Make Money Online Playing Games

Many people dream about transforming their gaming hobby into a career, but few realise just how feasible it is now to make a start in professional gaming.

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However, with the arrival of Twitch, it's becoming a lot easier to start making money playing games. Big investors are also changing their attitude to the professional gaming industry - it's quickly becoming a multi-billion dollar business.

In this article, I'll focus strictly on ways to make you money without ever having to leave your home, which is the opportunity most of us wish we had!

Here are your options:

Game Testing (Sites That Will Pay You to Play Games)

We all play a lot of online games in our free time, so why not get paid for it in the process?

There are numerous sites such as Gamesville, Bananatic, LaLa Loot, Clip2Play, Cash Dazzle and Bingo! Zone that are looking for people to check out new games, earn a certain score, reach a certain level or win specific tournaments.

My advice would be to stick with just a few games at first, because it will take you some time to get good at a certain game and get paid a bit more than what you'll get in the beginning, so take your time and don't spread yourself too thin trying out a lot of new games at once.

You can also look for game testing jobs, which require you to look through games that are in development phase and find bugs and problems. You can find such jobs on PlaytestCloud, BestReviewApp, MyAppAware, BetaFamily, and ErliBird.

Game Journalism

As a gaming writing you will generally get paid per article, if you write for an already established site. Alternatively you can also create your own blog site and make money from ad revenue. However, starting your own publication might be very slow going at first. Usually it takes several years for a new website to break even and eventually start making money. And even longer to establish a highly profitable business.

Assuming you do choose to find work with an existing publication, you'll still need a strong portfolio of articles that you've written. These don't need to have been published yet, just evidence how talented you are at writing.

Finally, you should contact as many gaming publications as you can, including examples of your work. Be honest with them that you haven't been published yet and make sure you communicate how enthusiastic and knowledgeable you are. Once you do get accepted, make sure your name is included as the author - then you'll be a published gaming writer!

Guides and Walthroughs

Guides and walthroughs are really popular especially when a new game comes out. Newbies like to read through guides or watch them on YouTube, so if you consider yourself an expert in a game, and have a lot you'd like to share, you could either create your own YouTube channel and make video guides of popular games, or write articles for established websites. You can also publish them on your own blog if you have one.

Podcasts

You can do podcasts on popular games and gaming subjects. You don't have to know everything about gaming. You could simply voice and share your opinion with your audience, engage with them and even invite some guests on your podcast and discuss a certain topic together.

You could have daily, weekly or even monthly podcasts, but you will also need to have a strong following in order to monetize your videos.

Streaming (How to Make Money On Twitch)

When we think about game play streaming, most of us think of Twitch and YouTube. You are probably quite familiar with YouTube and the fact that you can make a lot of money from ads and sponsors, but there are lots of you who haven't heard of Twitch yet, and believe me when I say, you are really missing out.

There are a few possible ways to make money from your Twitch channel. Some of which allow you to make money from the beginning, so let's check them out!

Ask for Donations

Once you sign up to stream on Twitch (for free), you have the option to add a donation button on your channel, so your viewers can give you cash if they like your streams.

They can donate you anything from a dollar to hundreds or thousands of dollars in a minute. While the latter doesn't happen too often, some Twitch streamers have been lucky to receive such donations. (Remember: Even though they're called 'donations', you will have to pay taxes for the money, no matter the sum).

The best part about it is that you don't have to subscribe to Twitch or have a specific number of followers in order to qualify. You can have a donation button as soon as you create your channel.

Collect Subscribers

If you put in a bit more work and level up, you can expect to get a bigger payoff. Once you get at least 500 regular viewers and a steady following you can apply (for free) and become a Twitch Partner. Once you become a partner you can make a lot more money on Twitch.

One of the benefits of becoming a partner is that you could have a 'Subscribe' button in addition to your donation button. People who really like your channel and your streams, and would like to see you succeed, will most likely subscribe to your channel. Twitch pays around 50% for each subscriber, which is about $2.50/month.

If you want to get more followers and subscribers you can increase your chances by marketing yourself on social media, and you can also set up a YouTube account and post your videos there as well. That way you can get more popular in the streaming world and more people will want to subscribe to your channel.

Tip: Post highlight reels and best moments/best kills from your streams on YouTube and make people want to check out your channel on Twitch. Try to interact with your viewers, thank them for their donations and make them feel important to you. Use your humor, charm or whatever it is that makes you unique, so that you can stand out from thousands or millions of other streamers out there.

Collect 'Bits'

The online currency known as 'bits' was announced by Twitch In 2016. It is a type of tipping system called 'Cheering' that allows viewers to award their favorite streamers. Just as a reference, 100 Bits are worth $1.40.

Viewers earn Bits when they watch ads, or purchase them using the Amazon payment system.

Later on they can use their bits to gift a player they like by typing 'cheerxx' right into that player's chat bar ('xx' is where you type in the amount of Bits you want to give).

Earn Ad Revenue

If you're already a Twitch Partner and have gained a lot of subscribers you can start earning money from ads as well. Your channel could bring you around $250/month per every 100 subscribers.

How to Get Started on Twitch

  • You have to be at least 13 years old to sign up on Twitch. You can do so by entering a username and password, or connect using your Facebook account - it's that simple.
  • Set up your PC, laptop or console properly.
  • You can get your personalized key to stream from your laptop or PC, simply by clicking the 'Stream Key' link on your Twitch dashboard. If you're streaming from Xbox One or a PS4 you'll need to follow different instructions, which you can all easily find on Twitch.
  • You'll also need to invest in a good video camera if you want people to see you while you play, and a microphone to share your reactions with them, joke around and have fun.
  • Finally, you need to have a PayPal account or you can also use Amazon to collect the money you'll make from your streams.

How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?

There isn't one definite answer to how much money Twitch streamers make, so in order to get a grip of the amount of money you could make, I'll take one of the most famous Fortnite streamers as an example.

He's known to millions of people around the world as Ninja, and you might probably know him from the time he played Fortnite with Drake and broke the Twitch record for a most-viewed stream. The number of his subscribers is increasing by the hour, so if we estimate that Ninja earns $2.50 for every subscriber who pays $5, then we could roughly calculate his monthly earning to around $350,000, and that's without calculating in donations from his viewers and sponsors, as well as ad revenue.

Although his story is very inspiring to all streamers out there, and those who are considering this as a way to earn a living, or at least some extra pocket money, the truth is that Ninja didn't become famous overnight. He started streaming his game play at least 7 years ago, but reached his peak with Fortnite. He became so popular that even Drake played with him last month.

He has become one of the biggest game streamers right now and there's no stopping him. His popularity is increasing as he gets more new subscribers on YouTube and on Twitch every hour.

What Makes a Good Streamer?

If you want in on the fame that comes with being a popular game streamer these days, then you should focus on a few very important and easily applicable things.

First of all, just to clear everything up, you need to know that being a professional streamer doesn't mean you have to be the best at a given game. In fact, what most streamers that are popular on Twitch and YouTube do, is they record their day-to-day gameplay, nothing scary or hard about that.

People that view streams aren't just interested in new strategies and stuff like that, they also want to be entertained. If you want to be a popular streamer you need to interact with your audience, and make them want to keep coming back to watch even more of your streams. You need to offer them the chance to get away from their daily worries and activities, and make sure they have fun watching your streams.

Are you a fan of playing video games? What if you could earn a living playing Call of Duty, Fortnite, or any of your other favorite games?

Well, it might surprise you to learn that there are millions of people earning money through the video game industry.

Video games are big moneymakers, with the industry expected to top valuations of $300-billion by 2025. You can get a slice of that pie if you know what to do, and how to position yourself in the video game world.

We put together this list of ways to make money playing video games. Choose an occupation that suits your talents, and start taking action toward achieving your dreams.

Try Mistplay: Earn Money for Playing Mobiles Games

Contents

  • 2 1. Start a Career as a Game Developer

Mistplay is a mobile application that allows you to earn rewards in exchange for playing video games. All you need is an Android phone to get started. You can earn rewards for playing games, in-game achievements and other things which you can then cash in for gift cards.

You can read our full review of Mistplay here.

1. Start a Career as a Game Developer

If being a superstar gamer on social channels leaves you feeling nervous, then consider working in the industry as a game developer. If you prefer coding over gameplay, then this is the ideal way to earn money in the gaming industry.

Online Games That Pay Cash

Major players in the gaming industry, such as Blizzard and Ubisoft hire game developers at an average starting salary of $83,000. However, you’ll need to be able to handle working under pressure. Game developers have a full plate, and you can expect to work long hours and over weekends and public holidays, especially when it’s close to the games launch date.

If you don’t like the thought of working for someone, then you can always start a company yourself. The most successful example of an independent game developer is Markus Persson, the person responsible for creating the popular game, “Minecraft.”

How Do You Make Money Playing Online Games

Markus founded “Mojang,” and Microsoft eventually bought him out for a whopping price tag of $2.5-billion. All you need to replicate their success is a good idea and some help from business professionals.

Learn the Skills at Udacity

Udacity is an online school which teaches lots of different tech related skills with the purpose of helping you find a job. They have a programming school so you can learn what you need to become a game developer.

They are worth checking out as they partner with companies to teach you the exact skills that employers are actually looking for.

If you signup for a course you get :

  • Real-world projects to learn from, created by from industry experts
  • Access to a 1-on-1 technical mentor
  • Personal career coach and career services

If you’d like to learn more, here’s our full review of Udacity.

Learn the Skills at Udemy

Udemy is another online academy for students and instructors with over 100,000 courses that are updated every month. Udemy has a huge range of Game development course you can take which will cover just about every aspect that an employer would need.

You can go at your own pace and they have a lot of industry experts on the platform. The courses are reasonably priced and they also often have sales on to grab a bargain.

Example – At the time of writing, their “Ultimate Guide to Game Development with Unity” is on sale, reduced from £169 to just £15.99!

If you’d like to learn more, here’s our full review of Udemy.

2. Create a Gaming Website

Money

It’s never been easier to create your own website, and gaming sites have some of the highest traffic around. You could start a website reviewing games and if you build a large enough audience you will start to get free review copies of games and other types of sponsorships.

We don’t recommend you jump in and try to become the next Polygon, Destructoid or Games Radar as these sites have been around for years and are run by huge corporations with big budgets and you will never be able to compete in the search engines.

We recommend you pick a smaller niche in which you have expert knowledge to share. For example you might choose a particular game, a particular console or genre of games ( platformers, FPS, RTS, RPG etc ) and dive deep in to that subject, providing more indepth content you won’t find on the larger sites.

If you are wondering how to get started, take a look at our guide “How to Start a Blog & Make Money” which walks you through the entire process of picking a domain name, setting up your web hosting and getting started creating content.

Getting a brand new website off the ground is a slow process but if gaming is your hobby anyway it shouldn’t feel like a chore – take your time, share your passion and the money will follow.

3. Quality Assurance Officer

Video game programmer’s complete lines of code that bring a game to life. The developers spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours building a game to ensure that the user experience is as immersive as possible.

Before they launch a game, video game companies rely on outside testing panels to explore the game before they complete the final version that goes to the market. As a quality assurance officer for a video game company, you’ll let the developers know what’s working with the game and where the game needs some attention.

A quality assurance tester is responsible for playing the game at the highest level, providing feedback to the developers of the experience that users can expect when they load it onto their machines and start playing the game. QA specialists play different builds and designs multiple times, giving their feedback to the development team.

When the QA tester has nothing to report, then the development team knows they have a finished product that ready for launch. Games can have multiple problems in the beta-testing phase. It’s common for glitches and mistakes to occur throughout the game, and QA testers are the developer’s last line of defense for finding all of the problems with the game before it goes to market.

Most QA testers work on contract, and it’s challenging to find a full-time position with a firm unless you sign up to be an in-house tester for a development company. On average, QA testers make between $10 and $15 per hour.

4. Video Game Tester

Some development companies hire gamers for in-house testing positions. Similar to a QA tester, a video game tester is responsible for playing the final version of the product.

However, these testers are successful and established gamers that have a foothold in the industry. Most testers have in-house positions with the development company, and they might also lead QA campaigns with other testers in the development phase of the game.

It might surprise you to learn that you can make a really good living as an in-house video game tester. The average pay packet for a tester is $67,813 per year, which is around 30% higher than the national salary average.

While testing video games might sound like plenty of fun, it’s also a lot of hard work. If you’re expecting to sit on the couch all day and play games, well, you’re partially right. Testers need to play the game thousands of times to uncover any issues with the gameplay before the development team prepares the game for launch.

5. Become a YouTuber

If you’re a successful gamer, consider starting a YouTube channel to increase your earnings. YouTube is one of the best platforms for gamers to put up their commentary on games.

You can live-stream your gaming sessions with commentary, review new games, or offer your thoughts on industry topics.

“PewDiePie” is the most successful example of a gamer that made money on YouTube. Currently, he has 102-million subscribers on his channel, and his videos have over 22-billion total views – that’s astounding.

As a result of his hard work building his channel, PewDiePie earns more than $500,000 per month from ad revenue on his videos, that’s more than $12-million per year!

All you need to start is to open your channel and start dropping content. However, it might take you some time to amass an audience and start earning money. YouTube has qualifying criteria; all new channels must meet before they can apply for monetization of their account.

As of 2019, YouTube’s Partner requirements for monetization need you to have more than 1,000-subscribers to your channel, as well as 4,000-hours of total view time on your videos over the last 12-months. YouTubers also create income through sponsorships as well.

When your channel starts gaining traction, you can reach out to gaming companies and other related industry partners to sponsor your videos.

For instance, you could get sponsorship from Razer for promoting their gaming products like laptops, headsets, and keyboards.

6. Stream Your Gaming Sessions on Twitch

Twitch is another online community started by gamers. The Twitch monetization model is similar to YouTube, where channels can earn advertising revenue through broadcasting their gaming sessions.

However, the requirements for monetizing your channel are laxer than YouTube, and you need the following to be eligible for ad revenue.

  • 500-minutes of total broadcast time within the last 30-days
  • 7-unique video broadcast days within the last 30-days
  • A minimum of 3-concurrent viewers over the previous 30-days
  • A minimum of 50-followers on your channel

The requirements are reasonably easy to achieve, and if you release exciting content, you could expect to achieve monetization for your channel in a month.

One of the most popular streamers on Twitch, “Ninja,” earned north of $10-million in 2018 from sponsorships and ad revenue on his channel, with the top 10 gamers streaming on Twitch earning a combined income of more than $20-million.

However, while these gamers have exceptional results, you’ll have to offer the community something special to earn income at this level.

Most players streaming on the platform earn anywhere between $10,000 to $40,000 per year – which is still a decent income for playing games and having fun with your friends online.

7. Compete in Gaming Tournaments

Gaming is becoming a big business. Today there are gaming tournaments for popular games like “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty.” These tournaments happen all over the world, from the United States to Japan. Registering for gaming tournaments is not a full-time occupation, and you might not have the opportunity to enter every tournament.

Epic Games hosted the 2019 Fornite Tournament, awarding a $3-million grand prize to the winner, 16-year old Kyle Giersdorf. Kyle played in front of an audience of over 2-million viewers, beating out the competition to claim his throne as the king of Fortnite.

UFC superstar, Sean O’Malley states that he earns $4,500 per month playing video game tournaments at home while he remains under suspension from the league for a USADA doping violation. That’s a great way to earn money while you’re stuck at home doing nothing.

8. Sign On to an eSports Team

With total revenues exceeding $869-million in 2018, eSports is becoming a global behemoth in the online video gaming world. Goldman Sachs expects the industry to triple by 2022, earning a staggering $2.96-bliion in revenues.

If you have a talent for gaming, then you can sign with an eSports team to play in tournaments hosted all over the world. Most eSports players average around $1,000 to $5,000 per month, and an annual salary of $60,000 is no small chunk of change.

Esports continues to grow, with regular tournaments held for games like League of Legends, Starcraft 2, Counterstrike, and Fortnite, among others.

If you want to earn a place on an eSports team, you’ll need to earn your keep. You’ll need a YouTube channel with a decent following, and it’s best if you specialize in a specific game, such as Fortnite or Call of Duty.

You don’t necessarily have to be a gamer to find work in the eSports industry. There are employment opportunities for the following positions in the eSports community.

  • Hosting and emceeing live eSports events
  • Commentating on eSports tournaments
  • Coaching other sports players
  • Managing eSports players
  • Tournament referee
  • Social media management for tournaments and teams
  • Marketing and sales for eSports events

9. Video Game Journalism

If you have a talent for writing and reporting, you could make it with a career in video game journalism. Most video game journalists earn between $26,00 and $30,000 per year, making it one of the lowest-paying jobs in the sector.

However, if you have a passion for gaming, and you enjoy writing and drafting reports, then this job could be an excellent opportunity, even as a side-hustle.

To start as a journalist, you might need a degree in journalism, and some experience working in the sector. Some companies also offer paid internships where you can get a foothold in the industry.

You can also carve out a career as a freelance writer, you won’t need any formal education, just a sold grasp of the english language and a flair for writing in an engaging way.

We go into to more detail about this in our guide to becoming a freelance writer.

10. Customer Service Representative

The gaming industry requires a reliable support network, especially during a new release. As a customer service representative, you’ll assist gamers in overcoming the problems they experience while playing the game. You might have to deal with some angry clients, and the pay isn’t great, with most reps earning between $13 and $20 per hour.

There are game companies like Blizzard that also hire in-game administrators that play the game and offer other gamers support through an in-game chat. When applying for this position, the gaming company will care more about your customer service skills than your gaming skills.

11. Design and Sell Gaming Merch

If you search online for “Super Mario Bros t-shirt,” you’ll get thousands of results. It’s the same for any merchandise involving gaming.

Coffee mugs, mousepads, clothing, and cellphone covers are just a few examples of popular merch that gamers snap up in the millions.

  • You can use a site like Teespring, Printful & Printify to help you sell t-shirts and other clothing online.
  • All you need to do is hire a designer on a site like Fiverr and have them make you a design you think might sell.
  • Then drag and drop your design onto the t-shirt or coffee mug on Teespring, and get a link from the platform which you can promote on social platforms.

Visit any YouTubers channel, and you’ll see that they all have merch available for sale. Merch is one of the most significant revenue streams for gamers, earning them thousands of dollars a year in profits.

12. Farm Gaming Currency

While most of the world already know about digital currencies like Bitcoin, many don’t realize that mining gaming currencies can also produce significant profits. Gamers use in-game currencies to purchase a variety of in-game products, such as weapons. People that don’t want to spend the time playing the game for a currency can purchase it from you to buy what they want in the game.

13. Coaching Gamers

If you’re a whizz at a specific game, then you can sell your skills online as a video game coach. Some coaches can earn as much as $200-per hour for teaching others their skillset. You’ll likely have to amass a following on YouTube or Twitch to gain your reputation as a coach.

The Final Thought – You Can Achieve Anything You Want in Life

Who would have thought you could make a living through video games?

Any of the careers mentioned above can net you real money in your bank account for involving yourself in the gaming industry.

Make Money Online Playing Games Free

If it’s your passion, then give it a shot, what do you have to lose but time?