Passionate about gaming and dream of earning from it? Your dream could become a reality. Gaming has become a lucrative industry, generating $151 billion in 2019, projected to reach $256 billion by 2025.
Navigating this path isn’t easy, but we’re here to help. Our expertise spans across streaming, competitive gaming, game development, and eSports betting. Sharpen your skills with us and start earning from your passion.
eSports, competitive video gaming at a professional level, is on the rise. It’s projected to reach a worth of $3 billion by 2022 with an expected 300 million viewers worldwide by 2023. Ready to tap into this opportunity? Let’s begin.
What Are eSports?
eSports are professional video gaming contests and, as the name suggests, it basically turns competitive video gaming into a sport.
In eSports, gaming organizations are synonymous to a sports club. Each gaming organization will contract several professional players that compete in video game tournaments. Usually, players compete in teams although individual eSports contests also happen.
These competitions are held in huge arenas. The teams play an eSports game and battle against each other until one team reigns victorious. Fans can watch live at the arenas or watch streams of the games from popular streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube.
Usually, eSports organizations will have competitive teams for multiple games. For example, take Team Liquid. Team Liquid is one of the largest and most popular professional gaming organizations.[1] They have teams, also known as divisions, for all major video game titles. This includes League of Legends, Fortnite, Dota 2, and Hearthstone just to name a few.
Each game in eSports is equivalent to a game in sports. League of Legends, for example, could be seen as the equivalent to basketball and Fortnite comparable to football. This way, eSports is the collective term for all major gaming tournaments that invole winning prizes.
Popular Ways to Make Money Playing Games
Streaming
Unleash your charisma and gaming prowess through streaming.
Platforms like Twitch and YouTube offer excellent opportunities for gamers to broadcast their gameplay, interact with fans, and earn money through ads, subscriptions, and donations.
All you need is a unique personality, engaging content, and a reliable streaming setup.
Becoming a Pro Player
If you’ve got the skills, becoming a professional eSports player could be your calling.
Participate in tournaments and compete at the highest levels in popular games like CS:GO, League of Legends, and Fortnite.
With significant cash prizes, sponsorship deals, and a fervent fanbase, pro gaming can be both fulfilling and profitable.
Betting on eSports
For those who understand the ins and outs of eSports but prefer strategy over gameplay, betting on eSports might be your ideal route.
Platforms like BetUS and ThunderPick let you place wagers on eSports matches, creating a chance for substantial returns.
Remember, responsible betting is key.
Other Ways to Make Money from Video Games
Aside from these three major money-making strategies, there are a few other options available. You can do these in combination with the big three, or as an alternative:
- Make a Gaming Website: Nowadays, absolutely anyone can make a site for money. If you are a big gamer, why not build a website offering gaming reviews or guides? Produce good content that ranks well and you may well be able to partner with gaming companies who will give you free games to review. Eventually, you could end up earning money from advertisements or from selling products that you recommend.
- Become a Video Game Tester: Before games are released, companies need players to trial them, and they pay a pretty penny for this. Top game testers could be looking upward of a $60,000 salary. The catch? You need to be an established gamer for most companies to hire you.
- Coach Gamers How to Play: If you have a good following on a streaming platform or are a well-known player, others will pay you to coach them. You can earn anywhere from $20 up to $200 per hour depending on how in-demand your tips and tricks are.
- Design Gaming Merchandise: If you’re more creative but don’t want to get into coding games, another option is designing the merch for games. Many people sell their own designs through online stores such as Etsy. For games with a large fanbase, there are plenty of opportunities to sell to the masses.
Guides By Game
Already have a favorite game and want to know how to make money from it? Take a look at our game guides for all the best money-making strategies specifically for your game of choice.
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What eSports Games Are There?
Not every game makes it to eSports status. For a game to become an eSport, it must be both entertaining to watch and have a high skill ceiling so there is always something players can improve on and master.
Best eSports Games
League of Legends
The most famous eSports game is League of Legends (LOL) which has paid out over $76 million over 2,500 events.[2] In the 2015 World Championships, 360 million hours of LOL streams were viewed with the average person watching at least 1 hour of footage.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) has seen over 5,000 different tournaments, making it one of the biggest eSports to date. It was nominated for “eSports Game of the Year” in 2019, and its solid reputation is not going anywhere.
Dota 2
Dota 2 has paid out a staggering $225,722,637 over 1405 eSports tournaments, making it the top game based on prize money. With so much money up for grabs, this one has to make our top three list.
All Games
When it comes to eSports though, there is a huge variety beyond these top three.
The different eSports games are generally split into eight different genres: fighting games, first-person shooters (FPS), real-time strategy (RTS), sports games, racing, multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA), third-person shooters (TPS), and other games.
Click on each gaming subgenre to see a complete list of all current eSports games:
Fighting Games
- Killer Instinct
- Marvel vs. Capcom
- Street Fighter
- Super Smash Bros
- Tekken
First Person Shooter
- Alliance of Valiant Arms
- Apex Legends
- Battlefield
- Call of Duty
- Counter-Strike
- CrossFire
- Doom
- Halo
- Overwatch
- Painkiller
- Quake
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Special Force II
- Team Fortress 2
- Unreal Tournament
Real-Time Strategy
- StarCraft II
- StarCraft: Brood War
- Warcraft III
Sports Games
- FIFA
- Madden
- NBA 2K
- Pro Evolution Soccer
- Real Subspace Hockey League
- Rocket League
Racing
- Formular One
- Gran Turismo Sport
- iRacing
- Project CARS
- TrackMania
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena
- League of Legends
- Dota 2
- Smite
- Heroes of the Storm
- Vainglory
- Arena of Valor
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Third-Person Shooters
- Gears of War
- Fortnite
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Other
- Hearthstone
- Pokemon
- Puyo Puyo
- Tetris
- War Thunder
- World of Tanks
- World of Warcraft
- Clash Royale
The History of eSports
eSports is still a relatively new industry, with the first video game competition ever recorded taking place in 1972 at Stanford University for the game Spacewar!.[3] Fast-forward 50 years and the industry is now worth billions of USD, capturing the interest of millions worldwide.
But how did it get there?
Here is a brief timeline of how eSports has grown into the mega-industry it is today.
1972 – First Video Game Competition
The Spacewar! contest held in 1972 at Stanford University was the first-ever video gaming contest. There were around two dozen players battling it out on a PDP-10 computer.
1980 – Atari’s Space Invaders Tournament
This contest had around 10,000 players competing for the highest score. It was the earliest large-scale video game tournament.
1981 – Formation of Twin Galaxies
The Twin Galaxies organization was formed which kept track of all high scorers for popular video games such as Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man.
1991 – Release of Street Fighter II
The release of Street Fighter II increased the popularity of competitive gaming by creating one vs. one gaming offering direct competition between two players, rather than rankings being dictated by a high score.
1996 – Street Fighter II Tournament
The first Street Fighter II tournament named “Battle by the Bay” which consisted of 40 players took place in 1996. This contest, now known as the Evolution Championship Series, still goes on today.
1997 – Cyberathlete Professional League
In the late 90s, eSports players started to become well-known after the founding of the Cyberathlete Professional League in Texas. This league is thought of as the pioneer of professional video gaming tournaments.
1999 – Release of Unreal Tournament & Counter-Strike
As internet connectivity and gaming technology improved, new PC shooter games such as Unreal Tournament & Counter-Strike were released. Counter-Strike is still one of the most popular eSports franchises today.
2000s – Founding of Major eSports Teams
In the 2000s, some of the top eSports teams of today were founded including Team Dignitas, TSM, and Optic Gaming. Televised eSports also increased and better technology saw the industry boom. Tournament numbers rose from 10 in 2000 to 260 in 2010.
2011 – Launch of Twitch
The online streaming platform Twitch launched which regularly streams live eSports tournaments. This made the industry accessible to millions worldwide.
2010s – Release of MOBAs
Several MOBA games were released in the 2010s such as StarCraft II, CS:GO, and Dota 2. These games became hugely popular allowing teams to battle against each other and combining strategy and role-playing games.
2020 – eSports Today
Today, there are many eSports teams, contests, and organizations globally. Prize pools for games are up to millions of dollars and online eSports communities are thriving.
Ways eSports Can Make You Money
For an industry with such rapid growth, it is obvious there is much potential for making money. Tournament prize pools are growing fast, competitions are attracting more sponsors, and the viewer population is on the up.
Don’t believe us? Take a look at the market revenue for eSports worldwide over the past two years, and the predictions for 2023:
Convinced yet? We thought you would be! So, here are all the ways that you can make money from eSports.
Competing
The most obvious way to win money through eSports is by becoming a professional player who is signed and sponsored by an eSports team. Prepare yourself for long hours and intense training, but you will be rewarded with winning titles and lots of money. The top eSports pro player has a net worth of $6.9 million!
The majority of pro eSports players earnings come from sponsorships, although they also win cash from competitions. If you already spend every waking minute gaming and want to get paid for it, take a look at our page on competitive gaming tournaments.
Betting
Not sure you have what it takes to become a pro player? No worries! Competitive gaming is growing exponentially in popularity and you can now bet on the winners of video game contests. This is comparable to placing bets on which team will win a football match or baseball game.
The eSports industry is huge and is on track to bring in over $1.5 billion by 2023.[4] With more and more US states starting to legalize online sports betting, placing wagers and making money online could not be any easier. What is more, with the global pandemic halting sporting events, eSports betting is on a rise.
Investing
As the popularity of eSports increases, more and more people are starting to invest in the eSports market. The best place to start investing in eSports is with publically traded stocks.
There are several options for investments. You can invest in game developers and publishers such as Take-Two Interactive or Activation Blizzard who are behind NBA 2K and Overwatch, respectively. Or you can invest in hardware providers such as NVIDIA who specialize in GPUs used by most pro eSports players. Streaming playforms are another good choice.
Find out more and start making money from investing today.
Other Methods
Not sure eSports is for you? Fear not! If you are looking to play games for money but don’t want to compete, you could become a gaming streamer. Streamers broadcast their gameplay live and make money from ads, subscription, and donations.
On the other hand, if you prefer coding to playing video games, game development may be more up your street. There are also less popular options such as video game testing, coaching, or selling gaming merchandise.
For guides on all the possible ways you can make money from video games, take a look at the GameTutorials homepage. Make your hobby your source of income today!
FAQs
The e in eSports stands for electronic.
Yes, eSports is a sport. This is based on the parallels between competitive gaming and regular sports, such as competition, physical ability, specific skillset, the need for practice, a fanbase, and taking part in stadiums.
Yes, eSports will be in the Olympics. It was due to be in the Summer 2020 Olympic games which were canceled due to the global pandemic. However, according to Gamer World News Entertainment CEO Gayle Dickie, they will be in the 2024 Olympic games.
Yes, it is predicted that eSports will overtake traditional sports all bar the NFL based on the number of viewers. By 2021 it is predicted 84 million people will watch eSports, whereas only 79 million will watch MLB and 63 million will watch the NBA. The NFL still trumps all sports with a forecast of 141 million viewers.
The eSports industry has a market revenue of $1.1 billion in 2020, set to increase to $1.6 billion by 2023. The industry is predicted to have a net worth of $3 billion USD by 2023.