There are huge opportunities to earn good money in the constantly evolving computer gaming industry. Every year, games attract not only fans of entertainment, but also those who see the potential for financial success in this exciting hobby. In this article, we will look at various ways to make money on computer games, and how anyone can use these tips to create an additional source of income. Let’s dive into the world of possibilities and find out how to turn your love for computer games into a source of income.
Content creation – copywriting
The easiest way to make money on games is to create text content. For example, you can consider the possibility of remote work as a copywriter (news, articles, guides) for gaming sites. Find the editorial office email in the contacts and offer your services. Editors of eSports materials on CS2 (CS:GO) games are quite highly valued. Dota 2, League of Legends (LoL), Valorant, Rocket League, PUBG.
Copywriters are also in demand on platforms that provide the ability to download games via torrents – usually each new game requires a high-quality text description.
How much can you earn on copywriting
- The cost of copywriting in the gaming niche starts from $ 1.5 per 1000 characters without spaces (Ukrainian, Russian)
- From $ 3 and up if you know foreign languages. The most popular are: English (USA), German, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (South and Central America).
Your own website dedicated to games
This method is more difficult, but in the long run it can bring serious profits. Consider creating your own website dedicated to computer games. Popular gaming sites attract hundreds to millions of users daily. You can earn money from advertising and referral programs from stores and bookmakers.
You will also need to master a number of tools:
- Website creation skills – take a closer look at free systems for creating websites, such as WordPress.
- SEO website promotion skills – there are plenty of companies in Ukraine that will offer high-quality SEO courses for reasonable prices.
Tip 1: as in copywriting, it is better to focus on popular games and foreign languages.
Tip 2: when creating materials, you need to focus on “Evergreen Content” (Every Green). For example, news about the release of a new version of a game can collect a lot of views only for a few days, maximum – weeks, but a guide on aiming training in CS2 will collect views for a very long time (as long as the game lives).
Earnings on gaming groups in social networks
Surely you have seen many gaming communities and groups on social networks, in which administrators and members share the latest news about their favorite games, publish memes and maintain communication with the audience. When you reach a sufficient number of subscribers in your community, the opportunity opens up to offer advertising. The price and number of advertising posts will depend on the scale of the project and its attractiveness to potential advertisers.
Advice: Pay attention to the release of new game tags from major developers. It is important to be the first to create a thematic public in social networks. Sooner or later, you will catch the wave and you will have the largest gaming community under a popular tag.
Creating video content – YouTube channel
Creating video content on your YouTube channel will eventually give you the opportunity to make good money on games. Videos about game walkthroughs, game guides, and the like are quite popular among users. Videos on popular topics gain millions of views, and channels have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Monetization is achieved by inserting commercials and native advertising embedded in the video.
When creating a video on YouTube, the same rules apply as when creating a website:
- game popularity
- popularity of a specific video topic
- “evergreenness” of the video
- regularity of content creation.
To make money on games using a YouTube channel, you will need:
- Video editing skills
- A computer with the appropriate characteristics.
E-sports – how to make money on competitive games
E-sports is not just games, it is an entire industry where ordinary players become real athletes. Esports brings together thousands of gamers in battles in virtual arenas, where something more than just winning the game is at stake.
E-sports tournaments attract huge attention from viewers all over the world, and talented players become celebrities with millions of dollars in fees and a huge army of fans, which is comparable to the popularity of athletes in classic sports. Developing every year, e-sports creates new opportunities for those who want to not just play games, but build their professional path from this.
So, how to make money in e-sports? Let’s consider popular options.
Career of a professional player
If you love to play and do it better than other players around you, then you should think about a career as a professional player. Here everything is like in regular sports – regular training and participation in real competitions.
The most popular disciplines for a career: CS2 (CS:GO), Dota 2, Valorant, League of Legends (LOL), Rocket League, Rainbow Six, Apex Legends, Overwatch.
The earnings of a cyber athlete usually consist of:
- Salary in the club (on the pro scene this can be from 2-3 thousand dollars to 20-30 thousand per month)
- Prize money at tournaments. For example, in CS2, several dozen tournaments with a prize fund of more than $100,000 are held during the season. The winner usually takes 30-40% of the prize fund, teams that take 10-15 places receive about 2-10 thousand. In this case, the prize money is usually divided between the players.
- Personal sponsorship contracts.
Coaching career
What should a player do after he leaves the pro scene? Of course, train young talents. After all, who can teach you how to play better than a former pro. Coaching salaries in professional clubs start at 3-4 thousand dollars per month, and coaches are often invited as commentators and analysts by famous streaming studios.
Commentary/Streaming
Hundreds (if not thousands) of eSports matches are played daily at various tournaments. Naturally, it is more interesting to watch matches with intelligent commentary. Accordingly, the profession of an eSports commentator is in high demand. Most often, former players become commentators. Also, many famous commentators were not professional players, but began their career in eSports by covering eSports events.
To cover major tournaments, commentators are invited by studios that have received the rights to broadcast matches.
You can also always find eSports matches for individual streaming. The best way to do this is to create your own channel on the Twitch platform. You can start right now. To do this, you just need to connect the match broadcast to your channel and start commenting right from the spot.
Private streamers usually earn money from sponsor ads on their channel and from viewer donations. Active professional players do not disdain streaming either. Many have Twitch channels with a million-strong audience, which provides additional income from advertisers.
Analytics
If you were not destined to become a player, but you have a fine understanding of the aspects and mechanics of a game, you should consider the profession of an eSports analyst. For example, you can analyze the current form of teams and write pre-match forecasts. Such materials and advice are in great demand, both on specialized resources and in social networks.
You can earn money by creating custom materials or publishing them on your website or in a group. Usually, such materials attract a large number of betting enthusiasts. In this case, earnings occur through referral links from bookmakers. Each player you brought is taken into account. When he spends money, you receive a commission in real money.
Boosting and selling game accounts
If you have good gaming skills, you can earn money by selling “pumped up” game accounts. The scheme is simple – register a new account in the game; play to increase your rating and sell. You can search for clients through social networks and game forums. This method of earning money works in the following games:
- CS2 (CS:GO) – accounts in which the Global Elite title has been achieved are in great demand. The cost will increase if this account is simultaneously linked to the FACEIT platform and has level 10
- Dota 2 – the cost of an account will depend on the MMR rating
- League of Legends – players in this game have a rank. The higher the rank, the more heroes become available to the player. Many players are ready to buy an account with a high rating.
Important! This method of earning money should be classified as a “gray” scheme. Game developers prohibit such manipulations in the rules of use. This fact is difficult to prove, but if you are caught, your account will be permanently blocked.
Sale of in-game items (things, skins)
Skins are the so-called in-game items. In fact, this is a picture that is superimposed on a character in the game (most often on his weapon). These pictures are created by studios and private designers. Skins do not provide any advantage, but only change the appearance of the player, emphasizing individuality. But the most interesting thing here is that many skins are in great demand and limited in quantity. This has led to the fact that many rare and popular skins can cost a lot of money: from several hundred dollars to several million (!). You can sell and buy skins legally, for example, through SteamMarket.
How to make money on skins in games?
Let’s take the game Counter-Strike as an example. In the game CS2, you can get skins for free from drops (skin drops at the end of the match). Any player can get a random skin by playing to the end of the match in the game. Skins are selected randomly. Most often, these are cheap skins, but there are also quite expensive ones. As a result, the more you play, the more skins you get, which you can then sell and make money.
Game testing
Every year, tens of thousands of new games appear. Many companies order testing of these games from real players before releasing a game. This is a great way to make money playing computer games. It is clear that Valve will not hire you as a tester right away, but you can look for a job with testing on specialized exchanges.
Usually, the customer provides you with a list of tasks, according to which you will carry out testing in a real game. For example, you may be ordered to detect places where textures do not load, identify blind spots that allow you to go beyond the boundaries of the developed locations. The work process itself does not require special skills; you just need to actively identify bugs in the game and promptly inform the management about them.
Game Development
If you love games, know what gamers need and also have a talent for design or programming skills, then you can think about a career in game development. You can look for work through job sites or on freelance exchanges. The advantage of such work is that you can work remotely and manage several projects at the same time.
Conclusions
As you can see, there are many ways to make money on computer games, the main thing is not to be lazy and find your calling. The gaming industry is constantly evolving and the amount of finance in it is regularly increasing. So anyone can find themselves in the industry – if only there is a desire!