7 Ways to Make Money Playing Video Games
What's better than playing video games?
Getting paid cash money to play video games!
Gaming is an extremely fun past-time, and turning it into a full-time income is many people's ultimate dream. Luckily for you, it's not only possible video games can earn you more than a traditional job.
Some people are making six, seven, and even eight figures playing games for a living.
Want to learn how? Here are seven ways to make money playing video games (that really work).
1: Review games
One of the best ways to make money from playing games is to review them.
You can do this in many ways including putting reviews on websites, blogs or video sites like YouTube.
You may think that reviewing games would be a hard market to break into. Especially considering there are so many games to cover and so many larger websites covering them.
And that’s not to mention the fact that you wouldn’t, at first, have access to review copies. So you’d have to buy the games yourself.
But, if you can add a unique twist to your reviews, or let your ‘born to entertain’ personality shine on video or in writing, you may have a chance of succeeding.
However, like all online ventures that start with reviewing games, you have to be committed.
This is not a get rich quick scheme.
You’ll have to review a lot of games. And you’ll have to review a lot of games consistently.
You’ll have to commit a huge amount of time and effort to growing an online game review business. So take a few days to think about what you are willing to sacrifice for the next two years to make it happen.
But, if you can commit yourself to review games over the long term, you have just as much a chance of succeeding as any of the other mega gaming site floating about the internet.
2: Gaming news website
Running a game news website such as Eurogamer.net can be an extremely lucrative game related venture.
However, creating a site to match these behemoth websites is surely an impossible task?
Well, actually, it’s not.
There’s a beautifully simple formula that’ll help you create a successful game related website. It just takes a lot of hard work.
Here’s the steps system to get you started:
*Think of a name for your gaming news site.
*Sign up for free on medium/wordpress.com.
*Write, your first news article.
*Keep on writing until you have at least 60,000 words on your site.
*Add adverts to your site when you have a consistent 1000 visitors per month. Keep on adding more words.
*When you start making money, pay WordPress to get a proper unique URL
Keep on writing
*Diversify your content, get on YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest other content hubs.
*Keep on making content. It’s the most important thing.
*When visitor numbers grow to over 100,000 visitors a month approach bigger companies for specialist advertisements.
*Keep on making content. It’s the most important thing.
And that’s it. You can set up a successful gaming news website easily. You just have to be committed to producing content, and lots of it.
Keep an eye out for our in-depth guide about starting your own gaming news site
3: Become a Video Game Tester
This is pretty much the O.G. way to make money playing video games. Game developers will pay game testers to try out their games in a real player environment. They are paid to spot bugs and make suggestions on how to improve the game.
Considering the average salary across all industries is only $44,564, game testers can make a good bit more than the average job.
However, keep in mind that just because you're getting paid to play video games doesn't mean the job is just like your average gaming session on the couch. It's still a lot of hard work.
For example, game testers have to do matrix testing. Let's say you're testing a fighting game like Mortal Combat — a matrix test means you play all 20 characters versus all 20 characters 1-on-1, one match at a time, to determine how each character matches up. That's over 8,000 matches!
You'll also have to test every nook and cranny of the game, trying to find every glitch and bug.
This job is best for those who are very analytical and methodical. If that doesn't describe you, this might not be the job for you. But this isn't the only way to get paid to play!
4: Start a YouTube Channel
Another way to earn money to play your favorite games is by starting a YouTube channel (or a blog or podcast, but we'll focus on YouTube as it's the most visual platform).
YouTube is one of, if not the biggest potential earner on this list. PewDiePie (shown below) was the sixth highest-paid YouTuber in 2017, earning a whopping $12 million — and he started with basic video game commentary.
Some things you can do on your YouTube channel to gain a following are:
*Use entertaining commentary and add effects to make your videos more interesting and engaging.
*Record popular games such as Gary's Mod or Fortnite with your friends and other YouTubers.
*Teach people how to play the game better with guides, tutorials, and commentary explaining why you make certain decisions in the game.
*Review new games and help people decide if a game is worth buying or not.
*You can worry about getting sponsored once you have developed a more serious following, though. So get cracking.
5: Stream on Twitch
Twitch is a streaming platform where viewers can watch others play their favorite games.
Popular Twitch streamer Ninja made ~$10 million in 2018 from ads, sponsorships, and Twitch subscribers. And he's not alone — combined, the top 10 Twitch streamers made over $20 million in 2017.
Of course, that's not typical. The average Twitch streamer earns closer to $10,000 to $40,000 per year. Still a decent revenue stream!
To get started making money on Twitch, you must become a Twitch Partner. To do that, you need to have:
*At least 500 total minutes broadcast in the last 30 days.
*At least 7 unique broadcast days in the last 30 days.
*An average of 3 concurrent viewers or more over the last 30 days.
*At least 50 Followers.
Once you become a partner, you can start earning money from subscribers and displaying ads on your channel. Of course, you can also get sponsorships from gaming companies just like you can on YouTube.
6: Become a Game Developer
Another way to earn as a gamer is to actually develop the games yourself. Game developers at major companies like Ubisoft or EA earn an average salary of $83,000. However, jobs for major game companies are notoriously stressful and tend to force you to work long hours and holidays.
Alternatively, you can become a solo game developer and make money through game sales and in-game purchases. For example, Minecraft was developed solely by Markus Persson under his company Mojang. Mojang sold to Microsoft for a whopping $2.5 billion.
Another solo example is game developer Finn Brice, founder of Chucklefish and creator of hit game Stardew Valley, which earned ~$24 million in 2016 (more than Call of Duty).
Both of these developers were self-taught and created the games out of a passion for game development and video games in general. What's stopping you?
7: Get Signed on an eSports Team
Esports players earn an average of $1,000 to $5,000 per month — or about $60,000 per year. It's grown massively since its inception in the late '90s (shown below) and it's not stopping any time soon.
Top games paying players include Dota 2, Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Starcraft II, and Fortnite (among others).
The best way to become a pro player is to focus on a single game, get extremely good, and use other platforms to show off your skills (like Twitch and YouTube). In fact, most players are found and signed on thanks to these platforms.
However, you don't have to be a player to make money in eSports. There are multiple other career paths, such as:
Hosting esports events
Coaching other online players
Streaming and commentating on esports matches
Acting as a referee
Sales and marketing specialist
Social media manager for a team or game producer
