Some bloggers make a good amount of money blogging about video games.

Wouldn’t you want to play games all day long and get paid to blog about them?

I know I would.

I never tried to make a gaming blog, but it did enter my mind.

Let’s go over how to make money blogging about video games.

How to make money with a video game blog

Making money with a gaming blog is not as ridiculous as it sounds.

You can make money with a gaming blog, but it’s incredibly saturated. 

On top of that, the income generated from Ads is meager compared to other categories such as health and fitness or finance. 

So, how can you blog about gaming life and make serious money?

Simples, you have to promote products and services.

The following are products and services you can consider when you have a video games blog:

• Coaching
• Merchandise
• Affiliate marketing

Coaching

Now, unless you’re a God at playing games, don’t offer a coaching service. If you’re better than average, then teach others who want to beat their friends for a bit of money?

You can do it as a premium service by offering a one-on-one walkthrough of your best strategies. 

Merchandise

Selling merch is one of if not the best ways to make money with video games. 

Most likely, the people going through your gaming blog are fans. Try offering shirts, caps, mugs, or mousepads to die-hard gamers.

Buying hats and branding them with a logo is an expensive endeavor back in the day. 

And even if you have the capital to start a merch business, how do you know it will be profitable?

You don’t. Just like any business. 

But, this is 2021. The cost of starting a business is not a significant financial investment.

If you don’t have the money to buy thousands of units and printers, start dropshipping. 

Many platforms such as Printify already have ready-made hats and shirts waiting for your designs and logo to be printed on them. All you have to do is to find the buyers. 

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a safe method to make money online. You don’t have to spend on production costs, storage fees, or shipping and handling.

When people buy the products you promote, you get a commission. 

To make affiliate marketing worth your while, you should focus on keywords that convert well and products with premium prices. 

Affiliate marketing, coaching service, and selling products are great alternatives to make money with a video games blog.

But, what if you’re not the blogging type. You loathe writing and fall asleep reading this blog.

Well, you can still make money with video games without a blog.

How to make money with video games without blogging

Hate blogging? Try these on for size:

• Live streaming on Twitch
• Youtube
• Become a pro gamer

Twitch live stream

Gamers would love to sit on the computer all day and get paid without writing a single word.

That dream became a reality when Twitch came out.

Twitch is a streaming platform for gamers.

You play games, and people watch.

Twitch allowed gamers to play games all day and get moolah.

But not anyone can make it.

There are specific characteristics you need to make money from people watching your stream.

You have to be funny as hell, a sex kitten, or play like a God.

Seriously, why would anyone watch your stream if you’re not a God, dull, or your boobs aren’t hanging out?

Youtube

Why not upload your Twitch streams to Youtube? You can reach more people and potentially make sales or increase your fan base.

You already have the content from the live stream. There’s nothing else to do but upload it on Youtube. 

Become a pro-gamer

Coaching service for e-sports is a viable option as we move to an era where e-Sports will be played over a stadium with thousands of fans watching with a prize pool in the millions.

And if you’re like this guy (Faker) above tumbling his way to the League Of Legends world tournament, you’ll have clients gladly paying good money for what you know.

But if you don’t have the patience teaching noobs, why not put your skills to the test and earn a good sum of money. Pro gamers nowadays can make millions.

And as the world moves more and more to the digital era, gaming will only get bigger and massive.

The following is a report from Dot eSports detailing the prize pool of many eSports events:

1) The International 9 – $34.3 million

Valve’s annual world championship in Dota 2 has broken the record for esports prize pools for nine years in a row. While offering a total of $1.6 million in 2011 and 2012, since 2013, the event has been the most successful example of crowdfunded prize pools in esports history.

2) The 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals – $30.4 million

Epic Games’ first Fortnite World Cup Finals featured one of the biggest prize pools in esports history.

The inaugural tournament was split into two main events. Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf earned $3 million in the solo finals, while David “aqua” W and Emil “Nyhrox” Bergquist Pedersen split $3 million for winning the duo finals.

3) The 2018 League of Legends World Championship – $6.4 million

Riot Games allowed League of Legends fans to increase the overall prize pool of the event through the purchase of in-game items for the first time in 2017. A year later, the prize pool was increased to $6.4 million overall, making it the largest event in the game’s history in terms of prize money.

China’s Invictus Gaming took home $2.4 million of the prize pool after defeating Europe’s Fnatic 3-0 in the grand finals.

4) The 2020 Call of Duty League Championship – $4.6 million

Most of the inaugural season of the Call of Duty League was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But despite the unfortunate circumstances, the playoff portion of the league saw one of the biggest prize pools in esports history.

After a narrow victory in the winners’ bracket, the Dallas Empire dominated Atlanta FaZe in the grand finals. It took home an astonishing $1.5 million for coming in first place at CDL Champs 2020.

5) The 2020 Honor of Kings World Champion Cup – $4.5 million

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic didn’t stop China from hosting the most prominent mobile esports tournament in history.

The Honor of Kings World Champion Cup, hosted in Shanghai and Beijing, saw 12 of the best Honor of Kings teams battle for the No. 1 spot. In the end, after back-and-forth action in the group stage, Turnso Gaming came out on top, narrowly beating Dynamite Gaming in the grand finals.

6) The 2019 PUBG Global Championship – $4 million

The 2019 competitive PUBG season’s final event boasted one of the biggest prize pools in esports history. The 2019 PUBG Global Championship saw Korean team Gen.G win the competition and take home $2,239,808 in earnings. The team had a spur of back-to-back wins in the 2019 season, winning tournament after tournament in dominant fashion. The Global Championship was just the cherry on the top.

7) Fortnite Fall Skirmish Series – Clubs Standings – $4 million

Fortnite has exploded over the past few years. Epic revealed $100 million for esports tournament prize pools in the first year of competitive play to go alongside the famous battle royale’s success. A good chunk of that money was awarded through the Fall Skirmish Series – Club Standings.

8) The Dota 2 Asia Championship – $3 million

Acting as a precursor for the eventual Dota 2 Major circuit, the 2015 Dota 2 Asia Championship’s prize pool of $3,057,000 only edges the Valve Majors out by $57,000. In Shanghai, China, the event saw Evil Geniuses’ newly-assembled roster take home the championship in one of the most one-sided grand finals in Dota 2 history. They beat Vici Gaming 3-0.

9) The Dota 2 Valve Majors – $3 million

Although the overall structure of Dota 2 Majors has changed significantly since their debut in November 2015, the first two years of the majors offered a $3 million prize pool per event.

Given their substantial prize pools, the events were, aside from The International, the largest tournaments taking place in the Dota 2 competitive circuit. Out of all the teams that have attended the majors, OG has been the masters of the tournament series—winning four out of six Dota 2 Majors.

10) Overwatch League 2020 – Grand Finals – $3 million

The third championship match of the Overwatch league saw the tournament’s overall prize pool increased to $3 million. In South Korea, the San Francisco Shock dominantly beat Seoul Dynasty to claim the title.

[source: Dot eSports Biggest Prize Pool eSports]

Conclusion

Blogging about video games is a viable way to make money online. 

Adsense may not pay you much for advertising. There are other ad networks you can join that can triple or even quadruple your revenue.

Also, you don’t have to monetize with ads. There are other monetization options such as selling your products and services or others’.

And, if you hate writing but love talking everyone’s ear off. You need to get in front of a video camera. Here’s an article about blogging vs vlogging.

Now you know how to make money blogging about video games, are you going to do something about it?

If you’re one of the motivated few, click on the following article to get some insight on what’s involved in getting started: How to start a blog and make money on autopilot.