How to Make Money From Video Games Online
If you have shared with your friends or family that your future job will be related to playing video games – you were probably told off. In some cases, you might have even turned into a joke.
Well, what if we told you that there is not just 1, but 8 different ways in which you can make a regular income from video games? Some (as you probably know) even make 6 figure numbers by turning their hobby into a career.
Let’s not waste time, and cut to the chase; below, you will find information on how to make money from video games through the following ways:
- Quality Assurance Tester
- Game Tester
- Become a Professional Gamer
- Become an Entertainer and a Streamer
- Join Twitch
- Contact Sponsors
- Get paid to Play
- Set up Tutorials
- Side Activities to Make Money
We will walk you through each of these options below. If you only care about becoming a professional gamer, then you should have a look at this specific part and also check out some cool gaming website themes that you can employ towards that end.
1. Making Money as Quality Assurance Tester
Most gamers tend to see the end-result of a lot of programming work going into video games. Nonetheless, for a video game to reach from point blank – a user friendly, realistic and exciting product there are many stages involved.
To help achieve this challenging task, design and programming companies hire independent people with experience in video games to try them out and share with them their honest opinion. This might seem easy at first glance, but we are talking about true detail here – so gaming experience is not the only skill you would need to become a Quality Assurance Tester.
Under this role, you would have to try various variants of the games and spot the positives and the negatives in each.
In most cases, QA tester is a contractual job, but it can pay off a good base salary for a period of time.
2. Game Tester
This is very similar to the above role, but it is the next step of the process involved in developing a video game.
The QA tester has spent a lot of time trying different things, while the game tester will purely focus on the end-product.
Game testers don’t need a varied list of skills, but they must definitely be experienced players in the genre they are testing; also, they must be willing to go a step further and play the game in order to ‘break it’.
It is important that a game tester is also able to make generalisations from their specific video gaming experience in order to justify why or why not this game would be successful with other players. He might even be asked to suggest improvements and introduce new ideas.
3. Becoming a Professional Gamer
Yes, mom and dad, Pro Gamers is a thing. eSports tournaments are the most evident example of the popularity of video games in 2020 and how much money one can make if they climb up the ladder of this competitive genre.
Nonetheless, turning from a gamer to a professional gamer is much harder from what one would think. There are millions of players within each popular video game, who would dream about getting paid for playing.
To get there, you will first need to start by aiming small. Focus on one exact video game, build a loyal team and always climb up the ladders within your chosen game. If you notice that this happens quickly, then you might have a chance.
Watch the biggest tournaments and other individual pro gamers to learn from them. See what you are doing wrong and what they are doing right. Don’t just play the game, but play with certain goals in mind and work hard to meet them.
If you are at a good level already, then you might want to consider using a gaming wordpress themes website to get yourself out there. Let others see you and proactively connect with other pro gamers.
4. Stream to Entertain
Becoming a pro gamer is not the only way to make money from playing video games. Many people are being watched as they are playing a video game – purely because they are entertaining.
Uploading videos playing on your site or on other social media would be a great way to start. The only thing you will need for that job is dual monitors (which can be expensive), so you can respond to fans on the one screen and play on the other.
Another way to introduce your fun personality to others is by joining groups of players in clan matches, sieges and multiple players vs multiplayers games or events. This is a better starting point, as it would not be hard to get your first audiences.
Nonetheless, you shouldn’t try too hard and push away people. Be yourself and if that’s not enough, then you should probably pick one of the other ways in this article to make money from video games.
5. Join the world of Twitch
Twitch is a live streaming platform for mostly video games, which was acquired by Amazon in 2014. The key to its success within the gaming industry is its partner program, that pays $3 for every 1,000 ad views; additionally, Twitch pays its users $5 every month for each new subscriber and when combined with sponsorships, Amazon links and PayPal donations – there is a great array of income options.
Why not YouTube? Well, on Twitch it is much easier to find people interested in video games’ streams. People who have made it on Twitch suggest:
- Focus on one game to narrow focus of fans for your channel
- Be consistent and reliable in terms of the content you upload
- Stream with friends in the beginning
- If you start getting fans, make sure that you interact with them
If you are looking to make money from video games, then Twitch is one of the best ways to achieve this. New channels can also generate revenue through Twitch’s Affiliate Program since 2017.
6. Find Sponsors
This is a pretty hard target, but if you have made yourself on YouTube, Twitch or amongst a large gaming community – then you could as well start contacting sponsors. This method has been popular with most industries in the past and it still remains.
To find a sponsor willing to pay you to play, you will have to work hard to impress them. Preparation is key here.
Then, you will need to search hard in order to find a strong match to your personality and personal brand. Always consider if you are using their products first and why.
Consider whom you would need to contact from that company in order to request a meeting and make your proposal. Use LinkedIn, their website, social media or word to mouth within your gaming community.
Lastly, never forget that you are not selling anything to them. You are trying to highlight to them how you would bring value to their company or to one of their products. Big players within a video game don’t have to contact sponsors themselves, rather the opposite happens in most cases.
7. Get Direct Payments to Play
If you are shocked that this is common, then we are wondering what you are doing here. Getting paid to play is not as rare as one might think.
Obviously, none is going to approach you in the real world and pay you upfront to start playing a game. However, this could happen online in some form of coin or cryptocurrency. These can be turned into money or gift cards in most cases.
Many online sites are looking for people to play their video games for free and review them. An example is the InboxDollars, which is a service for digital marketers to find new customers; the site primarily makes money from ads.
You could become qualified for this in advance and practice this art as a hobby. Use your social media or build a website/forum – were you can share your personal views with other gamers and engage with them. This would greatly boost your chances of getting discovered and paid for this fun activity.
8. Provide Tutorials for Games
If you are an experienced player of video games, then this might sound silly. However, why don’t you take a minute to search for some video games’ tutorials on YouTube and see how many views they have?
This is a very good way to build your channel on YouTube or Twitch in the first place. Engage with different games and master their most basic aspects first. Then, you can practice by trying to explain that game to a friend.
Before you start uploading the tutorials share them first with someone close to you – who would be able to spot any parts that are not really appealing.
If you end up uploading it and getting over a thousand views, then money will start pouring in from ads.
If you start building your subscribers list, then your job will get much easier and you will be able to make funds much faster in the future.
Other Ways to Make Money From Video Games
All of the above are some of the best ways to make a full time income from video games. Some might not make it at all, while others might make millions from it.
Getting there, however, requires a lot of time and effort. In the meantime, there are some other ways to make money while sticking with your favourite video games, such as selling skins, items, characters and cosmetics in popular games or designing them and adding them in the market.
Dota 2 Skins & Items
Dota 2 is one of the most popular video games online, while it also carries one of the highest tournaments’ prizes in the world.
The pure fact that it is so popular highlights that there are ways to make money through it. If you are a Dota 1 or Dota 2 fan, then you probably are aware of the skins and items involved in this game – as well as how popular they are amongst almost all players.
The best place to sell or buy items for Dota 2 for real money is the Steam Market; to make the most amount of money you should try and design:
- Skins from rare categories
- Couriers
- Wards
- Equipment skins
Unfortunately, at the current time the Steam Market can’t be used to withdraw money. Nonetheless, it is very likely that this will eventually change. Learn more about Dota 2 Skins and other monetary items from the above link.
Making Money Selling Skins for Team Fortress 2
To sell skins on tf2 you would have to use the eScrow systems, which carry some fees. It might interest you to know that some of these items are sold for over 1,000$ and thousands of those are exchanged online every year.
First off, skins in this game are mainly representing virtual gun designs, which can be earned through various ways. If you get one, then you should visit www.tf2skins.com and see the process that is required to sell a rare item.
Keep in mind that the fees mean that you should buy and sell in a clever way, otherwise you might end up losing instead of making money. Discover more about buying and selling tf2 skins here.
Sell Skins for Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
The last popular game that we will touch upon in relation to selling items and skins is CS:GO – which competes with both of the above video games in terms of popularity.
The CSGO game has been a huge success, as its skin market. Most of the rare items in this game sell for about 500$, while there are some selling for a mere 1$.
To start making money selling skins for CSGO, you will need items that can be sold for at least 2$ – 4$. Overall, drops of items and skins range from 0.03$ up to 5,000$ in terms of their price value.
To sell skins for this game, visit www.csgosm.com, build an account and start operations today. Discover more about csgo trade skins here.
Sell your Character
This is our last tip to making money from games and it mostly applies to MMORPG games.
This genre requires a lot of personal effort and time to build a character. Depending on the server of your choice, it could take years to level up, get a full equipment and level it up. Some even chase achievements, ladders and guilds – which add value to their characters.
If you have managed to build a strong character, then you could sell it for thousands of dollars. However, many avoid this practice as they are too attached to their characters.
If your account is under a paid subscription, if you have rare items that can be sold for real money and if you have paid for rare items yourself – your character’s account could be sold in the market for astronomical amounts.
To sell your character you would have to engage with forums related to the games you are playing or social media. Some examples of MMORPG games, whereby you can sell your account for real money include:
- Lineage II
- Guild Wars 2
- World of Warcraft
- Final Fantasy Series
Last Notes on Making Money from Games
The one thing we definitely managed to highlight throughout this article is that making money from video games is not a one-way street. There are various different approaches which you could take to achieve your dream.
We would suggest that you engage with more than one from the above possibilities to increase the chances of making it.
Most of these are also inter-linked, so you could come up with a strategy plan to execute over a given period.
If you think that we have missed some obvious ways of making money by playing your favourite game, then please share your thoughts with us below.
