Do you remember when you were young your mother used to look down upon you for wasting hours in front of a screen? When was gaming deemed a waste of time and energy? What if you told them you could earn while playing games? Yes, making money is now more fun than ever before. These days, you can put those hours to good use to actually get paid to play/test games online. A PlayStation or an Xbox or a Nintendo isn’t required, all you need is a decent computer and a stable internet connection and of course, some gaming experience, which I’m sure you already have.
There are a number of ways you can earn money while doing what you love in your leisure time. Here are some of them:-
- One of the most common methods of earning money by playing games is probably through third-party sites. Not only do they have great deals, the games they offer are tremendously fun. The one downside? They don’t pay you enough. They’ll probably pay you in the form of “their own crypto-currency” and ask you to invest them in their own website to avail offers/games, while a very few of them actually allow you to cash out the crypto-currency. The games they offer aren’t for hardcore gamers but more for casual gamers. Games like – Solitaire, Online Casino, Teen Patti, Puzzle games, Arcade games, Strategy – are pretty common amongst these websites. Here are some examples of the sites:-
- SWAGBUCKS – A legit website that pays people to do certain tasks, including playing games. It offers several tasks like watching online videos, shopping, searching for products and playing games. You can participate in the daily featured promotions for various games and videos and earn some SwagBucks (their cryptocurrency) and invest the same into paid games or transfer these funds directly to your PayPal account.
- LalaLoot – When you initially go to this website, you will have to deal with a storm of ads for the first five days for you to be able to collect tokens. You can then use the tokens to participate in games and earn. There’s a daily lucky draw of $10,000 prize money for a randomly selected user. The more you play, the more chances you have of winning.
- GSN Cash Games – This is an online gaming platform with arcade, puzzle, card and strategy games that appeal to online gamers. You can even try out a few games and then choose the one you want to play professionally. You battle against opponents the same skill and level as you. This increases your chances of winning and earning money.
- Cash Crate – You earn money here by playing games, taking surveys, shopping online and testing new products and new websites. You can earn extra points by entering into tournaments although the rules are a bit haywire especially when “you lose 2 points for being inactive for 2 seconds.” Tournaments themselves cost 1 or 2 points to enter. Once you earn around $20 worth of points, you’re allowed to cash them out and get extra $1 for signing up and taking a picture of your cheque.
- Bingo Zone – It’s basically Bingo but online and it is completely free to play. The minimum payout is around $1 and it continues to increase until someone finally wins. It allows you to spend your Sunday night while staying at home chilling on your couch and still be able to enjoy Bingo and earn some money too.
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- The other option you have is to start a YouTube channel. You can record gameplay of competitive/FPS/MOBA/MMOG, etc games, upload, or live stream the gameplays in real time with your fans. But creating a youtube fanbase takes a considerable amount of time. It requires some efforts and regularity to maintain your subscriber count. But once you’ve started, you’re in there for a long ride, for sure. The earnings begin once you cross YouTube’s threshold of 1,000 subscribers on your channel, making your videos legally eligible to be monetized. Every 1000 views on your videos entitle you to a revenue. You can even sponsor your videos and earn. And can allow ads on your videos to boost your earrings further. A few examples of YouTube successes are – PewDiePie, theRadBrad, Ninja, AliA, iChase, Coolmark, Bucks, twist and many others.
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- You can also be an official game tester for game developers. A Games Tester is a specialized type of Software Quality Assurance Engineer. He thoroughly tests games before their public reveal. Their job description revolves around playing the game several times, from start to finish, to uncover bugs or glitches that might be a nuisance to the general public. Every platform – PS, PC, Xbox, Nintendo – needs them. They receive advanced copies of the games in order to thoroughly test the game prior to public release. During gameplay, the tester attempts to discover hidden bugs/glitches by attempting every move a player might take during gameplay. Testers note occurrences of there and likewise gaming malfunctions and report it to the original head developers of the game for them to roll out an update and fix them. This usually requires you to be a professional engineer or a professional gamer. Salary ranges from $18,000-$55,000.
- The last option we deem suitable and logical is to simply be a professional gamer in a professional league. The tournament prizes massive, but the added funds from sponsors make it one of the best-paid leisure time jobs. Once you’re into a game professionally, you’ve approached my organizers for Invitational tournaments and from there on it’s entirely up to your performance and rankings in the tournament to get sponsors or contracts from popular eSports teams. Some common eSports games are – CS: GO, DOTA 2, COD, WoW, Overwatch, Rainbow Siege Six, The Division, etc. These games are playable either on PC or on PS and Xbox. But what really interesting about playing professionally is that you can participate in eSport Tournaments even on mobile. This gives a great opportunity to people worldwide looking to earn money while being able to play on their personal devices. While mobile gaming is slowly and steadily being a hyped sport, its future seems promising. Some of the games that are professionally playable on mobile are – ModernCombat, Critical Ops, PUBG, Fortnite, etc.
With plenty of options available for you to earn money, playing games seem the most fun and enthusiastic. You practically earn by doing what you’re passionate about.