How to make money on online games?
Yuriy SheremetA very interesting question, which is asked by every fan of wasting a couple of three (or even more) hours a day – how to earn, playing in the favorite game? Actually, there are a lot of ways to make money on online games but today, we will take a look at three main types, which combine nicely, and the success in this branch depends mainly on the player.
The resale of skins
The «buy and sell» method is used only during events. An organizer cares about the manufacturing of special thematic items for its event in order to attract the audience to the tournament.
In CS:GO or Dota 2, you can buy skins, containers, and other stuff during a Major tournament, the sale of which is over after the end of the event. Can we take something from that? Right, we receive the opportunity to buy a set of pixels for real money and sell them with a margin a bit later. But you should be careful there: not every digital item can be bought because the prize growth in time depends on several factors.
For example, purchasing a «souvenir» skin in CS to sell it will be one of the most ridiculous ideas - all sold weapon skins will continue circulating on the market after the end of a tournament for years because their condition does not become worse and they do not disappear, which makes the price changes impossible or too small.
Things are different with stickers: having attached such a decor item once, you will not be able to sell it, consequently, there will be less of these items on the trade market till the start of the next Major and the price will be just growing and the question is «What sticker should I choose?», the answer is simple: supplying demands. There are players or teams in any sports who have been showing good results for a long time, by which they attract dozens of fans. Look at the ranking of teams, their results, etc, on thematic websites with statistics.
Using the example of CS, the website hltv.org creates the top 20 players every year and actively follows the teams’ achievements, forming the general rating. The price of a team’s logo or a player’s signature depends on the in-game success and media popularity. If the public’s interest to a team or a particular sportsman can drop, it will be stable to stickers but the price growth will be less on a distance.
It is worth buying containers with stickers at the end of the tournament when the organizer provides the biggest discount. Stickers should be bought in two weeks after the end of a match, at least. By that moment, the majority of users will have opened the major part of containers and put the received goods on the market in huge quantities at a low price.
A future seller is recommended to get acquainted with demand on items, at least, on graphs, which are provided by the Steam trade market. Yes, you can’t make big money in such a way but the option of investing and making a profit later was always attractive for the majority.
A big game – an investment in an esports team
A more active method of earning represents participation in tournaments. They can be hosted on regular popular platforms on the Internet and live (LAN) where some PC clubs will probably be the main sponsor. In any case, the majority of disciplines require a team, so the first steps after the creation of the dream team will be a creation of a communication between players. Then, it comes to working on the quality of playing, its improvement. The team, which practices once a week, which members play 30 hours a week, has no right to exist. The big competition demands great efforts, a team will succeed and have prizes, which will be enough more than on a case of beer and a snack, only by working all day long.
Everyone should be involved in the game and the motivation level of every particular player has to be increased to infinity. Before attending LAN tournaments, a team play can be improved on platforms like Faceit or ESEA. Watching matches of professional teams is mandatory – a try to use someone else’s experience has not hurt anyone. If we talk about possible prizes, everything depends on the sum you want. The bigger the sum, the more serious the approach should be. And only the practice remains where you should not give up in any case.
A media project on the Internet
All roads lead to your channel. Yes, and links too. The media factor is one of the most important on the Internet because it is too easy to monetize the popularity nowadays. You can be recognized for creating unique content by the community. And if the last one can be minimized with the help of the previous method (for example, by recording replays of your matches) but initially, you will need a boost in the form of advertisement. You have to be ready to spend tens of thousands of dollars to start own project.
When some audience is achieved, you should make collaborations with other projects after that. The creation of unique content (you will not be able to move forward only on the copied content) takes a lot of time, be ready to sit in front of a computer for hours just to make a few fun memes for the group of your channel.
Do not forget about the quality of work: users will not care what thoughts you express through your camera if the video quality is too poor. YouTube and/or Twitch channels should be a basis for the attraction of a new audience, so 80% of your attention will be paid to them. The regular work on your character, speech, and gesturing plays a big role in temps of receiving new subscribers. Do not forget about feedback and answer the audience’s questions, it is important. It is possible to talk about earnings only after the time of the nonstop work on your project and it means that you will have to make the supplies of instant noodles for the next few months.
The best option will be the combination of all above-mentioned things, which is possible when you have:
- a tremendous amount of time;
- a capital;
- a desire to not stop when it does not work.
So there is only left to wish good luck and perseverance in achieving these goals because you will have to work hard to achieve something.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.