Advancements in technologies such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual & Augmented Reality have transformed the Gaming Industry to unprecedented heights.
The online gaming market has changed dramatically. The Gaming industry was worth more than 150 Billion back in 2020, just before the Pandemic hit. It is all set to reach 256 Billion by 2025. Increased customer participation, engagement, and subscriptions are increasingly establishing it as a promising bet. High-fidelity mobile gaming is on the rise, and today, E-sports alone enjoys a viewer base of 456 Million people. As a matter of fact, the revenue generated by the Gaming Industry is greater than the revenue generated by the Box-office, Music Industry, and all major Sports Leagues put together!
These are impressive figures, right?
The online gaming and video game industry is more than just a booming industry – it has completely altered the definition of how we consume entertainment. At present, there are more than 2.3 billion active gamers around the world. It includes everyone from PC gamers to casual mobile phone gamers to console gamers (Play station, Xbox).
HOW DO PROFESSIONAL GAMERS MAKE MONEY?
Earning by playing video games was always thought of as a pipe dream. Outside of a small group of highly interested players and fans, the E-sports sector was still in its infancy. Competitive gaming was barely known outside of a core group of highly engaged players and fans.
In recent times, E-sports has skyrocketed in popularity like never before. As gaming’s zeitgeist has risen, so have the prospects to make a successful profession out of something that was once thought to be nothing more than a waste of time by many.
Generally, Prize money, salary, sponsorships, live-streaming, and video-on-demand material are the five main sources of income for professional gamers.
PRIZE MONEY
Prize money is the simplest and oldest way for a professional player to make money online. A player receives a portion of the prize pool if they place high enough in a tournament. After all, if an esports athlete or organization does poorly at a competition, they may lose money by participating. Tired of the insecurity that came with being a smaller-scale professional gamer, esports players began looking for options that offered greater stability and less reliance on prize money.
SALARY
Cloud9, Team SoloMid (TSM), and Team Liquid were among the first esports teams to form. Having a guaranteed living salary was a tremendous relief for professional gamers who had previously relied solely on prize money to make a living. Players could concentrate on doing well in tournaments without the added burden of potentially losing money due to competitive pay. Instead of being a competitor’s primary source of income, prize money was now an added benefit if a team did well.
Sponsorships, Twitch, and YouTube are the next three ways professional gamers can generate money, and they apply not only to esports competitors but also to individual content creators who focus on holistic enjoyment rather than pure performance.
SPONSORSHIPS
They are another popular and lucrative source of money for both professional players and streamers. Companies not associated with video games or esports began sponsoring these individuals, as well as teams and leagues, in growing numbers as esports players and streamers became more visible to the general public by gaining large fanbases. Sponsorships with high-profile players and teams are available from beverage businesses like Red Bull, Monster Energy, and Mountain Dew, as well as computer firms like Intel and AMD. In exchange, the groups and players promote their sponsors’ products on Twitch and social media.
TWITCH (live-streaming)
Twitch is the most popular streaming network, but it is up against Facebook Gaming and YouTube, which is a traditional VOD powerhouse.
Streaming is the most common way for non-competitive gamers to make a living in the video game industry. While streaming has expanded to encompass in-real-life (IRL) activities such as cooking, watching movies, or simply chatting, gaming was unquestionably the start of this quickly developing sector, and it continues to account for a major amount of overall traffic on streaming sites.
Twitch is the market leader, with over 72 percent of the market share. Becoming a partner, which allows channels to charge users a fee for access to content, is the most common way for streamers to make money on Twitch. While subscriptions are not required to watch normal streaming material, they do allow members to reward their favorite content creators and get access to personalized emotes, among other things.
YOUTUBE
Esports experts and streamers frequently upload short, edited versions of their Twitch streaming sessions to YouTube so that fans who can’t watch the stream live may still see it.
Another way many professional gamers monetize their material is by uploading VOD footage to YouTube. Many professional gamers have editors that can reduce an eight- or ten-hour broadcasting session into a ten- to twenty-minute YouTube VOD, allowing fans who can’t watch material in real-time (or for an entire session) to still consume content from their favorite creators.
Professional gamers have a variety of revenue streams available to them.
Professional gamers today are significantly more financially secure than those who tried to make a living just a few years ago. Thanks to the rise of esports and live-streaming of gaming material in recent years, there are no shortages of potential income sources for the modern gamer, with professional teams and leagues offering guaranteed salaries with benefits. Nowadays, you can even win money by playing your favorite childhood board games like ludo money game very easily without even investing much of your time. The days of parents telling their children that there are no jobs in gaming are long gone; nowadays, it’s a distinct possibility.