A parametric relationship between total neutron yield rate and collimated fluxes related to the brightness (B) of plasma chords (λ) is developed for different emissivity distributions of tokamak plasmas. Specifically, the brightness was expressed as a function of chord coordinates of radial position using a simple model for the emissivity profiles of width parameter w. The functional brightness dependence B(λ,w) was calculated to examine the relationship between measured flux and deduced yield rate, and its plasma profile dependence. The results were used to determine the chord range of minimum profile sensitivity in order to identify the preferred collimator sight for the determination of yield rate from neutron emission spectroscopy (YNES) measurements. The YNES method is discussed in comparison to conventional methods to determine the total neutron yield rates and related plasma fusion power relying on uncollimated flux measurements and a different calibration base for the flux-yield relationship. The results have a special bearing for tokamaks operating with both deuterium and deuterium–tritium plasmas and future high power machines such as for ITER, DEMO, and IGNITOR.