1. You can also make money from referrals (10% of friends’ earnings), surveys, products, etc Do you have an Android device and want to make money as you play games for PayPal? CashPirate is the must-try game you should go for. There is also an option of making money from referrals, surveys, products, and quick picks.
2. Top 10 Ways To Earn Money Online By Playing Games in 2020. Leave a Comment / Make Money Online / By Sara S. Playing video games online has become a popular way to earn money these days. From kids to teens and adults, everyone seems to be busy making money this way. If you are good at playing multiple games, then you can make money.

Grounded - Game Preview. Included with Game Pass. Halo Wars 2: Complete Edition. Full price was $59.99 $59.99 Now $47.99 $47.99 + with Game Pass. As far as I know, most of the gamer will not make a living from playing games on the web. But if you start to enjoy online games then you can play Real Money Earning Games. But the most attractive thing is most of the online games site are free to use. So you don’t have to spend any money on start playing games.

Are you a fan of playing video games? What if you could earn a living playing Call of Duty, Fortnite, or any of your other favorite games?

Well, it might surprise you to learn that there are millions of people earning money through the video game industry.

Video games are big moneymakers, with the industry expected to top valuations of $300-billion by 2025. You can get a slice of that pie if you know what to do, and how to position yourself in the video game world.

We put together this list of ways to make money playing video games. Choose an occupation that suits your talents, and start taking action toward achieving your dreams.

Try Mistplay: Earn Money for Playing Mobiles Games

Contents

• 2 1. Start a Career as a Game Developer

Mistplay is a mobile application that allows you to earn rewards in exchange for playing video games. All you need is an Android phone to get started. You can earn rewards for playing games, in-game achievements and other things which you can then cash in for gift cards.

You can read our full review of Mistplay here.

1. Start a Career as a Game Developer

If being a superstar gamer on social channels leaves you feeling nervous, then consider working in the industry as a game developer. If you prefer coding over gameplay, then this is the ideal way to earn money in the gaming industry.

Major players in the gaming industry, such as Blizzard and Ubisoft hire game developers at an average starting salary of $83,000. However, you’ll need to be able to handle working under pressure. Game developers have a full plate, and you can expect to work long hours and over weekends and public holidays, especially when it’s close to the games launch date.

If you don’t like the thought of working for someone, then you can always start a company yourself. The most successful example of an independent game developer is Markus Persson, the person responsible for creating the popular game, “Minecraft.”

Markus founded “Mojang,” and Microsoft eventually bought him out for a whopping price tag of $2.5-billion. All you need to replicate their success is a good idea and some help from business professionals.

Learn the Skills at Udacity

Udacity is an online school which teaches lots of different tech related skills with the purpose of helping you find a job. They have a programming school so you can learn what you need to become a game developer.

They are worth checking out as they partner with companies to teach you the exact skills that employers are actually looking for.

If you signup for a course you get :

• Real-world projects to learn from, created by from industry experts
• Access to a 1-on-1 technical mentor
• Personal career coach and career services

If you’d like to learn more, here’s our full review of Udacity.

Learn the Skills at Udemy

Udemy is another online academy for students and instructors with over 100,000 courses that are updated every month. Udemy has a huge range of Game development course you can take which will cover just about every aspect that an employer would need.

You can go at your own pace and they have a lot of industry experts on the platform. The courses are reasonably priced and they also often have sales on to grab a bargain.

Example – At the time of writing, their “Ultimate Guide to Game Development with Unity” is on sale, reduced from £169 to just £15.99!

If you’d like to learn more, here’s our full review of Udemy.

2. Create a Gaming Website

It’s never been easier to create your own website, and gaming sites have some of the highest traffic around. You could start a website reviewing games and if you build a large enough audience you will start to get free review copies of games and other types of sponsorships.

We don’t recommend you jump in and try to become the next Polygon, Destructoid or Games Radar as these sites have been around for years and are run by huge corporations with big budgets and you will never be able to compete in the search engines.

We recommend you pick a smaller niche in which you have expert knowledge to share. For example you might choose a particular game, a particular console or genre of games ( platformers, FPS, RTS, RPG etc ) and dive deep in to that subject, providing more indepth content you won’t find on the larger sites.

If you are wondering how to get started, take a look at our guide “How to Start a Blog & Make Money” which walks you through the entire process of picking a domain name, setting up your web hosting and getting started creating content.

Getting a brand new website off the ground is a slow process but if gaming is your hobby anyway it shouldn’t feel like a chore – take your time, share your passion and the money will follow.

3. Quality Assurance Officer

Video game programmer’s complete lines of code that bring a game to life. The developers spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours building a game to ensure that the user experience is as immersive as possible.

Before they launch a game, video game companies rely on outside testing panels to explore the game before they complete the final version that goes to the market. As a quality assurance officer for a video game company, you’ll let the developers know what’s working with the game and where the game needs some attention.

A quality assurance tester is responsible for playing the game at the highest level, providing feedback to the developers of the experience that users can expect when they load it onto their machines and start playing the game. QA specialists play different builds and designs multiple times, giving their feedback to the development team.

When the QA tester has nothing to report, then the development team knows they have a finished product that ready for launch. Games can have multiple problems in the beta-testing phase. It’s common for glitches and mistakes to occur throughout the game, and QA testers are the developer’s last line of defense for finding all of the problems with the game before it goes to market.

Most QA testers work on contract, and it’s challenging to find a full-time position with a firm unless you sign up to be an in-house tester for a development company. On average, QA testers make between $10 and $15 per hour.

4. Video Game Tester

Some development companies hire gamers for in-house testing positions. Similar to a QA tester, a video game tester is responsible for playing the final version of the product.

However, these testers are successful and established gamers that have a foothold in the industry. Most testers have in-house positions with the development company, and they might also lead QA campaigns with other testers in the development phase of the game.

It might surprise you to learn that you can make a really good living as an in-house video game tester. The average pay packet for a tester is $67,813 per year, which is around 30% higher than the national salary average.

While testing video games might sound like plenty of fun, it’s also a lot of hard work. If you’re expecting to sit on the couch all day and play games, well, you’re partially right. Testers need to play the game thousands of times to uncover any issues with the gameplay before the development team prepares the game for launch.

5. Become a YouTuber

If you’re a successful gamer, consider starting a YouTube channel to increase your earnings. YouTube is one of the best platforms for gamers to put up their commentary on games.

You can live-stream your gaming sessions with commentary, review new games, or offer your thoughts on industry topics.

“PewDiePie” is the most successful example of a gamer that made money on YouTube. Currently, he has 102-million subscribers on his channel, and his videos have over 22-billion total views – that’s astounding.

As a result of his hard work building his channel, PewDiePie earns more than $500,000 per month from ad revenue on his videos, that’s more than $12-million per year!

All you need to start is to open your channel and start dropping content. However, it might take you some time to amass an audience and start earning money. YouTube has qualifying criteria; all new channels must meet before they can apply for monetization of their account.

As of 2019, YouTube’s Partner requirements for monetization need you to have more than 1,000-subscribers to your channel, as well as 4,000-hours of total view time on your videos over the last 12-months. YouTubers also create income through sponsorships as well.

When your channel starts gaining traction, you can reach out to gaming companies and other related industry partners to sponsor your videos.

For instance, you could get sponsorship from Razer for promoting their gaming products like laptops, headsets, and keyboards.

6. Stream Your Gaming Sessions on Twitch

Twitch is another online community started by gamers. The Twitch monetization model is similar to YouTube, where channels can earn advertising revenue through broadcasting their gaming sessions.

However, the requirements for monetizing your channel are laxer than YouTube, and you need the following to be eligible for ad revenue.

• 500-minutes of total broadcast time within the last 30-days
• 7-unique video broadcast days within the last 30-days
• A minimum of 3-concurrent viewers over the previous 30-days
• A minimum of 50-followers on your channel

The requirements are reasonably easy to achieve, and if you release exciting content, you could expect to achieve monetization for your channel in a month.

One of the most popular streamers on Twitch, “Ninja,” earned north of $10-million in 2018 from sponsorships and ad revenue on his channel, with the top 10 gamers streaming on Twitch earning a combined income of more than $20-million.

However, while these gamers have exceptional results, you’ll have to offer the community something special to earn income at this level.

Most players streaming on the platform earn anywhere between $10,000 to $40,000 per year – which is still a decent income for playing games and having fun with your friends online.

7. Compete in Gaming Tournaments

Gaming is becoming a big business. Today there are gaming tournaments for popular games like “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty.” These tournaments happen all over the world, from the United States to Japan. Registering for gaming tournaments is not a full-time occupation, and you might not have the opportunity to enter every tournament.

Epic Games hosted the 2019 Fornite Tournament, awarding a $3-million grand prize to the winner, 16-year old Kyle Giersdorf. Kyle played in front of an audience of over 2-million viewers, beating out the competition to claim his throne as the king of Fortnite.

UFC superstar, Sean O’Malley states that he earns $4,500 per month playing video game tournaments at home while he remains under suspension from the league for a USADA doping violation. That’s a great way to earn money while you’re stuck at home doing nothing.

8. Sign On to an eSports Team

With total revenues exceeding $869-million in 2018, eSports is becoming a global behemoth in the online video gaming world. Goldman Sachs expects the industry to triple by 2022, earning a staggering $2.96-bliion in revenues.

If you have a talent for gaming, then you can sign with an eSports team to play in tournaments hosted all over the world. Most eSports players average around $1,000 to $5,000 per month, and an annual salary of $60,000 is no small chunk of change.

Esports continues to grow, with regular tournaments held for games like League of Legends, Starcraft 2, Counterstrike, and Fortnite, among others.

If you want to earn a place on an eSports team, you’ll need to earn your keep. You’ll need a YouTube channel with a decent following, and it’s best if you specialize in a specific game, such as Fortnite or Call of Duty.

You don’t necessarily have to be a gamer to find work in the eSports industry. There are employment opportunities for the following positions in the eSports community.

• Hosting and emceeing live eSports events
• Commentating on eSports tournaments
• Coaching other sports players
• Managing eSports players
• Tournament referee
• Social media management for tournaments and teams
• Marketing and sales for eSports events

9. Video Game Journalism

If you have a talent for writing and reporting, you could make it with a career in video game journalism. Most video game journalists earn between $26,00 and $30,000 per year, making it one of the lowest-paying jobs in the sector.

However, if you have a passion for gaming, and you enjoy writing and drafting reports, then this job could be an excellent opportunity, even as a side-hustle.

To start as a journalist, you might need a degree in journalism, and some experience working in the sector. Some companies also offer paid internships where you can get a foothold in the industry.

You can also carve out a career as a freelance writer, you won’t need any formal education, just a sold grasp of the english language and a flair for writing in an engaging way.

We go into to more detail about this in our guide to becoming a freelance writer.

10. Customer Service Representative

The gaming industry requires a reliable support network, especially during a new release. As a customer service representative, you’ll assist gamers in overcoming the problems they experience while playing the game. You might have to deal with some angry clients, and the pay isn’t great, with most reps earning between $13 and $20 per hour.

There are game companies like Blizzard that also hire in-game administrators that play the game and offer other gamers support through an in-game chat. When applying for this position, the gaming company will care more about your customer service skills than your gaming skills.

11. Design and Sell Gaming Merch

If you search online for “Super Mario Bros t-shirt,” you’ll get thousands of results. It’s the same for any merchandise involving gaming.

Coffee mugs, mousepads, clothing, and cellphone covers are just a few examples of popular merch that gamers snap up in the millions.

• You can use a site like Teespring, Printful & Printify to help you sell t-shirts and other clothing online.
• All you need to do is hire a designer on a site like Fiverr and have them make you a design you think might sell.
• Then drag and drop your design onto the t-shirt or coffee mug on Teespring, and get a link from the platform which you can promote on social platforms.

Visit any YouTubers channel, and you’ll see that they all have merch available for sale. Merch is one of the most significant revenue streams for gamers, earning them thousands of dollars a year in profits.

12. Farm Gaming Currency

While most of the world already know about digital currencies like Bitcoin, many don’t realize that mining gaming currencies can also produce significant profits. Gamers use in-game currencies to purchase a variety of in-game products, such as weapons. People that don’t want to spend the time playing the game for a currency can purchase it from you to buy what they want in the game.

13. Coaching Gamers

If you’re a whizz at a specific game, then you can sell your skills online as a video game coach. Some coaches can earn as much as $200-per hour for teaching others their skillset. You’ll likely have to amass a following on YouTube or Twitch to gain your reputation as a coach.

The Final Thought – You Can Achieve Anything You Want in Life

Who would have thought you could make a living through video games?

Any of the careers mentioned above can net you real money in your bank account for involving yourself in the gaming industry.

If it’s your passion, then give it a shot, what do you have to lose but time?

Do you love playing video games? Do you enjoy making money?

With all the ways you can get paid, have you considered monetizing your gaming habit? It’s one of the newest ways to make money online, and unlike other side hustles and side jobs, it can be tons of fun.

Play video games, get paid. Play video games; post it on social media, get paid. Pretty awesome, right?

Despite what your 8th grade English teacher might have told you, you can earn extra cash playing video games. Many people turn their love of Grand Theft Auto, Pokémon, and mobile games into part-time or even full-time income, again, all by just being able to play video games.

If you're already gaming, why not take it to the next level and monetize your fun and help pad your bank account?

Here are several ways you can earn and game at the same time.

Table of Contents

• 1 How to Make Money Playing Video Games?
  • 1.8 7. Stream on Twitch

How to Make Money Playing Video Games?

In recent years, they are far more opportunities for monetizing your video game hobby than you might imagine.

We have pulled together the top 15 ways to work toward making money playing your favorite video games!

1. Get Paid Directly to Play – Try Mistplay!

Mistplay is an excellent app available on Android that is a great way to monetize playing video games on your phone.

The app's main focus on providing users an environment in which they can participate in games in exchange for prizes. Through the earning of points, users can join in in-app games to receive gift cards to various retailers such as Amazon, Google Play, and even virtual Visa gift cards.

With Mistplay, you are eligible to receive compensation from the minute you start playing. You can even play with friends and level up your avatar to unlock achievements and earn units faster. They also support user communications and offer a chat feature, encouraging connections amongst participants. Another important note is that users will not pay any fees to download, join, or play games in Mistplay.

There are several other options for apps to monetize gameplay, but Mistplay is definitely at the top of our list!

2. Gamehag

Play free online games to collect Soul Gems and exchange them for rewards! Earn free Robux, Steam Wallet, Prepaid Mastercard, and more!

Play games, Complete tasks, Get rewarded!

3. Video Game Coaching

One of the coolest ways to make money playing video games is by offering to coach your favorite competitive game (such as League of Legends).

Video game coaches make anywhere from $20 to $200 per hour, depending on how good they are and how in-demand their services are. For example, Metaphor (a League of Legends coach mentioned in the YouTube section) offers coaching services for $50 to $80 per hour.

Getting started as a coach typically means gaining an audience through a platform like YouTube and offering your services to your audience.

4. Game Tester

Best Money Making Games 2020

The most basic difference between a Quality Assurance tester and a ‘Game Tester' or ‘Beta Tester' is that QA deals with a product that is already met a certain level of quality as desired by the developers.

Being a ‘Tester' involves trying to ‘break' a game or find out ways to mess it up or analyze why it may or may not be fun for users.

5. Become a Professional Gamer

Pro Gamers are now competing worldwide and winning millions at events sponsored by the Major League Gaming circuit, the International Dota 2 championship, and Intel Extreme Masters. MLG has built arenas across the country from which to host and stream live professional gaming events. It even has scouts and communities on the internet to find the best, untapped players.

The best advice for getting involved is to pick a game, namely one you consider yourself already good at playing, and become an expert at it. From there, work on building your reputation as both a skilled player and a team player. Then it is time to participate in eSports games!

6. Start a YouTube Channel

YouTube

We've mentioned YouTubers a lot over the past few months, and it's because the financial gain in the YouTuber-verse is full of possibilities. If you're looking for a way to earn money while gaming, YouTube is a great place to start.

Through YouTube, you can build your channel to a level in which you are monetizing your content. If you haven't already, check out our piece here that gives you the insight you need to become a successful YouTube content creator.

Once you've mastered the steps required to monetize your channel, you can take your content in any direction you choose. Whether you want to live to stream your gaming, critique others' gaming, or offer tutorials on gaming tips and tricks, YouTube is an excellent platform to use to address all of these subjects.

We recommend using YouTube to further your gaming research, too. If you're looking for in-depth information on monetizing your gaming habits, YouTube is a wealth of knowledge for that topic, as well. Whatever your approach is, starting with YouTube is the way to go.

7. Stream on Twitch

Many gamers stream their online play to turn a profit. The most common platform for doing so is Twitch, an online streaming mecca for players worldwide.

Twitch has a monetization structure similar to YouTube. It requires you to build a following and apply for monetization status once you've established yourself as a gamer who can drive traffic to the site. Money-making your streaming comes from adventures like Google Adsense, and you get paid for the number of views you’ll get towards your videos.

Ads

When you've reached your status as a monetized streamer, Twitch will compensate you in various ways. For every subscriber who visits your channel, you will receive $5.00.

You will also have the option to add a Google Adsense-like set-up with your channel. This will enable you to receive monetary compensation for ads placed on your page. For every 1,000 ad views you receive, you'll earn $3.00.

Amazon Affiliate Links

Twitch allows its users to capitalize on Amazon affiliate links. This means that gamers can recommend products and items available for purchase on Amazon. They can offer direct access to the products to their viewers via an affiliate link.

Every time a product purchase occurs utilizing the link, the gamer receives payment for creating this connection. It's a passive income generation method for players to advertise items and products they like to anyone who views their channel.

PayPal Donations

Many successful gamers have found that they can market and receive PayPal donations from loyal fans or sponsors.

Yep, you read that right. You can ask for money, and people will give it to you to keep playing your video games. The thought process behind this is that gamers will invite fans to help them continue to game at the intensity they are doing so.

Part of enabling this commitment is assuring that financially, the gamer can satisfy their basic living needs. Okay, maybe some of their needs aren't so “basic,” but we're going to trust that you get the picture.

The reason many gamers will receive PayPal donations is that viewers want to learn and replicate the tips and tricks the player uses. If you think of gaming as performance art, then the idea of donating to a gamer's PayPal account becomes much more reasonable.

It beats the thought of giving some cash to your younger brother for playing video games.

Practical Tips to Increase Revenue When Live Streaming

Much like we mentioned above, thinking of gaming as performance art is the best way to understand how to achieve the highest level of success. Live stream gamers need to be engaging.

They should have larger than life personalities that attract a high volume of views. This goes hand-in-hand with having a voice that is enjoyable to listen to. If a gamer isn't pleasing to listen to or is dull, both of these will turn viewers off.

Another facet of the live streaming puzzle is creating regular content. You'll want viewers to know when they should tune in to your streaming. Keeping a regular schedule will help them start watching you on a particular day and time.

Networking is the final piece to the trifecta of tips and tricks of live stream gaming. Interacting with your viewers, fellow live streamers, and sponsors are some of the most effective methods to advance your reputation as well as your bankroll.

Much like business networking, live stream gaming requires an equal, if not more, amount of investment in your relationships.

8. Contact Potential Sponsors

After you get a following for your stream, whether it's on YouTube, Twitch, or elsewhere, to generate more revenue, you will likely want to contact sponsors. This is very similar to how television producers used to seek sponsors for programs.

To acquire sponsors, the first thing you need to do is prepare to impress them. Make sure your channel displays precisely what you envisioned. You will then want to search for brands that you like that might be interested in sponsoring you. It is also essential to consider whether or not you would use their products. This is important as you will be marketing for that brand!

The most crucial part is that you are presenting yourself as someone that would be a great fit to sponsor their brand.

9. Provide Game Play Tutorials

Providing gameplay tutorials is a great way to grab new viewers and monetize gameplay. Your YouTube channel or streaming site will earn money with every person that clicks on it. Advertisers pay Google, for instance, to display ads on videos. Google, a division of Alphabet, owns YouTube.

To start, open an account at AdSense, and link it to your YouTube account. Choose whether you want video or banner ads to display.

It does take more time to make money off the concept of video game tutorials. You will want to grow your audience into the thousands to make decent money off this concept.

10. Compete in Tournaments

While not a consistent source of money (unless you're incredibly talented), winning game tournaments for competitive games like Call of Duty, League of Legends, Fortnite, etc., can net you some serious cash.

One of the world's top e-sports competitive, Timothy Miller (aka “Bizzle”), earns around $322k per year participating in Fortnite tournaments.

Paytm Money Earning Games 2020

This is probably the easiest way to make money playing video games and not a big earner unless you're really good at the game and consistently win.

11. Quality Assurance Tester

Video games are ultimately the result of computer programming. Getting a computer to react to the developer and gamers want it to, look right, and perhaps feel as realistic as possible. To achieve this, game design companies need some independent people to tell them what is good, what is bad, what works, and what doesn't.

That's where being a QA tester comes in. The designers and developers need to know how users feel about a new game or upgraded design, not just technical problems. They're not testing the wiring or circuitry or power supply. Like kids with a new toy, they're testing how much more fun a new or upgraded game is for players than those already in the market.

QA testers don't just play a game through to its highest possible level. They play different designs; different builds multiple times until they can find nothing to object to and report if they had fun!

Think of working in QA as being paid to solve multiple puzzles. Any glitch or mistake or thing wrong in a program must be reproducible, so developers can figure out how to eliminate it.

Much of QA work is contract work, but it still could pay between $10 and $15 an hour. That's is a pretty good wage for playing video games!

12. Become a Game Developer

Another way to earn as a gamer is to 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.

13. Work as a Video Game Journalist

Another avenue is through journalism. Most video game journalists earn around $26,000 per year, making it one of the lowest-income opportunities on this list.

But if you love games and love writing and reporting, this is a great opportunity, and you can earn much more as your skill increases!

To get started as a journalist, you'll most likely need at least a bachelor's degree in journalism and some journalistic experience (like the school paper and/or an internship). Speaking of internships, an unpaid internship is a great way to get your foot in the door as a game journalist!

14. Work in Customer Service for a Game Company

Like every other industry, gamers also need customer support. Becoming a customer service rep for a game company is a great way to get paid in the video game industry. The average customer service representative makes $13.64 per hour, with some making up to $20 per hour.

Like Blizzard, some companies even have in-game admins who play the game and deliver support via the in-game chat function.

Landing this job is more about your customer service skills than your gaming skills. You have to be good with people and have excellent communication skills. Getting an internship is one of the best ways to get started on this career path.

15. Create & Sell Video Game Inspired Merchandise

Possibly one of the coolest ways to get paid to play is by creating and selling your own game-inspired merchandise. Just go on Etsy and type “Legend of Zelda” — you get over 16,000 results of t-shirts, figurines, coffee mugs, and more.

If you take this route, it means you're creating a business. The sky limits how much you can make, but getting to $50,000 per year is possible with the right product and excellent marketing skills.

To get started on this, you'll need to figure out precisely what type of products you want to sell. That will then give you the list of what you will need to make those items.

16. Farm In-Game Currency

Many MMO's have a farmable in-game currency that people who don't feel like spending their own time earning can pay you for it.

This is probably the most time-consuming and lowest-paying opportunity on this list next to customer service work — there are gold farmers in countries like China who do this all day for a fairly low amount. This is not the most popular form of getting that extra cash through gaming, but it is worth noting on this list as an option.

Game On!

Now that you have an entire list of options to choose from go ahead and explore which ones are best for you.

Try not to forget that it will take some time and effort to make substantial money while playing those awesome games.

Consider trying several different outlets at once! For example, you could give both streaming and doing game tutorials a try.

Money Making Games 2020

Time to grab your controller and start on your journey toward making money playing your favorite video games!