It’s 2025, and people have already found many ways that turn their passion for gaming into a full-time career or a powerful stream of income. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional player either, or if you have all the skills required to destroy any other player, you just need a good idea.
What if I told you that, behind the scenes, there are millions of people who already making money gaming? Some of them are called bloggers, YouTubers, influencers, streamers, podcasters, developers, journalists, and others we know a bit better as champions or the “best of the rest”.
The gaming industry has opened a lot of solutions when it comes to turning gaming into a full-time career, an income stream, or even a powerful way of generating a passive income – and today, we’re taking a better look at the most popular of them.
When did the game industry become profitable?
Although many people may think that gamers started making money from gaming in the last decade, which is true from one point of view, they actually started back in the very early days.
Gamers started making money in the early 1970s with the rise of arcade games, one of the first instances was Atari’s release of Pong in 1972, which became a huge hit and generated significant revenue from both arcade machines and home console versions.
By 1982, the arcade industry was generating more money than the pop music industry and the box office combined, which is as crazy as it sounds. Although those earnings were mostly shared between the game companies and the developers, nowadays gamers have tons of games, tools, and apps that they can combine and turn their passions into careers.
Jobs for game developers are constantly increasing, and the more skills you got, the easier is to find a job that pays thousands of dollars each month. Indie game developers have also seen a huge rise in the last few years, with many of them making millions through their creations.
In 2025, people have found lots of ways to make money as gamers or use their favorite games to make a living. Although it’s not as easy as it sounds, it’s something many people choose to do, and many of them have turned it into a full-time career – so why not be one of them, right?
The importance of researching before starting
When we started this gaming blog with Nora, one of the things that was very interesting to us, was the selection of the 10 most popular articles that you guys liked the most. Unlike what we were thinking in the beginning, just being a gamer and knowing most games won’t help you make money.
You think you know everything, but you actually know nothing.
For example, you may see a game that has a big enough player base and tell yourself that you can turn it into profitable content. Then hours become days and days become weeks, months, and even years, and this game wasn’t as profitable as you thought it would be.
That’s because you didn’t do your research. When you want to make money as a gamer, know which games have a bright future, which ones have a limited time, and what are the most profitable titles not only when it comes to sales but for content creators too. If a game can’t make money for the independent creators who publish about it, it’s not really worth chasing it.
Sometimes, the least expected games are the ones that you’ll have to focus on if you truly want to make money as quickly as possible. There are also many strategies that you can use, tons of other creators to collaborate with, and many other things in between that you’ll have to do and invest in.
By spending as much time as you can researching about the current trends, most popular games, competition, how the most popular independent gamers make most of their money, what are the most gaming-friendly brands, which companies tend to invest a lot of their marketing budget for gamers, and everything else that you can find, it will help you succeed faster.
The best ways to make money as a gamer in 2025
With that in mind, there are many ways that you can make money as a gamer, whether that’s becoming a highlight to the gaming community, starting your own blog or YouTube channel, or even chasing a career as a game developer.
Each way has its own pros and cons, and as I’ve mentioned in the previous heading, it’s important to do your research before choosing any of the following ways.
1. Make money gaming with video content
Gamers can make money in various ways, even if they don’t play too often or if they are or aren’t professional players. It all depends on what you choose, as each way differs from the other, except if you combine some of them, which is even better.
Join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)
Let’s start with the ultimate destination for billions of people: YouTube. It’s the most popular video platform in the world and a great place to showcase your content, monetize it, and ultimately create a strong community that follows you everywhere. And the best of all? It’s completely free! You can upload as many videos as you want, with no limitations whatsoever.
Most gamers are choosing YouTube as their main platform of income and for all the good reasons. Unlike the social media platforms which make it harder and harder to generate income if you won’t go live and basically beg for donates and gifts, YouTube displays ads, some of them skippable, others not, and others as banners. You earn money based on the number of views that you’re getting, and how much time they stayed and watched each of your videos.
Now, there’s a “trap”: In order for your YouTube channel to get approved to join the YouTube Partner Program, it should either have 500 subscribers and 3 video uploads in the last 90 days or 3,000 public watch hours in the last 365 days and 3 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days.
How to join or check if your channel is eligible to join the Partner Program:
- Visit YouTube and sign in to your account.
- Click on your profile’s icon in the top right corner.
- Click on YouTube Studio.
- From the sidebar on the left side of your screen, click on the “Earn” option.
- YouTube will show you how many more of those limitations you’ll need to meet in order to join the Partner Program.
Once you get approved, you’ll have to enable or disable specific types of ads on your videos, check how much you’ve earned overall and from each video, and other important information and statistics.
Offer your own memberships
Many people choose to provide their own membership plans so that their viewers can subscribe and pay monthly for access to unique and high-quality content, behind-the-scenes posts, and to further support your content.
This is a great way to increase your income and possibly create a passive income from the monthly subscriptions, but creating more content means spending more time on editing, uploading, and posting.
You can create your own membership plans straight from YouTube, but you can also choose to use other platforms such as Patreon (the most popular for membership plans) or Twitch (the most popular for streamers).
You should do your research and learn who your competitors are and how much they charge for their premium content.
Sticking to one membership platform may be a smarter idea for some, while exploring multiple solutions may be more beneficial and create different sources of passive income. It’s also a good idea to use multiple sources of income as you will not depend upon one specific platform, meaning that you have a backup.
Publish Sponsored Content
In the beginning is almost impossible to get a sponsor, but in the future, and as you progress and increase your views and subscribers, many companies will reach you for a partnership. One of the most common practices when partnering with a company is either by creating content for them, such as reviews, or by displaying their own content.
Take YouTubers for example, who make money by spending a few seconds or minutes showcasing or quickly reviewing a product, application, service, and so on. Bloggers on the other hand usually either write advertorials, reviews, and recommendations, publish what the company gives them, or display their banners, widgets, and other types of ads.
Podcasters, influencers, and other marketers also partner with other companies for product/service promotion or brand awareness, and they either post sponsored content or review it.
Start Live Streaming
Live streaming your favorite games on platforms like Twitch and YouTube is among the best ways not only for people to get to know you better and see how you play, but also because those live streams will stay saved and published after they finish, and you can use them to create additional content such long or short videos.
Streamers can earn money in many ways, including by accepting donations, from paid subscribers, affiliate monetization, sponsored content, and more. Usually, streamers want to create a passive income, and that’s by building a huge list of paid subscribers who pay them each month to get access to additional content.
Nowadays, you can also live stream on multiple platforms at once, including Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and more. Some of the best and most popular tools that let you live stream on multiple platforms are Restream, StreamYard, Be.Live, Wirecast, and OBS Studio.
2. Make money gaming as a game blogger
Game journalism is among the best ways to share your knowledge, expertise, and love for gaming. You can write game reviews, and previews, share your personal opinions, create tutorials and walkthroughs, and even go to game events and live stream your whole experience.
The gaming world is endless, and if you look at millions of players who are still active in games that came out 10 to 20 years ago, you can write pretty much about everything. New games get released each year, tools such as the Unreal Engine by Epic Games get improved with each update, and artificial intelligence is helping now more than ever.
If you already have the skills, you can search for a job. If you’re like doing things solo, starting your own blog is the next best option. Nowadays it’s easy to create a new blog with platforms such as WordPress, and it’s pretty cheap to start too. You can also combine your blog with a YouTube video or a podcast channel.
Blogs make money in various ways, including by displaying ads, monetizing their articles with affiliate links, promoting gaming products, publishing sponsored content, and with partnerships with gaming-related companies. They’re also cheap to maintain in the beginning, and they can even be sold from a few thousand dollars to millions, depending on how successful they are.
Although there are hundreds upon hundreds of gaming blogs out there, writing and publishing unique and high-quality content, none of them has your own writing “voice”. Competition will always exist, finding the courage to make the first step, on the other hand, is a whole other story.
3. Make money gaming with affiliate links
One of the most popular and well-known ways to increase the money you make from your videos, blog posts, or even social media posts, is by monetizing them with affiliate links. Thankfully, in most cases, you can start almost immediately, as it’s better to monetize them from the ground up rather than lose time later by editing each one.
With that in mind, there are two types of affiliate marketing that you’ll need to know: Affiliate Platforms and Affiliate Programs. Affiliate platforms usually give you a marketplace full of companies where you can easily join their affiliate programs, while affiliate programs are standalone companies that provide their own platform.
Popular Affiliate Platforms
While there are many options out there, some of the most popular and best ones for gamers include the following ones:
- Amazon Associate Program: The biggest and most popular e-Commerce website in the world, has hundreds upon hundreds of games and gaming-related products that you can easily promote.
- ShareASale: Offers a wide range of gaming-related affiliate programs, including hardware, software, and accessories.
- Impact: Features numerous gaming brands and products, and it has a modern interface that makes it easy to find relevant affiliate programs.
- Rakuten Advertising: A robust platform that connects affiliates with gaming brands and their affiliate programs, which is also being used for marketing.
Popular Affiliate Programs for Gamers
Some of the best affiliate solutions specifically for gamers:
- G2A Affiliate Program: Great for people who are looking to promote cheap game keys for Steam, Rockstar Launcher, Epic Games, and even Xbox and PlayStation.
- HKRGame Affiliate Program: Like G2A, it has tons of cheap keys for various games, it gets updated very often, and it has great sales for many AAA titles.
- Surfshark VPN: It may not sound like a gaming option, but believe me, it is. I’ve been using Surfshark VPN for many years now, especially when I join American servers (I’m located in Greece). It has been a fast, stable, and especially great experience using it, and especially important as an extra security layer. Did I say it’s pretty cheap?
- CDKeys Affiliate Program: Sells digital game codes for various platforms, offering a broad range of products (like G2A and HKRGame).
- NVIDIA Partner Network: Focuses on promoting NVIDIA graphics cards and gaming hardware.
- Ubisoft Creators Program: Provides commissions for promoting Ubisoft games and content.
- Green Man Gaming Affiliate Program: Offers digital game codes and physical copies with good commission rates.
- HyperX Partner Program: Specializes in gaming headsets and accessories with attractive commission structures. (Fun Fact: I’m using a HyperX keyboard as I’m writing this).
- Razer Affiliate Program: Includes high-end gaming peripherals and equipment with competitive commission rates, specially designed for gamers. I mean, I doubt there’s a single play who doesn’t know this company.
There are even more options out there, so make sure you do your research. If you know any good affiliate platforms or programs that I haven’t mentioned above, let me know which ones you’re using in the comments section at the end of this post.
Even if you want to be a gamer influencer, these affiliate solutions will give you an easy way to make money by promoting some of the best gaming products and services, including games, equipment, home decoration items, and more.
4. Make money with a gaming podcast
While the competition in podcasting is not as big as we usually see in vlogging, blogging, and influencing, it’s still huge enough to make things a bit difficult. Podcasting is constantly growing, and according to DemandSage.com, there are more than 4.25 million podcasts worldwide, with 504.9 million people estimated to listen to podcasts globally.
A podcast can help you connect with like-minded gamers and build a community around your content. You can monetize your podcast through sponsorships, ads, listener donations, affiliate links, and merchandise sales, and you can start completely free (if you choose to).
The starting process is also pretty straightforward. You can either register for a new account in Spotify for Creators or choose a premium podcast hosting provider to host and distribute your episodes across multiple third-party platforms. You can use free tools to record, edit, and export your podcast episodes, such as Audacity, or pay a monthly subscription to Adobe Audition.
5. Participate in Gaming Events and Contests
If you’re a really good player in most games, you can always chase and take part in tournaments, earning money from the winner’s prizes. This is a great way to get some attention and even new sponsorships, but the competition is huge, and you’ll never know if you win or lose.
If you’re a top player and you start building a community of followers, many game developers will reach out for a potential partnership, or even give you free access to their new game’s beta version. As you can guess, there are millions of gamers out there who are all after the same dream; Becoming the world’s best players in their favorite games, and none of them has something to lose.
Websites like FACEIT, GameBattles, and ESL Play host various tournaments, so make sure to look for gaming tournaments that match your skill level and game of interest. Some events and contests may have some restrictions, such as age limits, regional limitations, and even game ranks. Sign up for the tournament through the platform’s registration process if you want to try your chances.
Just make sure that your gaming setup, including hardware and software, is optimized and tournament-ready.
6. Earn money by playing games
You aren’t going to get rich this way, but you can make money by simply playing games on various devices, and especially on smartphones. Whether you have an Android or iOS device, you can sign up in many online platforms that they’re paying their users just for playing and testing games.
Some of them may even reward the best gamers who spent the most time using their platforms in the last 30 days, which is a great way to earn even more money with the extra bonuses. If you’re adapting quickly to new games that you’ve never played before, you may be able to make more money even faster than other gamers.
Some of the best apps and platforms to make money playing games include Mistplay, Swagbucks, PlaytestCloud, InboxDollars, and Cash’em All.
You can make around $300 to $500 per month if you sign up on multiple platforms and start spending at least 8 hours per day playing games and testing apps. As I said, you won’t get rich from this, but it’s a quick way to make a few bucks and they usually let you withdraw the earned amount even when it’s really low.
7. Provide services as a freelancer
Most people love playing gamers, but a small amount of them are the ones who create and design them. If you have skills based on graphic or animation design, 3D modeling, coding, or even a voice well-suited for voiceovers, many game developers and companies will appreciate and pay well for those.
The easiest and quickest way to find new clients and start building a stronger portfolio is by using some of the most popular online platforms that connect freelancers with clients all around the world. They’re easy to use and pretty straightforward to get started: You simply sign up for an account, fill up all the important fields, add your services, and publish your profile.
Companies and individuals can use those platforms to hire you for a specific project based on your skills, which you can accept or decline. Some of the best online platforms for this purpose include the likes of Fiverr.com, Freelancer.com, and UpWork.com. By combining all those platforms together, you can increase your chances of getting a new client faster by a lot.
It’s all about providing a clear image of what you do and what are all of your skills and past works. After that, it’s all about making sure that you get as many positive reviews as possible, as the freelancers with the higher ranking are getting the most popularity.
Additionally, you can always send your resume to a specific game development company that you’re interested in getting a position, which is always the preferred way. Working as a freelancer in the gaming industry is very competitive, but not impossible.
Conclusion: Can you really make money as a gamer?
Yes, you can make money as a gamer, but depending on the ways that you’ll be using to earn, the numbers will severely differ. YouTubers tend to be the creators who usually see higher results faster, while bloggers and podcasters tend to invest more of their time in the beginning without seeing any results.
Then again, you can earn a few bucks by playing mobile games, or chase the dream of becoming one of the best gamers in the world who participates in gaming events and contests – but you know how difficult this is. If you have the skills, you can teach gaming, or work as a freelancer for game developers and companies.
There are many ways that you can make either as a gamer or a game developer, so what will you choose? Let me know in the comments down below.
