Since the rise of competitive and entertainment gaming in the early 2000s, there’s been a constant supply of opportunities to monetize video gaming. It is 2025 and these opportunities to earn money are no longer covert. As long as you have developed skills and experience playing games, making some money out of it is not an uphill task.
However, knowing what to do and how to go about it can be two different things.
Fun Fact: The youngest eSports millionaire was just 16 years old. Kyle Giersdorf won the Fortnite World Cup, taking home a $3 million prize, proving his gaming skills.
How to Earn Money Playing Video Games: Get All Proven Ways To Make Money Gaming in 2025
Folks have monetized video gaming since its commercial rise for the past couple of years. In the end, the opportunities to earn money available in 2025 are not necessarily new, just more advanced and prevalent. You can earn money as a gamer provided you have a good level of gaming experience. Getting yourself started in any of these avenues isn’t hard. Let’s dive.
Livestream
Being the most prevalent video gaming activity in 2025, streaming just has to come first. Without a doubt, live-streaming video games have become one of the most lucrative ways to make money from the gaming industry. It is pretty simple: think of yourself as a music artist performing songs for an audience, only you’d be playing video games instead.
This route also comes with great responsibility, as you’ll have to stream consistently, engage your audience and be pretty good at what you do (competitive gaming). Once you break even and garner a follower base, you can make money through ad revenue, subscriptions, fan donations and even sponsorships.
To get started with live streaming, you’d need to get a standard gaming set-up and then hop on a beginner-friendly streaming platform like twitch. The best ones include:
- Facebook Gaming
- Twitch
- YouTube
- Geforce Now
- Xbox Cloud Gaming
Make game guides on Video Platforms (Vlogging)
Heather “Sapphire” Garozzo, eSports Hall of Famer —“You don’t have to be a very good gamer to make money. If you simply love gaming, there are still plenty of ways to find a viable career in the industry.”
Creating video game guides is pretty similar to streaming only minus the live entertainment part. It is more informative and educational than entertaining. Here you bring your expertise to the table and edit videos guiding others on how to navigate the gaming world. It could be how to complete difficult levels, find hidden items, or anything stemming from your expertise.
Just like streaming, you can earn money creating videos via platform ad revenue, sponsorships and affiliate marketing. Note that you’d only start generating significant revenue when you break even and your content is followed by many.
Word of advice: try to create interesting content, deploy engaging visuals, use catchy captions and always address the elephant in the room.
Play Gambling Games
If you already have a background in online gambling, then playing casino games is also an acceptable way to make some extra cash with gaming. In 2025, casino gambling will become more modern, diverse and exciting, allowing you to satisfy your need for adrenaline and fun while still making a profit.
To make significant profit, especially in the long run, you need a strategic approach. It’s important to understand the games you choose, manage your bankroll wisely, and make informed decisions. Playing casino games has become easier than ever, with expert advice available online. Many platforms now share winning strategies and recommend only trusted online casinos. In particular, bonuses at Canadian casinos make the experience even more rewarding, giving players extra value and boosting their chances of success.
Playtest video games
Average folks are testing video game releases on survey sites daily; you can do a lot more with some expertise. It is 2025 and companies and affiliate platforms will pay you to test their video game releases. Even game developers need game testers to test pre-released versions of video games, which requires expertise.
While some game development companies hire full-time experts for game testing, you’ll mostly be working on a freelance and contractual basis. To get started, register on survey platforms, pitch your offer to companies, apply for openings and stay informed.
Participate in gaming tournaments
ESports Insider — “eSports players, by and large, are well paid. Some earn millions every year. Many more make hundreds of thousands.”
In 2025, eSports will be as profitable as it is competitive. As such, it is a perfect avenue to make money out of gaming for the very skilled players. If you are in that number, you can start playing video games on a competitive level with some effort. Contrary to popular belief, video game tournaments are not reserved for only top-tier professionals with several years of experience.
There are other smaller competitions that also reward cash prizes. These tournaments enable you to build a gaming profile for the bigger competitions whilst still making money. Here are some of the most popular gaming tournaments that are beginner-friendly and a place to start:
- PlayStation Tournaments: XP
- GeForce LAN 50 by Nvidia
- PUBG Mobile National Championship (PMNC)
- La Teleco LAN Party 15
Build your own video game
Finally, the most profound way to earn money from video gaming is to go ahead and build one. Developing a video game used to sound like something only well-funded developers could do. Well, it is 2025, and the conditions are not the same. Today, regular game enthusiasts can create pretty good games with limited resources.
Also, you do not even have to be an independent developer, you can be part of a team of developers and still create games that’ll sell. How exactly do these games sell? Could be via digital distribution platforms like Epic games store and steam. You’ll also get paid via in-game purchases and ads.
Fun Fact: Regular developers have made a lot of money from very simple games. Small indie projects like Flappy Bird have made millions in revenue.
Summary
In the end, while there have long been several opportunities to earn income playing online games, it’ll only get better in 2025. This article talked about some of the tried and tested and easiest ways to get started. Make something out of those tons of skill and experience.
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