The global entertainment industry is valued at billions of dollars. It employs millions of people – directly and indirectly – and has billions of players. Whether it is the video gaming industry, online gambling niche where brands such as 7slots giriş dominate, or the professional gaming industry, there’s a lot of money circulating in it. According to Statica, the online gaming industry is valued at $187.7 billion and is expected to grow to $666.68 billion by 2029.
If you consider yourself a professional gamer or spend significant time playing games on the internet, you can collect a share of the $666.68 billion. There are many ways to do this, as highlighted in the sections below.
How to Make Money Playing Games Online
The internet has opened up endless opportunities to make money. If you are an avid gamer, you can convert your passion/hobby to making money by becoming an eSports player, creating video game tutorials, streaming your gaming sessions on Twitch, becoming a video game tester, or starting a YouTube channel.
Become an eSports player
eSports is an acronym for electronic sports. It is a competitive sport where video players compete against each other to win cash prizes. The sport peaked in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns, generating over $1.5 billion in revenue.
Since then, its popularity has been on an upward trend, with many video game enthusiasts joining the niche. You, too, can become a professional player if you have a knack for playing any of the following games:
- League of Legends (LoL)
- Dota
- StarCraft
- Counter-Strike
- Overwatch
Having a knack for playing these games is not enough. You must identify the tournaments and competitions where they are played. After joining these competitions, you will have to play/work your way up to get a sponsor or qualify for the preliminary group stages that lead to the ultimate tournaments. eSports competitions can pay as much as $1 million to the winners.
Create video game tutorials
You can help other players struggling to get the basics of a game by creating video game tutorials. These tutorials and guides can feature tips and tricks to improve gameplay, pass tricky levels, or set up a game. With the videos, you can post them across multiple social media accounts where you get paid every time people watch them.
Stream on Twitch
You cannot profess to be a serious gamer if you don’t know Twitch – the go-to platform for all gamers. The platform allows you to earn money as you stream your gameplay. There are instances where streamers earn 6-7 figure payouts annually. However, to reach this level of earnings, you must have a massive following and identify a niche with many viewers.
Start a Video Game YouTube Channel
YouTube is still the most popular platform for earning money as you play video games. Top earners in the video gaming industry stream their sessions on YouTube, although they also have other accounts. Once you’ve set up your account and have many subscribers, you can start earning money through the following ways:
- Affiliate marketing
- YouTube Ad income
- Viewer donations and support
- You can sell merchandise and other products through your account
The secret or trick to earning money via YouTube is to have as many subscribers as possible. This means more views, shares, and interaction with your content.
Become a video game tester
Your passion for video games and your degree as a computer scientist can help you earn money from video gaming. Only this time, you won’t just be playing for fun, but try to identify bugs, glitches, and test features before the games are released to the public. As much as it is hard to believe, video game QA testers are paid as much as $500-$1000 to try a game. Many video game testing jobs can be found on platforms such as Upwork, Indeed, LinkedIn, and JobStreet.
Other ways to make money on online games
The highlighted methods are the top ways to earn money on online games. There are many other ways, including participating in in-game surveys, translating or transcribing subtitles in video games, playing online casinos live on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and other social media platforms, hosting a gaming podcast and in-game items and skins trading.
