Games are fun. And thanks to very talented developers, anyone can enjoy video games on different screen sizes, may it be on a computer, tablet, or even smartphone. Video games are the choice of entertainment for many people around the world. But do you know that there something more fun to do than playing video games?
It’s getting paid while playing!
By now, you should know that gaming is a multibillion-dollar sector. Every year the industry continues to grow. This growth just brought new opportunities for gamers and regular players to earn money while playing. Yes, it’s possible. In fact, you can earn more in video games than in some other traditional jobs.
Want to know how? The following are some ways to make money while playing games. Here are more lucrative ways of playing video games.
Play Online Games
You can earn money by playing online games. The concept is really straightforward you play games and win money. These type of websites offers thousands of different online games such as a competitive live casino game.
Online games aren’t for everyone though. For a starter, there is an age requirement on the website that you should meet. Moreover, it requires discipline, skill, and a great deal of practice. While you can earn a lot playing these online games, you can also spend a considerable amount of time doing so.
Video Game Tester
Before a video game is released in the general market, it will go through several beta testing processes. That is when the opportunity comes in for many gamers. Gaming companies and some developers hire beta testers to play their games.
Don’t underestimate this job, because it can really earn you more than the average job. An online marketplace recruiter revealed that a video game beta tester can earn as high as $135,000 and as low as $19,500 a year.
While you get to play games in this job, you still need to exert a lot of effort and some analytical skills. You’re not going to play the game for fun, though you can have fun in the process. As a beta tester, your job is to find every glitch and bug possible. You need to try to break the game in any way possible and report to the developers or designers of the game.
Game Streamer
Perhaps the most popular way to earn money while playing today, being a game streamer is a dream of many gamers. You can start a Youtube channel or be a streamer on Twitch or Facebook. Some successful streamers earn millions of dollars a year. As a streamer, your income will be coming from ads and sponsorships from gaming companies.
In order to start earning money, you need to gather a certain amount of audience on your channel or page. This is harder than it sounds because of the tight competition in the field. The number of streamers on YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook has grown in the past years. If you want to stand out or survive the competition, you need quality and unique gaming content.
Join Esports
If you think you have skills for serious video game competition, then you probably should join an eSport tournament. Competitive games like Call of Duty, League of Legends, and Fortnite reward champions with a lot of money. Some of the favorite eSport competitions include Call of Duty, Dota 2, League of Legend, Fortnite, and many more. You can either form a group or compete solo.
To inspire you more, in the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals, a 16-year-old American player Kyle Giersdorf, known as Bugha took home the top prize worth of $3 million. Big E-sports events usually happen annually. Thus, you still have time to practice and form a strategy.
Video Game Blogger
If you have writing skills and love video games, then blogging might be the best avenue for you. Though writing skill is important in blogging, you don’t need to be an expert writer to have your own website. Learning search engine optimization is also recommended for you to reach a wider audience online.
There are many ways to earn money when you establish your website. You can create an account with Google for advertising on your site. You can also join affiliate marketing. You can even partner with other brands and write an advertorial or sponsored content. However, like being a streamer, you need quality and unique content to be a successful blogger.
People who love games should 100% go for their dreams and I’m all for more people doing all these things and in the gaming community/industry, but I want everyone to be a little realistic and do some research of their own before they just off and think (I can make it as a …)
All of these ways to make money with games are way harder than most casual gamers are probably thinking.
Videogame testing is a rough job, and for most a job that is not actually all that fun. I’ve been a game tester and most of your job consists of looking at tickets in something like Jira and then checking meticulously all the steps leading up to the bug to see if the recreation is accurate. It is definitely not (play this game and enjoy it to the end then give us feedback on it). Most of the fun, find the bugs, work will be done by those with more experience with the company, or by the devs themselves who will write the tickets that you will check. I was an experienced tester with a programming background and I was only seeing $30k as a tester (and I was paid higher than most other testers) and moved on.
Streamer is probably the most glorious of them all in the eyes of gamers everywhere, but like the article says, it is much harder than it sounds. There is so much that goes into making a good channel and getting viewers. You need to be consistent, you need to constantly watch you own streams and see what you can improve and then make the adjustments, you need to increase your presence on all social media and really turn up the volume which can be annoying to many of your current friends/family members, you need to learn OBS and all the different gimmicks used to keep viewers interested in a channel, but most important, you have to be an interesting person. It takes a lot of effort and sometimes inherent talent wins out over effort and leaves you viewerless.
Join Esports is way tougher than just being good at games, and more than that, it takes a certain mental fortitude. That’s like just deciding to join any pro sport. It takes hours and hours and hours of pure dedicated training with goals in mind each time. And it won’t end when you get in, you’ll go to bootcamps, training camps, you’ll live in a house with your other teammates and have your food cooked for you and be expected to eat specific meals at specific times and then continue your training regime which will include playing the game (of course) but with specific goals for practice in mind. You’ll be put through mental and physical training at many organizations because a balanced life helps you maintain stamina and focus, etc.
Blogger is in a lot of ways like a streamer. You will have to work hard and be consistent, but you’ll also need some talent at writing and drawing in an audience. You’ll need to know how to run a site, keep it healthy, keep it in the search engines with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if you want a chance at getting enough traffic for ads to pad your pockets, or you’ll need to create a loving, caring, awesome community with enough people and enough content to keep them interested and spending money on different products and services. Content creation is no simple task, and is even harder in some ways than streaming because you have to plan well and you don’t get immediate feedback.
I have worked in and around the game industry off and on in different capacities for many years now, and that’s my take (this is the tl;dr version already, sorry).
Streaming is probably the most popular way people earn money while playing games, but I think it’s unreliable and it’s just a bad long-term career since streaming is prone to unpredictable fluctuations. It’s not so much about keeping a consistent schedule, although that is an important aspect of streaming. Sometimes you’ll have days when you rack in a bunch of viewers and get a lot of support like donations, then there’ll be days where you don’t have as much support. And if you become popular streaming a game, then as time progresses, there will be newer games that might be more popular and it’ll be harder to compete with.
My advice is don’t rely on only one opportunity (like only streaming). Open yourself up to different avenues and explore other opportunities (like looking for sponsorships with other game companies, collaborating with people to pitch your own games, going to gaming events to interview or play with other people and creating your own brand recognition, etc.).