It’s probably not the career path your mother would have chosen for you, but maybe it’s time for her to reevaluate.

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Video games have become a titan in the entertainment industry over the last few decades, with the market peaking at $35.4 billion in 2019 revenue. For context, that’s more than three times the revenue made by the music industry and 83% of the money made by the movie industry in the same year[*].

You’re probably familiar with some of the ways you can make cash playing video games, with major streamers like Ninja making serious cash and eSports being aired on ESPN, but did you know there are ways you can take your favorite hobby and play video games for cash — even outside of a professional context?

Inbox Dollars allows you to earn some cash while playing games online. All you have to do is to sign up with InboxDollars at no cost and start playing games straight away. The website offers a variety of games for you to choose from and play. You can earn $10 per day. BUFF, a popular app, lets you earn Buff coins while playing your favorite games. All you have to download this Buff app and start earning real money without making any investment. In short, BUFF lets you play.

While pursuing a professional career is an option, you don’t have to be a major league gamer to pad your savings account while you’re waiting for your next doctor’s appointment or when standing in line at the DMV.

There are so many ways to make money playing video games, but most of them aren’t worth it. We’ve done our research and pulled out the options that are worth considering. We tell you the honest truth — what you choose to do with it is your decision.

Some of these have the chance to be lucrative, most do not. Some follow more traditional career paths, others involve an entrepreneurial spirit. Some pay you immediately, others require content and time investment.

Take a close read through to figure out which option is best for you.

1. User test video games for large video game developers

It’s not surprising once you stop and think about it, but every game ever released needs to be tested. Think of it like writing a book, except that the sentences aren’t linear. Someone has to playtest every aspect of a game before its release, and companies like Blizzard, EA, and Ubisoft all employ full-time and contracted video game testers.

The money can be better than you think. Video game testers can easily earn $50,000+ a year, but keep in mind this is a demanding, full-time position. You aren’t just lazily playing video games. Here’s an idea of what you would be doing:

Carefully performing “matrix” tests to “break” a game – e.g. exploiting balancing strengths and weaknesses in a MOAB game.
Writing down articulate and meticulous thoughts around new versions and the issues you encountered. You can’t say, “The game was choppy”. You’d have to say something more along the lines of, “Version 1.32’s load time between cutscenes clocked in at 12 seconds, which is much longer than the 4-second benchmark we established”.
Attend meetings and relate your findings to the developer team.
Staying on top of bug fixes and reminding the team to resolve them.

Another common complaint is the lack of upward mobility. Where do you go from being a user tester? Well, the answer is nowhere concrete.

How to get started

Check out some job boards and see if any positions are available.

Here are some companies that offer user-testing positions:

Nintendo: How cool would this be? The only catch is you have to live in Redmond, Washington since it’s where their American headquarters is.
Blizzard: User-testing jobs at Blizzard are hard to find, but you may be able to snag one if you keep a close eye on it.
Rockstar: Same idea here. These jobs don’t come up often at Rockstar but you may be able to pick one up if you’re lucky. And remember these are legitimate jobs and should be treated seriously.

2. User test video games via smaller third-party testing sites

There are also generalized video game sites where you can sign up to test all sorts of games. Some of these require you to take voice and video recordings as you play them, others don’t. It’s essentially a product testing platform and the jobs depend on the various video game designers’ needs.

How to get started

Start enrolling and checking out gigs on a few user-testing sites.

Here are few third-party user testing sites to get you started:

Beta Testing: Beta Testing was previously known as Erli Bird, and it’s a general platform for businesses to hire users to test their apps, games, and software.
UserTesting: Similar to Beta Testing, this site has a broad set of user testing opportunities but video game gigs do show up from time to time.
PlaytestCloud: This is a mobile app testing site, so you can find mobile games to test here. On their site, they mention that pay varies, but they give an example of a $9 test for 15 minutes of playtime.

3. Use Mistplay or other mobile apps

There are a couple of mobile gaming apps that make their cash through ads and user data while paying users for their time. You’ll have to play what they want you to, but if you aren’t too picky then these apps could be good for you. You won’t make more than a few bucks a month, but it’s not a bad way to spend downtime.

How to get started

Download a few mobile gaming apps and see which one you enjoy the most.

Here are a few mobile gaming app options:

Mistplay: Play games and earn cash. This is best for mobile gamers who don’t mind opting in to play random games. You won’t get more than a couple of bucks a month, though.
Bananatic: Online platform where you play for points that you can redeem for gift cards and other offers.
AppNana: A mobile reward app that gives you rewards for completing small tasks and playing games. You can then redeem them for Xbox gift cards and other prizes.

4. Use sites like Swagbucks or InboxDollars

If you aren’t picky about the video games you play and are interested in a generalized approach to spending downtime, then Swagbucks and InboxDollars are two of the “make money online” juggernauts to consider.

Both services are pretty similar. Basically, you create an account, fill out some basic information about yourself, and then there are a wide variety of ways you can collect “bucks” or “cash”. These options include taking surveys, watching ads, playing games, and much more.

You won’t make anywhere near a liveable income from these sites, but they are good options to have around if you’re bored and looking for ways to gamify your discretionary spending.

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How to get started

Fill out an account on either Swagbucks or InboxDollars and start playing some games!

Here are few links to “make money online” sites:

Swagbucks: The biggest player in the “make money online” space. You can do everything from play games to watch movie trailers to fill out surveys and turn earned points into cash.
InboxDollars: This service is very similar to Swagbucks, and many people mix and match between the two. Take a look at the video game options on both sites and see which ones are more fun.

5. Make a Youtube channel or Twitch stream

This is the most popular way to make money with video games at the moment. Just like your last Los Angeles Uber driver, you could consider starting your own Youtube Channel or Twitch Stream.

Isn’t that extremely difficult? Well, yes. Of course. Being successful as an online video gamer and streamer requires at least one of these three of these skills, if not all:

A particularly good knack for video games.
A

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