There are a couple of different ways gamers turn their hobby into a full-time income. One of the ways a lot of gamers can do this is by entering esports. Whereas, some others pursue the other path which is through live streaming. In this article, we will be going over some of the different ways gamers can make money.
How Do Esports Players Make Money?
1. Salary
One of the ways you can make money is by joining a team and earning a base salary. Those who are professional players on the esports scene find themselves making a good amount of money. The salary that you can expect to earn will be predicated on the game that you are playing.
The higher the earning potential of the game you are playing, the more you are likely to be offered in terms of salary. Some of the more popular games like League of Legends can expect to make much more than some of the other newer and less popular games.
After all, the leagues pay fluctuates on how much advertising revenue they are bringing in.
Therefore, you can’t expect to make too much unless the game you are playing is bringing in enough viewers. For those who can go esports for some of the more popular games, you can expect to bring in a couple hundred thousand in base pay if not more.
2. Endorsements
Another way you can make money through esports and being a professional gamer is through endorsements. This works much like a traditional sports player. You build your gamer brand and draw a lot of eyes.
High profile competitive players have a very dedicated following. You could be approached by companies to get you to endorse their products or services. Endorsements can be very lucrative if you are marketable because you’ve built a solid personal brand around your gaming career.
3. Influencer
Another way you could potentially find yourself making a good amount of money from playing in esports is by having a large following and being a gaming influencer on social media.
If you can generate a good following and a core audience, you will be valuable to brands. Therefore, you may get paid to provide social media endorsements through the new wave of influencer marketing.
How Do Streamers Make Money?
1. Donations
The majority of gamers who stream can bring in a lot of money through donations. You can receive donations from those who watch your streams.
Donations can be very lucrative if you manage to drill down on a core audience and if you can maintain consistently populated streams. However, the total amount of money you can expect to generate from donations is never consistent.
Therefore, you should be looking to supplement your income through other means. That way, you don’t end up with huge fluctuations week to week that put you in a hole.
2. Subscriptions
Another good way to generate a good amount of money through streaming would be selling subscriptions. By selling subs, you should be able to get a much more consistent means of income coming in from your streams.
A subscription to either Twitch or YouTube will net you a set amount of money during the month. Viewers can pay for subscriptions either a month at a time or longer. Therefore, it can be a good way to build up your recurring income.
3. Advertisements
Another way you can generate income is through running advertisements on your channel and during your stream. You will get paid a certain percentage on the advertisements run depending on the number of “impressions” you get. Impressions are just fancy marketing speak for views.
Advertisers want to work with streamers who they feel have the attention of their target audience. A target audience is a segment of the population that a company feels is most likely to become a customer. So they want to make sure that your audience is the type likely to buy their products.
A make-up company typically wont want to advertise on a competitive Fortnite stream because most of the people who watch competitive Fortnite are young males. Not their target audience.
So understanding your audience is an important part in attracting advertisers.
4. Affiliate Links
Another way a lot of streamers look to supplement their income is through affiliate marketing. You will be able to generate a lot of money through affiliate marketing if you can match your audience to the right products.
You can do this through various platforms including Amazon’s affiliate marketing program, Epic Games, and other options.
5. Selling Products
Another way you would be able to make money through streaming is by either creating your products or using a print on demand service to sell your products. When you have a dedicated audience, a lot of them will be willing to purchase a product to support your streams.
As you can see, there are so many different things that you will need to consider when it comes to becoming a professional gamer.
Becoming a competitive esports player can be very challenging. Therefore, the majority of professional gamers make their money through live streaming. With live streaming, you can get paid depending on how much of an audience you can build up.
Therefore, if you are entertaining or you can generate a large audience that watches you consistently, you can make a career out of being a professional gamer.
Best of all, you don’t have to rely solely on the money that you have coming in through the streams alone. You can sell subscriptions, but you can also sell everything from your merchandise to affiliate products and more.
