7 Ways to Make Money as a Video Game Fanatic
Nothing feels better than earning from doing what you love.
While video games have always been a man’s area, today, even women are into video games. It feels great to play video games, but it feels even better to earn from playing video games.
Players are making six or seven figures from video games. Below are seven ways you can start making money from your hobby.
- Test Video Games
This is the oldest way to make money by playing video games. Most game developers pay video game players to test out games before they release them officially. As a gamer, your task will be to spot bugs and suggest to the developer how to improve the game.
You can earn up to $67,000 per year testing video games. Considering that the national average is only $44,000, video gamers will be making more. You will have to do more than play the average game and make suggestions. One of the main ways to test games is matrix testing. This means that if a game has ten characters, you will play each character against each other and you might end up playing 1,000 games. This shows how each character in the game fairs.
You need to be analytical and methodical to earn as a video game tester.
- Run a YouTube Channel
YouTube can earn you millions but only if you do it right. In 2017, for instance, PewDiePie earned a whopping $12 million from YouTube, and that was the sixth largest earner that year. When PewDiePie started, it was a simple video game commentary that grew to be a million-dollar business.
How can you start your own?
Just like you would buy new sports equipment when starting a game such as ping pong, you need to get the right gaming equipment to test and review new games. You might also need a good camera to take high-quality videos, and a good microphone.
From your channel, you can offer interesting commentary, record games with other gamers, review new games, teach people to play, record playthroughs, and livestream games.
Your money will come from ads and sponsorships. To get that, you need at least 4,000 public watch hours and at least 1,000 subscribers.
- Stream Games on Twitch
Twitch is a video game streaming platform where video game lovers can watch their favorite games. You can earn millions from streaming your games. In 2018, for instance Ninja, a streamer, earned $10 million from streaming video games. The money came from ads, sponsorships, and subscribers. Ninja is only one of the highest earners.
Although you might not start off earning millions in your first year, the average Twitch Streamer still earns up to $40,000 every year.
To get started, you need to be a Twitch Partner which requires:
- 500 minutes of broadcast in the last one month
- Seven unique broadcast days in the last month
- Three concurrent viewers or more over the last month
- At least 50 followers
- Compete in Video Game Tournaments
You have to be really good to earn from video game competitions. Game tournaments such as the League of Legends, Fortnite, and Call of Duty can bring in serious cash.
Timothy Miller, commonly known as Bizzle, earns about $322,000 every year from Fortnite Tournaments. While this might be the easiest way to make money doing what you love, you will probably need to be the best at it to earn anything significant.
- Develop Video Games
If you can develop a game, companies such as Ubisoft and EA will pay you more than $83,000 every year. You might earn good cash from the job and the companies promise you of consistent income but you might have to work long hours and even work on holidays.
Instead of all the stress, you can develop your own games and make money through game sales or ads in the game. Popular solo video game developers such as Markus Persson and Finn Brice have earned millions from their games. Markus Persson’s Mojang video game company sold to Microsoft at $2.5 billion while Finn Brice earned $24 million in 2016 from his game Stardew Valley.
- Join an eSports Team
Esports players have a chance to earn up to $60,000 every year. Some of the games that pay a lot of money include Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Dota 2, Starcraft II, and Fortnite.
To join the Esports team, you need to be good at any of these games. Choose one game and be very good at it, promote your skills using platforms such as YouTube and Twitch and then you will be found through such platforms.
If you are not a pro in any of the games, you can still earn through hosting events, coaching players, commentating on matches, acting as referee, sales and marketing, and social media manager.
- Work as a Virtual Assistant for a Video Game Company
Because video game companies need customer support, you can work in the customer service. You could earn between $13 and $20 every hour you work as a customer service rep.
Some companies allow you to play games as a way of supporting players. While you need good gaming skills, you need customer service skills more to land a job as this.
Choose the earning stream(s) that excite you and start earning today. As a pro gamer, one earning stream is never enough.