early presence in the space. Engagement on YouTube runs around 7.6%, which points to an audience better suited to category-relevant, mid-funnel campaigns than to pure-reach buys. The channel's mix of long-form YouTube integrations and Instagram Reels and Stories lets a sponsor choose between short awareness placements and longer, more detailed integrations. Because the audience follows comedy content rather than arriving through untargeted reach, sponsorships that match the channel's subject matter tend to convert more efficiently than broad placements. A consistent, on-topic posting focus gives sponsors a predictable, brand-safe environment, lowering placement risk compared with broad, general-interest channels. Campaigns here are best measured on qualified engagement and consideration within the niche rather than on raw impression volume. For United States-focused brands in comedy and related categories, Rusty Cage offers a defined, creative-fit audience rather than broad, low-intent impressions.
Benchmark estimates for a creator at Rusty Cage's tier (Macro, 1.9M combined followers, United States). Pulled from CreatorDB's category benchmarks.
The CreatorDB Agency runs end-to-end influencer campaigns globally — shortlisting, outreach, contracting, and performance reporting. Talk to our team about building a campaign around creators in this niche.
Rusty Cage has been running an ongoing multi-day experiment series documenting lone star ticks under extreme conditions, including freezing and laser exposure. The lone star tick is particularly alarming because it can trigger alpha-gal syndrome, a red-meat allergy caused by tick bites, which makes it a legitimately unsettling subject for his brand of morbid curiosity. His dedicated website tickbioweapons.com signals this is a long-term project, not just a one-off video.
Rusty Cage runs a website called tickbioweapons.com, which he links directly in his Instagram bio alongside his videos and merch. It's tied to his ongoing lone star tick experiment series, extending the research beyond individual uploads into what looks like a dedicated documentation project.
Rusty Cage tested this in his Day 16 freezer experiment, and by Day 18 he was attempting to revive the ticks using a laser — which implies the freezing alone didn't definitively kill them. The progression from freezer test to laser revival attempt is exactly the kind of escalating, deadpan experiment his audience has come to expect.
Guillotine vs. Ballistics Dummy is one of his actual videos, in which he puts a guillotine's cutting force up against a ballistics gel dummy. It's a strong example of the DIY experimental dark comedy that defines his content, pairing genuine curiosity about how something works with an intentionally unsettling subject.
Rusty Cage tackled this in a dedicated video, exploring the popular internet theory that the Eiffel Tower's silhouette resembles a guillotine frame. The claim leans on superficial visual similarity rather than documented historical intent, but it's precisely the kind of dark, oddly compelling historical question that fits his content style perfectly.
As of mid-2026, Rusty Cage's original YouTube channel had gone roughly eight months without a new upload — a significant gap for a creator with well over a million subscribers. His channel bio now redirects viewers to his newer channel, @RustyCageShow, suggesting he's shifted his main creative focus there.
Rusty Cage launched a separate YouTube channel under the handle @RustyCageShow, which he promotes at the top of his original channel's description. It appears to be where he's directing new content as activity on the main channel has significantly slowed down.
Rusty Cage sits at the crossroads of musical comedy and dark experimental content — YouTube classifies him under musical comedy, but his videos range from guillotine history and tick survival science to questions like whether drinking rainwater is legal. The tone is consistently deadpan and bizarre, which is what built his unusually engaged following over the years.
Rusty Cage has built well over a million and a half subscribers on YouTube, putting him firmly in the Macro creator tier. His engagement rate runs far above the category average, meaning his audience is unusually active and loyal relative to his total size.
Rusty Cage is based in the United States, and the vast majority of his audience is also American. His content covers topics with a distinctly American lens, though his dark humor and experimental style have drawn a meaningful following in the UK and Canada as well.
Stats (followers, engagement, audience demographics, growth) are pulled live from the CreatorDB API covering YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Bio and FAQ content is AI-assisted; news items are sourced from cited public press at generation time. Read the full methodology →
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@rustycage · YouTube
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