How to earn from playing games: 10 awesome ways to monetize your passion for gaming

If you’re like us, video games are a big part of your life, and you’d want to earn from playing games.  

Since we were young, games have been our constant companion through the ups and downs of life. It’s where we met a lot of friends, learned about life, and found solace when things got tough. 

For the longest time, it was just a hobby for us. Something we do to relax after a long day at work. Or a bonding activity we do with our friends every weekend. 

But did you know that there are many ways you can earn from playing games? You can turn your interest into a full-time job paying way more than your 9-to-5! 

If you’re serious about monetizing your passion for gaming, there are two ways you can do it: make it your full-time job or treat it as a side hustle. 

Earn from playing games: Full-time 

Earn from playing games by becoming  a competitive esports player 

Being an esports player is the gaming equivalent of making it to the NBA, NFL, or MLB. 

A lot of gamers dream of stepping into the world stage. They dream of making the biggest clutch plays to win the tournament – a highlight for the ages. Surrounded by thousands of fans cheering for them on the biggest game of their life – a chance to win the annual championship. 

Like becoming a pro athlete, not everyone can become a professional esports player. Only the best of the best can reach the top of the gaming hierarchy. You’ll need a lot of skill, talent, and connections to get into the world of professional gaming. 

If you choose to go down this route, you need to train 12+ hours a day, grind to rise through the rankings, and join smaller tournaments where scouts can discover you. In our opinion, this is one of the hardest ways to earn from playing games.

How much money can you make as a competitive esports player? 

Average e-sports players make around $60,000 a year from salaries. This doesn’t include endorsement deals, sponsorships, and prize money from tournaments. 

Other factors on your income are the games you play – the more popular, the better, your skill level, and your team’s success. For instance, the highest-earning esports player is N0tail (total earning: $7,000,000++), who plays Dota 2. Dota 2’s annual event, The International, is known to pay tens of millions of dollars to the winning team. 

 

Become an e-sports analyst/commentator 

Gaming events and tournaments won’t be fun without your analysts, shoutcasters, and commentators. They add color to the game by talking about what’s happening while engaging the audience with stories and whatnot. 

Usually, analysts, commentators, and shoutcasters know a lot about the game but do not have the skill to become professional esports players. Instead, they have the personality to go on camera and provide additional entertainment during the game. 

This is not a direct way to earn from playing games because you’ll actually be earning by commenting on games, not playing it. But, it’s still a good way to monetize your passion for gaming.

How much money can you make as an esports analyst/commentator? 

Esports analysts make an average of $48,000 every year from salaries. Like esports players, they can also earn extra from endorsements and sponsorships. However, they don’t get prize money since they’re not playing. 

Ideally, analysts & commentators increase their income by doing other gigs on the side, like streaming, hosting smaller esports events, and playing in smaller competitions. 

 

Work as an esports journalist

If you’re not a fan of going in front of the camera but still love following esports events, you try to start your own esports blog (or join an existing one). Here, you’ll cover different esports events – watching games and writing articles about them. You’ll also be covering various events around the esports world, like team updates, team events & fan meets, roster movements, etc. 

Similar to being a commentator, you won’t be earn from playing games per se. But being an esports journalist can be a different kind of fun since you get to travel the world, interact with the players, and even get exclusive interviews. Still want to play? Use your play time to learn more about the games you cover, so you can put out the best content! 

How much money can you make as an esports journalist? 

Full-time esports journalists earn between $29,000 to $75,000 a year in salaries. In comparison, the top-ranked journalists can make up to $115,000 annually. 

If you’re starting your own blog, you’ll need to invest a lot of time, money, and effort to get things on the ground. It will take time to earn from your blog and make it a full-time job. However, once you gain a lot of traffic and credibility, your earning potential also skyrockets. 

 

Be a star and earn money from YouTube

Becoming a YouTuber/internet celebrity is one of the most common career paths today. That’s because being a YouTuber is a lucrative endeavor that has the potential to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars – maybe even more – every month. This makes YouTube-ing one of the common ways you can earn from playing games.

As a YouTuber, you’re gonna create different content related to the games you love. It can include game guides, tips and tricks, reviews, highlight reels, etc. These videos would generate views and generate ad revenue. 

Once you have enough viewers, additional potential income streams will open up. 

YouTube can also be your main esports journalism platform since many gamers prefer to watch than read. Instead of writing updates and stories, you can make videos about it. 

How much money can you make as a YouTuber?

Your potential income from YouTube varies depending on your videos’ views and how many videos you upload. For instance, you can make two weekly videos with 200,000 views each. That’ll earn you approximately $7,200 every week. 

 

Earn from playing games by becoming  a live streamer

Another way to earn from playing games is to become a live streamer.

Live streaming has gained much popularity because of how authentic and engaging it is for viewers. Unlike YouTube, live streaming gives viewers real moments, not highlight reels. Since live streaming happens live, viewers can also interact with their favorite streamers. 

If you want to learn more about how you can start a live-streaming career, check out these resources we created just for you. 

How much money can you make as a live streamer?

Streamers have different income sources. Which makes it hard to tell how much you can make from streaming. But if you want a detailed look at how much you can earn as a streamer, better check out this article we wrote on that topic!

 

Earn from playing games: Part-time

Make one-to-one coaching a side-hustle

If you’re good at the game(s) you play, but don’t want to quit your day job, one of the ways you earn from playing games is by becoming a coach. Nowadays, many players want to make a career out of gaming and need some coaching to get better.

To be a coach, you first need to have the credibility to teach others. That means you need to excel in the game you’re teaching – maybe even pro-levels – before people would trust you and pay good money for your coaching services. 

The good thing about being a coach is that you can do it whenever your schedule permits. 

How much money can you make as a one-to-one coach?

Your rates as a coach would depend on your skill level and how in demand the skills you’re teaching are. For instance, if you’re a master sniper at CS:GO, you can charge up to $100 per hour. 

 

Monetize by selling a course 

Coaching is not for everyone because it takes a lot of time to sit down and teach your students. Plus, it’s not something you can scale massively because you can only earn as much as your schedule permits. 

Here’s where selling a course comes in. Instead of one-to-one coaching, you can record your lessons and demos, then sell them as a complete course.

 Creating courses is a good idea because you can sell different courses for different skills, and you only need to record each module once. 

How much money can you make as a course creator?

Courses can range from $39 to $79, depending on the game, the scope, and the teacher. For illustration purposes, say you have a $50 course on how to be a Deadshot on CS:GO, and you’re selling 30 courses monthly. That means you’re earning $1500 each month for a recording you did in a day! 

Unlike one-to-one coaching, you have virtually unlimited scaling capabilities because people worldwide can buy your course and take it at their own pace. 

 

Make extra cash by selling in-game items 

Gamers who are in it for fun and want to earn from playing games on the side usually sell their in-game items for cash when upgrading. This is an excellent way to earn if you don’t want all the hassles of creating a monetization strategy. 

All you need to do is keep on grinding to get rare items people would pay for – then sell them at a premium. Not only did you enjoy the challenge of obtaining those items, but you also got some profit. Not bad if you’re just gaming for fun. 

How much money can you make selling in-game items?

There’s no average price or guide on how much you can make selling in-game items. Usually, what you earn is relative to how valuable and rare the items you sell. 

 

Earn more money by offer in-game services

Another way for casual gamers to earn from playing games is by offering in-game services. 

This strategy is quite popular in MMORPG games, where missions can be pretty challenging to accomplish alone. As a service provider, you can help other players complete dungeons, quests, and missions for a fee.

On other games, these service providers help gamers grind and climb the rankings by playing support roles. For example, you can hire a player to play Sage as support when ranking up in Valorant. 

How much money can you make by offering in-game services?

Your earnings would vary depending on what quests/missions you need to accomplish. The more complex the tasks, the higher you can charge. 

 

Earn from playing games by uploading your game highlights on FreshCut.gg 

One of the newest ways gamers can earn from playing games is by uploading their highlight reels on FreshCut.gg and earn $FCD tokens. 

Here’s how it works.FreshCut.gg is a platform that rewards gamers and viewers for their actions. By uploading clips and getting reactions from viewers, you can earn $FCD, then exchange it on crypto exchanges. 

You can learn more about it at: https://freshcut.gg/

 

In our opinion, the best way to earn a lot from your passion for gaming is to combine these different income streams to build one profitable monetization machine, so you can earn from playing games. Good luck!