Ways to Make Money Gaming: Is it possible to get paid to play games? Yes, without a doubt is the response. With billions of gamers and tens of thousands of workers, the worldwide video game sector is a multibillion dollar industry. There are numerous home-based employment opportunities in this big economic sector.
In this article, we’ll go over 8 different ways to make money playing games, both ones that don’t depend on technical knowledge and ones that do. But let’s start by taking a look at the pertinent question: how much money can be made from playing video games?
Is it Really Possible to Make Money Playing Video Games?
Let’s consider the magnitude of the video game business to get a sense of the possibilities for profit in gaming. According to a poll by game market research firm Newzoo, about two out of every five people play video games, and that number is expected to increase from 2.95 billion in 2022 to 3.07 billion in 2023.
Grand View Research, a market research firm, estimates the worldwide video game market to be worth $195.65 billion in 2021. From 2022 to 2030, the market is expected to develop at a CAGR of 12.9%. Approximately 300,000 individuals were employed by this large industry in 2020, according to a survey of industry data conducted by market research company IBISWorld.
This figure suggests that a greater number of workers are needed to support the video game industry even though it does not directly reflect the number of employees that make video games their full-time job. A proportionate number of open-source developers, beta testers, reviewers, bloggers, brand ambassadors, social media marketers, and others assist the video game business in addition to hundreds of thousands of full-time office and remote workers. There is a ton of potential in this enormous infrastructure for video gamers who aren’t full-time jobs to supplement their income from their pastime.
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Top 12 Ways to Make Money Playiny Games
1. Live Streaming: You can earn money by live streaming yourself playing if you’re good at games or have a charismatic personality. You might now be asking why anyone would want to see me play, let alone pay me to play? For a variety of reasons, individuals enjoy observing others play video games:
a. to learn strategies from a more experienced gamer
b. to experience outstanding gameplay
c. to listen to someone play while providing interesting narration
d. to communicate with other gamers who are online and are observing
Because people enjoy watching others play video games, there are several ways to monetize live gaming streams:
a. To show their thanks for a strong or enjoyable play, viewers can donate
b. Dedicated viewers can purchase subscriptions.
c. Special live-stream events may need ticket purchases from attendees.
d. Gamers that draw attention to their games may receive sponsorship from gaming companies.
e. Players with significant fan bases might get paid by advertisers.
f. For advertising their items, affiliate marketing partners may pay commissions.
g. Popular gamers can produce and market their own goods.
2. Participate in gaming competitions to win cash prizes.: You must be at the top of your game if you want to succeed financially as a professional esports gamer. The financial awards in some tournaments might be quite substantial. For instance, according to Statista, the overall prize pool for Dota 2 in 2022 was $32.85 million, or roughly £26.3 million.
However, keep in mind that the largest competitions will be fierce. There is no assurance that you will win any prizes, even if you spend a lot of time training for the competitions. Additionally, you might discover that video game tournaments have a fee for entry. Therefore, a part-time work might be a better option if you’re a student searching for a dependable source of income. The fees of competing, though, can be covered if you’re fortunate enough to receive an esports scholarship.
3. Work as a games tester: It would be a dream come true to make a living playing video games. But this is the reality for people who work as game testers.
For quality control when creating games, businesses employ game testers. This profession may involve testing games for usability and functioning as well as identifying flaws that need to be resolved.
You can be tasked with evaluating games on a variety of devices, including a gaming console, a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC. You would also probably need to write a report summarizing your results after testing the games.
If you have a degree in a field that is related, such as games programming, it will be easier for you to secure jobs testing video games.
Often, testing video games is a full-time job. It is also feasible to do it on a freelance basis.
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4. Get paid to play games on social media: You can combine your love of social media and video games to become a gaming influencer and get money. Not everyone should work in this industry. To begin with, you’d need to be used to frequently posting content on social media and have experience growing an online following.
The idea behind earning money through live streaming, which we have discussed in more detail, is identical. This is something to think about if you like the notion of sharing your gaming experiences with others. Anyone looking to post material regarding video games online should consider sites like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. You may publish amusing movies that gamers will enjoy or recommendations about games, or you could do both at once.
To get started, research which kind of content perform best by looking at other gaming influencers on each social media network.
5. Review video games for cash: Being a video games journalist is a fantastic opportunity to combine your writing and gaming talents. A gaming journalist can earn money both as a full-time employee and as a freelancer.
However, it’s regrettably not always simple to make money by writing reviews – particularly when you’re first getting started.
Starting a blog on video games is a smart move. You can share your opinions on the most recent business news and happenings here while also reviewing your favorite games. The blog can then be made profitable when you’ve attracted large readership.
If you’re seeking for journalism jobs or pitching story ideas to magazines and newspapers, having a blog will help. It will demonstrate both your writing skills and your sincere interest in video games.
6. Run a YouTube channel or podcast on gaming; Do you have many things to say about gaming? Consider producing a gaming-related daily, weekly, or monthly show. It may be a roundtable debate based on opinions, a series of interviews with prominent athletes, strategies for a particular game, or anything else that sounds fascinating.
Ads, sponsorships, and other types of YouTube monetization can be used to generate revenue from podcasts and YouTube videos. Such subscriptions can help fund this programs and provide you income too. Before you start to make any money, you’ll need to grow a sizable audience. For viewers to tune in, your program must be compelling. The show won’t be successful if it’s dull, superficial, has poor production quality, or is inconsistent.
This resembles a cross between live streams (number 1) and guides. You require the expertise and perception of a guide creator along with the perseverance and charisma of a streamer.
Positively, podcast content doesn’t need to be as in-depth as a guide, nor does your personality need to be as distinctive as a streamer. For instance, you could create a channel just for gaming news from a particular genre. Although you won’t have to keep audiences entertained for hours at a time, you still need to stick to a regular schedule and regularly generate ideas.
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7. Sell Accounts or Digital Items: Some games allow you to “flip” your account or in-game stuff to other players if you’ve logged enough time into them. You can, for instance, sell some Steam Trading Cards you’ve acquired through gaming to other users who want to collect them. Despite the fact that you won’t make a lot of money from this, you might be able to make enough to pay for your next game.
Accounts might potentially be available for sale. For instance, it’s typical practice in Overwatch to use a “smurf” account—a secondary account with a ranking significantly lower than the player’s true skill level.
Players that wish to smurf might try to buy an account to spare themselves time because you have to attain a particular level to play competitive matches. In a similar vein, if you’re a stronger player than someone else, they might pay you to rank up their account’s skill rating.
There are more inventive methods to handle this; you can market “gaming services” to potential customers. Some players will pay for the opportunity to have a partner to hang out with for an hour if they are feeling lonely.
8. Video Game Development: Another option to earn money from gaming is to work as a game developer if you are passionate about and talented at making your own video games. In order to create programming code that may be utilized to play games, game developers take game concepts. They perform game testing as well. Prior to or during the programming phase, certain developers might also contribute to the creative development of game concepts.
Programming languages like C++, C#, JavaScript, Java, and Python are essential for game creators. As much as actual programming skills are more important, a degree in computer science or software engineering will be helpful and perhaps required for some jobs. Understanding the basics of mathematics, physics, 3D graphics, and animation will be helpful too.
You might want to work on independent game development to hone your development talents. Start with simple games and progress to harder projects as your skills develop. This will make it much easier to use your portfolio to show prospective employers your knowledge.
On LinkedIn, job boards, game company websites, and websites devoted to the gaming business, you can find job advertisements for game developers. It might be simpler for you to begin with a freelancer or smaller company, who are more likely to hire game developers, in order to secure your first position.
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9. Sponsorship and brand deals: Sponsors bring in the most money for the game industry—nearly 40% of all the money made by the industry comes from sponsors. Major brands like Coke, Red Bull, Razer, and others often pay professional gamers to market their goods. Big-time gamers can make millions of dollars from these deals, and regular gamers can make a few hundred dollars from them too.
You just need to have a lot of followers on social media and ask brands that you think would be interested in supporting you to do so. These are the terms: you use their goods and talk about them on social media, and they pay you a certain amount.
10. Become a video game teacher: If you’re really good at a certain game, you can start charging people to help them get better. You can start by showing people who are new to the game how to play and explaining different ideas. You can start asking more for your services once you’ve proven that you are a good coach.
Some people are ready to spend a lot of money to get better at the games they love. On sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer, you can look for teaching jobs. People who teach video games can make anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 a year. People who coach and train well-known e-sports teams can make even more.
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Conclusion: These are eight different ways to monetize your gaming experience! Depending on their individual interests and aptitudes, some of these techniques will be more suitable for particular individuals. To increase your revenue, many of them can be combined. Apply the strategies that are most effective for you. All the best!
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.