MONEY IN GAMING

Nothing’s more fun than playing video games to unwind after school or work right? But what if your real job was playing video games? Sounds impossible. Well, it’s not picking up your controller. The ultimate fantasy is to become a reality. Every single video game goes through a slew of tests and iron out the bugs of the closet preparation for its final release. This is the job of the quality assurance tester. QA testers play the same level over and over and over for hours to make sure it’s bug-free. If you think you got the skills you could become a professional gamer. Professional gamers make big money competing in tournaments around the globe not to mention the glory of saying that you’re the best in the world at mashing buttons. I don’t mash buttons I’m a gamer. But the life of a pro gamer requires a life dedicated to constant training in traveling the tournaments and the only way to get paid is if you win. Besides all this, you don’t lose all, if you want to make money playing video games. According to hotshot GG a former pro gamer there is a better way. He says that the best way to make money is to be an entertainer and to be a streamer. Just being a personality that everyone looks up to enter the world of streaming games. Stranglers are the people who record themselves playing video games and then broadcast them over the internet. Where the most popular streaming website is twitch recently acquired by Amazon for 970 million dollars. Twitch is the 4th largest source of internet traffic in the United States. Streamers make money for the twitch’s partnership program. The program pay streamer approximately $3 for every thousand ad views and $5for a month for every subscriber. Combined with the sponsorship of Amazon referral links and PayPal donations you can make some serious cash. Now, how much money are we talking about? Well, one league of legends streamer earns around 8 grand a month and he doesn’t even have to leave his house lucky…. But that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to a stream of Imaqtpie over 32 million subscribers. PewDiePie turns an average of four hundred thousand a month. He is a multimillionaire.

Now it’s pretty simple to set this all up. If you’re looking to stream your Xbox One or Ps4 all the tools you need are built into the console. The only additional piece of equipment you need is a connected camera or a play-station eye camera. For PC you’re going to need streaming software to let you send your games. To twitch, you’re also going to need a microphone and a webcam. Now your computer might come with both of those pre-installed but if you’re serious about streaming which you should consider purchasing a dedicated webcam and microphone. Recommend you find something around the 30-to-40-dollar range that can record 720p video and a cardioid microphone indeed one hundred, two-hundred-and-thirty-dollar range. Whether you’re streaming on PC, Xbox One, or PS 4, make sure you have a fast stable internet connection. You don’t want your internet kick in the bucket when you’re in the middle of a stream like a noob. We still say a noob, look at that you’re all set up and ready to stream but what game are you going to play. Contrary to what you might think you should avoid popular titles like League of Legends, StarCraft 2, Minecraft, and Modern Warfare 3. Those games are ridiculously popular but with so many established streamers playing them. All the time your streams going to get lost in the crowd. Pick a popular older title that less than 50 or so other streamers are playing at the time. Games like maybe Kingdom heart, Resident Evil 4, or Super Mario sunshine might be a good place to start. I know some of you there probably disagree vehemently but this is reality.

 

Not every successful streamer but they do share similar qualities. The first and foremost quality is a good voice. If you want people to watch your stream for hours on end. You have to be pleasant to listen to. Imagine you’re talking to a friend and make sure to speak clearly and with emotion. The second quality is having a strong personality. You don’t have to be great at the game but you have to be engaging entertaining to watch. React weirdly when something scary or silly happens. Crack a joke n goof around with chat. Moreover, the third quality is sticking to a schedule. Stream every day at the same time. The more regular and consistent you are the more your followers will remember to tune in. The last quality can be, interacting with your chat. Engaging with your audience will make them happy and keep them coming back to your screen and makes them feel like they’re part of the party. You can’t just stream and expect the money to roll in. You’ll have to constantly grow your audience and the only way to do that is to treat your stream as a business. Yes, even playing video games for a living requires a little bit of elbow grease. More research and no the other people screaming the game that you’re playing when an established streamer stopped playing your game a portion of their audience will want to keep watching that game and might switch to your channel. Network with other streamers find people who are about as popular as you exchange tips and tricks and plug the charger screams. Also promote your stream on social media, giveaways. People love getting free stuff to consider getting a sponsor that’s a company that’s going to pay you money to plug and promote their products. The best way to do this is to contact companies and explain who you are and how many subscribers you have. It’s a numbers game.

 

Congratulations if you carefully follow these steps, your way to trading in that suit and tie for a webcam and gaming mouse but you’re going to keep it up for the next 40 years because there’s no 401k or health insurance for video game streamers. Quite frankly this could all go away if people just decided to go outside one day and we’re praying that day never comes.