Here we like to talk about budding businesses, how to be an entrepreneur, and making money online. We also like to talk about turning your hobby into a career that can make you more money than you would typically earn working a boring job that you don’t necessarily “love”.
Many of you know that my other passion is video games! If you love video games too then this post is just for you. One of the newest ways and arguably easiest to get into to be an entrepreneur related to video games is playing them competitively! If you are great at video games, the world of eSports has opened up doors to you that in the past were sealed shut. Never before in the history of entertainment has anyone been able to make a living simply “playing” digital games. We had professional sports such as football, basketball, soccer(futbol), and the olympics – real life physical sports where competitors competed gladiator style in an arena.
Well now digital warriors are competing in physical arenas and the payoffs are huge! Not only has esports become huge for those that are great at playing games – esports has indirectly impacted those of us who love to play games by legitimizing the idea of “gaming” as a whole, which allows even more avenues for making money with video games! Here are just a few of the best ways you can get started making real money online by playing games.
Become a Streamer
Meet ‘Ninja,’ a 26-Year-Old Gamer Making Tons of Cash Playing Fortnite
You can’t avoid it online – the most popular videos on sites like YouTube are game related. Thanks to youtubers like Felix Kjellberg (aka PewDiePie) who made the “Let’s Play” form of vlogging super popular – everyone is doing videos like that where they simply play a game and record their journey and reactions as they go and share it with the audience so that viewers feel as though they are playing the game with the youtuber hence the name “Let’s Play” (together).
Now YouTube isn’t the only game in town, there is also Twitch which has a revenue system based on subscribers which the Fortnite legend Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins makes over $500,000 per month playing just Fortnite!
Of course if you do your research into the top gaming streamers you’ll quickly realize after watching a few of their videos that their styles, how they record, how they play, what they play, is all so wildly different – but that is why it’s so fun to do! You will have to develop your own style and try to garner an audience but if you are great at games, and love playing games, give it a try because as you can see the payoffs are HUGE if you put enough time and effort into building your audience by creating great content.
Collecting/Selling Games
A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Video Games
Ok so technically this isn’t “playing games” but it does involve games, and to be able to collect games you have to be able to tell what games are good and aren’t good sometimes – so you’ll probably have to play some games! My gaming hobby/career actually created this side hobby as a side effect and it’s slowly becoming a bit chunk of my business. I love games and so naturally I want all the games – but games can be expensive, some are rare, and some are impossible to find (Some NES, SNES, N64, PS1, Dreamcast, and other retro titles go for upwards of $100-300!). You quickly learn though that there are specific places you can get games cheaper than others – and when you catch games on a good clearance sale or a deal somewhere at a big store like BestBuy or Walmart – you stock up.
If you get savvy enough with your video game collecting you usually end up with duplicates, if you can manage to double, or in best cases triple (or more) your money then you can see how this quickly becomes a money maker. You were buying the game anyway – someone will want to buy it from you for what it is worth if it is a good game – if you can manage to work your magic on some of the extra copies you have then you are already making money. Hey, you were gonna buy those games anyway!
Ebay is a really good place to check for some old classics to add to your collection – and also a quick an easy place to try to pawn your games off on collectors that are looking for those titles – it’s pretty much a win win. If you don’t mind interacting with people in public then try Facebook marketplace – as it is a booming place to find retro and new titles alike in the gaming community. Another thing you can sell is your gaming accounts – that’s a whole other topic of discussion but I constantly see people selling Fortnite, Wow, League of Legends accounts, etc – they are worth a lot of money if you are willing to part with it – so always keep in mind that digital goods are worth real money these days!
eSports
How eSports is Moving from Gaming to a Business
Of course we had to mention eSports! For good reason, it’s probably one of the most enticing ways to make money playing games right now – who doesn’t want the fame and glory that comes along with being the best in something? For years esports has kind of been in the background and not really seeming like a legitimate option but with the success of Dota 2, CS:GO, League of Legends, and who could forget the Korean StarCraft phenomenon – everyone is seeming like they are competing for a prize in the online gaming arena of esports!
You may think that those stories are years old now, and stale, but esports has been blowing up the news lately and this year has been even more explosive with companies like Psyonix announcing in their Rocket League Championship Series 6 (RCLS) had the biggest prize pool ever — a MASSIVE $1,000,000! If that doesn’t give you a taste of how lucrative esports can be, another famous company right now – Epic Games – announced that their Fortnite summer skirmishes would have a prize pool of $8,000,000 IN 8 WEEKS! That is just two games, this year (2018) so you can imagine that more popular games will have to follow suit or get left behind meaning that the gamers are the ones who win in this scenario – so pick up your controller and get to practicing!
Online Betting
How Esports Gambling Works
So maybe you aren’t the best player, but you really love the games, and you are good at figuring out who is going to win – maybe betting is for you! The tradition of betting on sports has a long history and it is so wide spread that you can find people betting on games in bars, in the grand stands at a stadium, under the bleachers at a drag race, horse track, anywhere they can see the action you better believe a bet is being made! These promotions come in many shapes and sizes and they can fit anyone’s gaming style and preferences. There are already fantasy sports brackets for games like Madden and other games with the actual esports players and teams available to make your winning roster – and you can win big here. So choose your teams wisely and keep tabs on the stats so you can find yourself in the winners circle along with the players!
Well there you have it – if you want to play and earn money at the same time you have plenty of choices in todays internet marketplace – so try one or get creative and combine two of them to see how much you can make!
Thanks for reading! If you’ve got a strategy for getting your game on and getting paid for it share it in the comments below!