12 Unusual & Profitable Ways to Make Money Playing Video Games
by Admin Joe
published – March 13th 2023
You may think that you already know all the obvious methods of earning a salary by playing video games. Topics that tend to spring to most people’s minds whenever jobs in gaming are brought up include:
- twitch streaming
- gaming journalism
- usability testing
- esports leagues and tournaments
- mobile reward apps
However, there are some more obscure earners out there related to gaming that lot of people don’t even consider for income. Some of these activities are even accessible to children and teenagers at an entry level with no experience.
As a guide, let’s take a look at some of these ideas. We can then see if they might be suitable and easy for you when it comes to earning good money in the future.
1. Launch a professional coaching business on a freelance basis
Are there any students that I can help and support near me? Experienced gamers can make money in a consultancy role. They can tutor wannabe streamers and esports gamers so players can get better at Call of Duty, for instance.
However, you will need a good track record in order to prove you are worthy and qualified enough to teach a player. One of the most prominent and highest paid video game coaches goes by the name of inflexgg.
This individual charges roughly $20 per hour for his teachings. How much money you charge for your training sessions and advice is entirely up to you.
2. How to monetize & profit by writing quality books from home
You can play a game thoroughly from beginning to end before writing a book about your experience. One can publish this as a traditional, physical book or an ebook. This might be in the form of a guide offering up advice to people playing the game for the first time.
Alternatively, you might want go down the analysis route by delving into the themes and ideas of a video game. This may be the case if it is a particularly story-driven game like Red Dead Redemption 2.
3. Start a legitimate home based gaming podcast for money
You can play video games and express your gaming knowledge afterward. An effective way of doing this is by creating your own podcast from scratch and building a community. Researching content for your podcast will mean you will have to pour hours into playing games on your journey.
Why not try inviting a gaming-related guest to one of your episodes after gaining popularity? Podcasters can market themselves using tools like social media or an email newsletter. You don’t necessarily have to run your own podcast.
Instead, you could potentially get a job on the podcasts of other influencers. Prepare your resume and keep an eye out to see if there are any positions for openings or vacancies. If you can’t beat the competition then there is no shame in joining them.
4. Earn pay to play with account flipping as a real job
People put a lot of time and effort into certain games. As an example, you may have gotten really far into an RPG game. If this is true you may be able to find someone who is willing to buy your account or save slot from you. You can do this several times over as a long term strategy.
5. Make a living & find legit work by being a companion remotely
Online gaming has really taken off over the past few years. Players around the globe can play together or against each other because of the internet. Having said this, you can actually sell your services as a companion.
You can aim your services towards other lonely players who may want someone to either team up with or play against. Somebody might want a buddy to play Rocket League with. A freelancer can use platforms like Fiverr to sell gaming-related services like this to people.
6. Plan to get paid quickly with crypto & NFTs on the side
Some websites, apps and companies offer you the opportunity to play games in exchange for NFTs and cryptocurrencies as rewards. However, I would fully research this before diving in given the divisive nature of these two things.
NFT gaming has an unpredictable future and is more than a little suspect. This is because you often have to invest money upfront in some cases. Messing around with NFTs can lead to many problems so do your homework before you make a decision.
This is certainly one of the more simple earners out there for gamers. If you want something of a similarly low difficulty level then I would strongly recommend mistplay. This is a rewards app for mobile devices that pays cash to users for playing mobile games on their smartphone or tablet.
7. Options to make money by selling the best in-game items online
If you’re really accomplished at a certain game then you may have obtained a rare in-game item in Grand Theft Auto, for example. Then again, you may instead find yourself in possession of a significant amount of in-game currency.
A player can sometimes trade this to the right buyer for real money. Occasionally, you might earn money by selling these items to someone. In a way, this is similar to how DLC and microtransactions work. Furthermore, you can sell in-game items on NFT marketplaces. Farming in-game currency to sell on can be controversial.
Some games even have strict rules against it. More often than not, they see this as being unfair against honest players who want play the game genuinely as intended. Explore this at your own risk as going against these regulation can result in:
- frozen assets
- suspension
- account termination
8. Easily play casino games for cash on your computer part time
If you like, you can try to make money playing casino games on gambling websites on a remote basis. Although, this isn’t always wise. Games like this are all very much based on luck. As the saying goes, “the house always wins” (at least in the long run).
9. Gain experience & play to earn with competitive online poker
One way of earning money by playing games (that people normally gloss over) is through online poker. Poker isn’t technically a video or computer game. Although, it is sometimes hard to tell the difference.
This makes sense seeing as you are playing it on the internet looking at a screen from your workstation. Poker is different from most casino table games or slot machines as it requires skill more than luck.
In addition, you are playing against other people rather than against the house. This increases your chance of earning over the long term. However, winning poker cash games isn’t easy. If you want to beat the best players, it will require a lot of:
- studying
- experience
- development
- strategy
Poker is not something you can learn overnight and bring in earnings right away. Focus on your education first and foremost. I personally play real money texas hold em poker with pokerstars on my laptop in my spare time.
Admittedly, I do this on a very casual basis and I’m just a novice compared to my rivals. Also, I sometimes struggle to merely break even so be prepared for difficulty going forward. However, with a little time, effort and determination I’m sure you could do so much better than me.
10. Investing & achieving growth as a top paying career for beginners
You can invest in technology stocks relating to esports, live streaming, and gaming in general. Off the top of my head, a few of these companies might include:
Investors need to know about the world of gaming in order to make good financial choices. This is where your video game time comes in handy.
11. Earn a living by running a viable Twitch or YouTube channel full time
You could take live streaming in an entirely different direction. Many do this by creating a YouTube channel all about gaming with prerecorded FIFA gameplay videos or something like that.
Number one streamers may prefer to film and monetize pre-reordered gameplay footage or tutorial videos by uploading them to YouTube. In terms of work life balance, it takes the pressure off you having to perform live on a strict schedule for your viewership.
This is good for people with flexible lifestyles. As with Twitch, there are monetization requirements and options for YouTube creators. This could be advertising revenue or making deals with sponsors.
Some streamers are known for playing VR (virtual reality) games among other responsibilities. PewDiePie is probably one of the biggest, most recognizable names to earn big bucks from playing video games. You may even gain some internet fame and notoriety yourself.
12. Offering important tips & betting on top eSports events at home
Those who professionally bet money on esports need to know the games being played (like Overwatch) inside out. This gives you another option for earning income.
In addition, you can also make money as a betting tipster. Be warned that if you consistently give out bad advice and cause people to lose money. This can easily ruin your reputation.
As you can see, the business opportunities available to gamers are pretty vast. They offer many benefits in this environment. It’s definitely worth it if you can exercise a little ingenuity and hard work. Besides consoles and gaming computers, there are so many other different mediums.
You can use these to offer products and services in regard to video games. Nevertheless, some of these successful methods and techniques come with risks. They require you to have high levels of expertise. If this is a barrier for you then I would start off with the simpler money-makers.
There is so much more that you can learn about the monetization of professional gaming. One of the most effective ways of educating yourself about literally anything is by reading non-fiction. If I were to suggest one book to you for this purpose, it would be this one.
The next item on your to do list should be to do some further research on this. I’m willing to bet there are many more platforms for raking in earnings playing video games rather than just the ones I have listed above. As you can see, the methods of earning within gaming culture are quite diverse.
On the other hand, why not keep it simple and make money straight from your smartphone or tablet. You can do just this as you learn How To Make Money With Mobile Games & Other Apps. Similarly, you can gain much more knowledge about professional gaming by having a look at wealthofgeeks and sidehustlenation.
Which of the above money makers appeals to you the most? Do you know of any other ways to get paid to play so you can potentially earn six figures? Please don’t forget to share this with your friends and like it on social media. You can subscribe to our newsletter and comment below too. Thanks for reading!
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