Video games have been on the rise as people try to escape the jarring realities of life. Unlike in the past when people mostly played games for fun, today, there’s a lot of money to be made in the gaming industry. The best part is there are various ways you can make this money, and you can choose whichever suits you most.
1. Live Streaming
Streaming live while playing games is a great way to earn cash. There are various channels, including Meta (formerly Facebook), YouTube, and Twitch. These platforms allow you to live-stream video games and get paid.
However, becoming a professional video game streamer requires having a modest audience. That way, you can monetize the views generated on your streams. Therefore, the more significant your audience, the greater the amount of cash you can make.
You can also get paid through donations and subscriptions from your audience. You can ask people for coffee tips and urge them to subscribe to affiliate content. But to build the needed audience requires time, so you need to remain consistent and unique. Remember, you hardly gain new followers if you’re streaming the same thing as everyone else.
2. Professional Gaming
Another way to make money is to become a professional gamer. Contrary to opinions, gaming is a profession that pays well. Gamers gather to compete all over the world in different tournaments. Outstanding gamers in contests can earn millions of cash playing the games they love.
If you’re planning to build a career around gaming, the best thing to do would be to harness your skills and concentrate on a niche. Sometimes, you could get the attention of online teams looking for great players. Other times, you’d need to work your way to the top by participating in e-sports games.
3. Game Developer
Most gamers are coders. If you’re one of the geeks that develop games others would love to play, no doubt you’re in money already. The average start salary of a game developer is around USD$85,000 per month. The significant part is that many companies are searching for great game developers.
Although game development comes with a lot of hard work, it’s worth it in the end. Aside from developing games, you can dive into other areas such as video game maintenance. While coding is technical, your skill as a video game player can inform your product development.
4. Tester (Quality Assurance)
Games are created to immerse players in a different world where everything is possible. This immersion provides users with an augmented reality experience. But to achieve this enhanced version of the natural world, every game needs to be tested. You can serve as a quality assurance tester and get paid.
As a quality assurance tester, you’re expected to play the game to the highest level while describing the experience as a user. You’d also be expected to inform the game developers about what works well and what doesn’t in the game. That way, you can improve the game’s usability and quality before it hits the market.
5. Gaming Tournaments
Gaming tournaments are another great way to make money playing video games. Tournaments can be in-game or out-game. If in-game, it means the contest is in the video game, organized by the developers. If out-game, you’re looking at a competition overseen by your friends.
Playing in-game tournaments can’t be seen as a full-time job because there are various tournaments that you might be unable to join. Regardless, you can earn from USD$1-10000 per year. However, you may need to start from the small tournaments before the big leagues.
6. Game Writer
If you love writing and playing games, this opportunity is for you. Various organizations are searching for writers who play games. In writing for these organizations, you can write about the games you play or you’re asked to play and get paid.
The best part is you don’t necessarily need a degree to be a game writer as you can efficiently work as a freelance game writer. But if you want to go into game writing professionally, you’d need a degree in journalism.
7. Gaming Coach
Another way to earn money while playing games is to work as a gaming coach. Gaming coaches teach people to play a specific game or pass a particular difficulty level. It’s one of the ways to sell your gaming assets quickly. However, to establish yourself as a gaming coach, you need a reasonable audience on live streaming sites.
Conclusion
Playing games can be fun and rewarding. You can play for pleasure and still get paid for it. But the first step is to build an audience, which you can do by following video gamers and commenting on their posts. Afterward, create your unique video content and sell your experience by live-streaming, testing, coaching, or writing about it.