How to make money playing video games at home?
First of all, it's important to know that even if you love video games and want to make them your full-time job... you're probably not alone.
The big question many may have is where to start.
For most people, playing for money rarely goes beyond playing in tournaments with friends. It's always fun to play in these types of tournaments, of course, but they don't necessarily lead to the fame you want in the game you want. Making a name for yourself among the top pro players is a real adventure.
Learning some of the steps that great players take to get there can help you chart a course. Without a plan, it may never happen.
So today, we will show you some of the best tips to make money playing video games at home and rise above the mass of randoms.
Pick a Game
It is important to focus on one and only one video game in order to be able to fully invest yourself in it and thus develop your abilities in an optimal way.
You therefore need a stable game in which you can specialize as well as your own style(s) of play, and a game where you can stay motivated.
Being an enthusiast of several games, although useful to improve your abilities to become high skilled, will not make you gain a lot of money. You will have to choose a game and become the master of it.
If you choose an established game, the prizes can be more lucrative and the tournaments more frequent. However, the most popular games are those with the most competition.
Games that everyone is familiar with mean that there is a much larger pool of talented players.
The competition can be tough! That being said, the lesser known games offer smaller payouts and there is no guarantee that they will ever gain enough traction to be worth your time in the long run.
Finding the middle ground between the unknown games and the totally ubiquitous games, at least at first, might be the best bet.
Get involved in your game's community
Checking out forums and discovering players of your games on websites such as Twitch or another streaming platform can help you become an important member of the community.
The biggest players have made a name for themselves and are the talk of the town.
You can get involved in the forums, social networks and streams of your game.
In doing so, you will become part of a community of like-minded gamers, sometimes with the same goal: to become a pro gamer.
Such a community gives you support, but even better, it gives you access to friends who may know something you don't, and can also give you opportunities to participate at online tournament, gaming event, or even esports tournament.
It can also help you find a sponsor, especially if your performance on well-known games like Call of Duty or League of Legends or any known fighting games.
Tips on how to play better in your type of game, ideas on how to get involved in tournaments that interest you, and so on. Becoming part of a community is essential to get a successful professional gaming career.
You may find how to become Twitch partner, you can create social media accounts related to your journey, like a youtube channel, and maybe one day participate to game tournaments and make some extra money.
Practice relentlessly
It is often said that practice makes perfect, that practice makes perfect. In the case of video games, it's not just about playing games for more than 7 or 10 hours a day.
It's also about spending real time practicing to deepen your skills.
A sportsman like Cristiano Ronaldo spends hundreds of hours playing games, but he also spends hundreds of other hours training in all areas related to his sport.
The psychological and mental aspect are vital to become the best version of himself in his area.
Find a mentor and a team
This is true even for single player games.
It's important to play with people who are better than you, or who are better than you in different areas.
You can try to be part of a team, or if you are really good, teams will come to you.
However it happens, you need to find a way to learn from others who know what they are doing, especially those who want to get involved in pro gaming.
The console you play in does not really matter, you can play on a computer game, Xbox game or PlayStation game. Earning money by playing can be easier that we usually think, if your mentor is one of the many twitch streamers who are on the internet, it will bring opportunities.
Being involved in a game development, even from home, in one of the countless small games companies can make you become a game tester and know more things about all the specificities that are useful to become a pro game.
If you constantly play with those you know you can beat, you will never improve and you won't have a competitive gaming experience. Likewise, if you only play alone or with random people online, you can't guarantee your improvement in the areas you need to improve.
You will fall back into bad habits without realizing it. You need friends to burst your bubble, take you out of your comfort zone and force you to play better than ever. Otherwise, you will never become a professional.
Another thing to keep in mind, of course, is to find role models to look up to. Professional players know how they got to where they are, and following them can help you learn the way.