One of the most common sentiments you’ll hear when trying to decide a career path is “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life." Well, people love playing video games, don’t they? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could make a living that way?
The truth is, you can! But… it’s hard work. Many people who go this route often gives up within a few years because the work aspect vastly outweighs the fun. Instead of doing what they love, they end up hating what they once loved. It’s also quite risky. For every make-money-playing-games success story, there are hundreds of others who tried and failed. But it’s certainly possible! Here are six potential ways to make this dream a reality.
1. Live Streams
Stream your gameplay in real-time for the world to see. Aim to build a large audience (which you can monetize with ads) or a loyal audience (which you can monetize with donations and subscriptions). The biggest platform right now is Twitch, but YouTube Gaming is catching up. Ignore Hitbox and Beam, which are too small to make any real money.
2. Build Guides
Newbies love reading guides, especially for multiplayer player-versus-player (PvP) games. You can either create a website for written guides, upload video guides to YouTube, or publish guides as ebooks. The first two are often monetized with ads, whereas the ebook route earns revenue through sales.
3. Podcasts or Videos
Create a daily, weekly, or monthly show related to gaming. It could be an opinion-based roundtable discussion, a series of interviews with high-profile players, tips and tricks for a certain game, etc. Podcasts and YouTube videos can be monetized with ads, but this format can also be supported through Patreon subscriptions.
4. Competitive Gaming
Tournaments are commonplace for PvP games, and the more popular a game, the larger the prize pools become. If you’re good enough to join an esports organization, you may earn a livable salary. Most competitive gamers also take advantage of live streaming for additional income.
5. Games Journalism
Write news, reviews, and interviews for a specific game, genre, or industry. You can create your own journalism site (which can be monetized with ads or Patreon subscriptions) or work for an established site on a paid-per-article basis.
6. Games Testing
Games go through various phases of development. When they near completion, developers need outsiders who can playtest their games with fresh eyes. As a playtester, your job is to test everything the developer wants you to test, which includes finding and documenting bugs and issues.
Snips taken from an article on www.makeuseof.com view the original article here
