Playing video games has long been thought of as a simple hobby and even a waste of time. Older generations are still viewing it as something that steals away the focus and energy from their children and grandchildren. They believe young people and gamers in general can be much more productive if they do virtually anything else.
However, the videogame industry of today is worth more than the music and movie industries combined. More and more professional players appear each year, earning thousands and even millions of dollars in the process. Since their initial appearance, they have grown and established themselves as a real career option.
With this topic in mind, we decided to share with you the best and most fun ways you can earn some extra money on the side of gaming. If you are interested, check out these amazing ideas below and start earning from your favorite hobby.
Table of Contents
1. Livestream Your Gaming Sessions
By far the most profitable way of earning some bucks on the side while playing video games is online streaming. By opening an account on popular streaming platforms and sharing your gameplay sessions with others, you can eventually end up earning hundreds and thousands of dollars per week, both from the total streaming hours, viewer tips and donations, and sponsors. There is also an option to upload and share pre-recorded videos, but streaming in real-time is the real deal. The viewers enjoy chatting with their favorite gamers as they play. They often ask questions, have debates, or simply mess around and have fun. It is a live community where everyone is welcome. The most popular place for streaming is Twitch, but Mixer, YouTube, and even Facebook are all good options. As mentioned, affiliate links, donations, adds, and sponsorships are what generates money for these pro gamers. One thing you should know, you have to be kind of great at the games you play for the people to watch you, and it takes time to establish a bigger fan base.
2. Become a Gaming YouTube Content Creator
Right next to streamers are YouTube content creators. The most popular video platform on the web is infamous for making bloggers, vloggers, and various other artists millionaires, so the best gamers all have YouTube accounts too. The best of them earn tens of millions of dollars by working hard on their skills and posting quality content every day. To be able to generate such amounts of money, a gamer needs a few million subscribers, who will notice them only if they are different or better than the rest of the competition. Young people enjoy watching others play their favorite games for various reasons. Some are not good enough themselves and want to learn, others do not have the game yet, while some unfortunate gamers do not have strong enough machines to run some high-end games. No matter what the reason for their watching is, millions of fans tune in daily and check on their favorite YouTubers. To be a YT gaming star, you have to be a master of a certain game, or even better a certain genre. You also need good editing skills, at least until you make enough on a monthly basis to hire an editor. Your personality also has to be the right mix of competitive, goofy, interesting, and knowledgeable, in order to appeal to a wider range of people. Once the views start coming, so will the sponsorships!
3. Beta Test Games
Video game testers have been around ever since video games first appeared. These lucky people have the privilege to play new games well before they are released. By doing this, they test the gameplay, graphics, and everything else, and report back to the company if they encounter problems and bugs. Their honest feedback is the key for the developers to release the best version of the game they possibly can. Although game testing sounds like a fun job and a pleasurable experience, testers rarely get to play what they want, since there are hundreds of games released each year. You may get AAA titles, but more often than not, a weird and buggy game will find its way to you. You can literally expect anything!
4. In-Game Item Selling
The current most popular games have millions of devoted players who log in daily and spend hours in them. However, they spend something else, real-life money. Hits like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, World of Warcraft, and Diablo 3 allow players to profit from in-game items in real life. By collecting special items, weapons, and skins, you can sell them to other players on marketplaces like Steam and Gameflip. They really make it easy for users to list popular and sought-after game items and earn money from them. DOTA 2 items sell for as much as $53 on Gameflip, and the rarest and best-looking Counter-Strike weapon skins go for more than $1,500 on Steam. Some players even design and create their own skins, which they then sell to interested buyers.
5. Write Guides, Tips, and Tricks, or Walkthroughs
If you are a veteran gamer who has completed hundreds of games and played, even more, you probably have extensive knowledge of the industry as a whole. It is easy for such people to predict things about games, find hidden secrets, and complete them quickly, so why not share some of this? Guides, tricks, tips, and game walkthroughs are all very popular in the modern-day when games became mainstream. If you have something new to offer about a popular game or know enough about an underground game you think needs more attention, share it online! Offer your services to different platforms depending on your hopes and dreams, establish partners and sponsors, and reveal what you know to the world. You will help numerous fellow gamers, which feels amazing!
6. Compete in Tournaments
As with everything else, top tier professional gamers eventually apply or are invited to play in tournaments with considerable prize pools. All popular games have multiple types of tournaments throughout the year. Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, DOTA, LOL, and Apex Legends tourneys award hundreds of thousands of dollars to the best-ranked players. On the other hand, top tournaments and competitions like world cups reward the winners millions of dollars and generate millions more from TV deals and broadcasts.
7. Online Casinos
Last but not least, we have online gambling. Like traditional casino gambling with roulette and card games, online services like spincasino.com offer the players dozens of popular ways of earning money. Start with a small initial investment, and based on your knowledge of blackjack, roulette, poker, or other fan-favorite games, you can make a small fortune. While these are not considered “real” games, it is still gaming for both fun and making cash on the side. Therefore, online casinos deserve a legitimate spot on the list of best and most fun ways of making money from your gaming. If you are a fan of gambling and enjoy the blood rush you get from the risks and anticipation, what are you waiting for?
