How to Make Money Gaming Online – The 6 Best Ways

How To Make Money Gaming Online – The 6 Best Ways

Playing video games is far from being just a hobby anymore – did you know there’s real money to be made from it? There are numerous ways to monetize this hobby and maximize its financial potential, so let’s look at how to make money gaming online.

1.Streaming on Twitch
If you’re wondering how to make money gaming online, Twitch is probably your fist stop. More people are enjoying streaming services for entertainment every day. Streaming on Twitch can make you a fortune, depending on how skilled you are as a gamer, how charismatic you are, or whether you’ve got a following already going when you start gaming.
The best part is that you aren’t doing anything differently to what you usually do; it’s literally just you playing the game like you normally would, except you allow others to watch – and most importantly, donate – to support you.
Now, donations will vary in amount, depending on the gamer and the people paying. Most people will only throw in $5 because they want to support their favorite, but they can’t afford more, while others will splurge on surprising amounts in the hundreds, or even thousands.
Generally speaking, something unusual or desirable will generate more donations, so very entertaining commentary, incredible achievements, or even physically attractive gamers (particularly women) all pull in more money than usual.

2.Patreon
Another means for fans to show their support financially is Patreon. This is a platform meant for artists of any kind and the people who want to support them so they can keep creating the content the audience enjoys. You know, like wealthy patrons of the arts did during the Renaissance. You provide the content, and patrons support you so you can continue to deliver what they enjoy.
One can donate at any time on Patreon, or they can subscribe to their favorites and pledge a certain amount every month in order to support them. Typically, the content creators make something especially for their Patreon supporters to enjoy, so there is a sort of exchange happening.
For you, that can mean a live stream, a video, a Q&A, or anything related to gaming that your following would enjoy. It could even be a strategic guide, or anything you want.

3.YouTube
For some creators, the only answer to the question “how to make money gaming online?” is YouTube, because that’s where the real money is made, and here’s why – on this platform, there are actually several methods to monetize your content. The content you put up on YouTube can be a Let’s Play type of gaming video, a game review, a first look at a new game, a walkthrough, a video presenting hacks or cheats, etc. There’s a lot of different aspects you can cover. Let’s look at how you can monetize your content:
Ads – Most YouTube content creators who are looking to make money from YouTube put ads on their videos. The adverts will not typically be related to the content of the video in any way, although they are usually at least targeted to the same demographic who watches the videos.
For example, the average gamer is a male in their 30s, so perhaps they may receive car ads, ads for banking services, food delivery services, etc. The more viewers you get on a video, the more money you make on each ad. If your video is longer, than you can insert more ads throughout it at regular intervals. These also continue to pay over time, no matter how old your video is.

Sponsorships – The real money, however, comes from brand sponsorships. When you’ve got a decent following on YouTube (and other social media platforms), brands will sometimes reach out to ask you to collaborate with them and feature their product in a video. In this case, that may be a gaming console, a new game, or products and services that have nothing to do with gaming, but again, that are relevant to your target demographic.
These are now considered to be ads that you create, because you are featuring a product or service in exchange for monetary compensation. Content creators are paid thousands of dollars for this type of sponsored content. The bigger your audience, the bigger the paycheck is going to be.
Affiliate links – Not nearly as lucrative as sponsorships, affiliate links still contribute to your growing bank account. Affiliate links are links from certain brands – to products, usually. You promote them on your channel and every time a viewer clicks through the affiliate links you’ve got and make a purchase, you get a very small percentage of their purchase. On its own, it’s not majorly impressive, but get a few hundred thousands people to click through, and the money stacks up.

Youtube Premium – Finally, YouTube has been rolling out alternative services and content that viewers can subscribe to and pay a weekly or monthly fee. With YouTube Premium, you, as a creator, generate extra, exclusive content for the subscribers, that people pay to access. Prices vary, but the subscription fee is generally not very high, acting as a good incentive for as many people as possible to sign up.
The extra content you put out can be gaming-related, or it can even be more personal; it all depends on what your audience wants to see and what they are paying to see.

4.Gold farming
This method may be slightly unorthodox, because it very much depends on the game and the country whether or not this behavior is kosher – we’re talking about gold farming. That is to say, playing a game and amassing coins, or even rare objects, and selling them to other players for actual currency.
Some games sanction this type of transactions, while others technically forbid it, so we can’t endorse it as an option for everyone and for every game. However, it is an available option that you need to be aware of in order to maximize your how-to-make-money-gaming-online efforts.

5.Gaming tournaments
If you’re really confident in your skills, you can put your money where your mouth is and enter a gaming tournament. Just like poker or snooker tournaments, gamers can sign up (usually in teams) for online gaming tournaments for games like DOTA or Warcraft.
There’s usually a participation fee to these things, but there’s also a way bigger prize, and if you’re as good as you think you are, you can take the prize home. It’s usually between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars, depending on who organizes the tournament and how big it is. If it’s only a local one, it’s probably not going to have a huge prize, but national and international competitions have significantly better payouts.

6.Gaming tutorials
There are also other types of content you can create and sell, that don’t have to be limited to a certain platform. Gaming tutorials or gaming mentoring are services a lot of gamers are interested in. You can create tutorials in e-book form or even audio book, you can set up a mentoring service that you can carry out via Discord – there are several options you can explore if you have this set of skills that can be taken advantage of.
You can even train for tournaments, if you don’t want to participate yourself, for the gamers who want to try their luck, but are having issues with strategy, or a particular aspect of their gameplay.

Conclusion
If you were wondering how to make money gaming online, you will now know that there are actually numerous avenues you can take to monetize your hobby and your passion. Most people still don’t take gaming seriously, or respect it as a career, but there is actually a lot of money to be made from this skill. Not to mention that you can get paid to do what you love, which is a chance that can come once in a lifetime.