For most of the people that are older than 30, gaming is generally associated with the waste of time. Old generation perceives gaming as a leisure activity that does not really contribute to one’s development. Having said this, it is all slowly changing. While there are many researches that point out the benefits of computer games for the personal development, today it is actually possible to earn real money by playing games, and there are so many options. Let’s explore each of those.

Pro-gaming

This is, of course, not an option which is available to everyone. It does require a lot of dedication, patience, and, of course the talent. However, pro-gaming is growing very fast and it happens in all types of possible dimensions: number of games, prize pools and so on. Just as an example, a prize pool of The International 2016, Dota 2 gaming contest is over 20 million dollars. Hence, if you are a pro-gamer, you are likely to have a fat paycheck, great sponsorship deals and tournament prizes. Essentially, gaming now is considered to be a sport and the pro-gamers will soon be paid as good as other sportsmen.

Poker

Online poker is also quite a big thing nowadays. On an average day, PokerStars hosts around 70,000 players at any given time. There are weekly contests where the prizes can be as high as a few hundreds of thousands. Next to this, playing bitcoin poker is quite an interesting field to look into. Not only you get to experience an enhanced privacy and lower commissions, but you mostly play with the bitcoin users, people that have a much lower skill than the players from the large poker rooms.

Streaming

Not everyone has a talent for games though. Some people think too slow, others simply cannot dedicate that much time to trainings. The reason for failing at games are many. However, it doesn’t mean you cannot earn on gaming without actually playing a game well. Today there is lots of demand for actually watching the games. And there are people commenting this games and making great money just from the donations. As long as you have a webcamera, good microphone and some commenting skills – try it out.

Inventory

Steam has made it possible to make money just by playing the games. Whenever you are playing a match in, let’s say counter-strike, by the end of the match you will be granted with some game skins. And these skins are for sale! Sometimes it is possible to sell a certain skin for an amount close to $50,000. Wow, isn’t it?

Gaming is certainly progressing with the speed of light and today there are huge possibilities for monetisation.