Is Gaming A New Career Path To Pursue??
Gamers have spent an estimated $135 billion on games in 2018. But it isn’t just the big-name gaming companies that are making tons of cash — the gamers are, too.
Gaming enthusiasts have turned to play video games into a full-time job that can earn some gamer millions of dollars before age 30.
Just take Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi, he is 26 years old and had made over $3 million so far, By Playing Dota 2, But Kuro isn’t alone there are gamers all around the world who have perfected the money-making formula.
Here’s how gamers make money
Generally speaking, there are two big ways that gamers can make money: Esports and Live Streaming. Competing in Esports Tournaments and Live Streaming gameplay is a lucrative business. Esports is basically competitive gaming at a professional level, But you aren’t playing against other players online instead you are physically going to an organized event where there’s a cash prize at stake, There is no sanctioning body that controls Esports as a whole.
Each Esports League is based around a specific game kind of like each sports league is based on around a specific sport. They typically held at major sports arena like the Barclay center these events are streamed to watch and also televised on networks like ESPEN+.
In 2017 Esports generated around 655 Million in there global revenue and by 2021 they are on pace to make around 1.6 billion in their global revenue. Nowadays Esports rivals the that of professional sports.
Companies like CLOUD9 and 100 THIEVES, own number of teams for specific Esports League, Cloud9 as 13 teams dedicated to games like PUBG, Fortnite, Overwatch, League of Legends, Rocket League, Counter-Strike and many others. According to Forbes Cloud9 is valued at $310 million dollars that’s more than major league soccer Seattle Sounder FC values at $295 million dollars.
Like many other sports companies, Esports Company offers their players salaried contract for a specific term. They can even trade players with other teams.
“So what is the typical gamer salary???”
They can be based on what team your playing on and what Esports league your in.
The minimum player salary for is $50,000 dollars, But for games like League of Legends, The average salary is $320,000 dollars, The players can also make more money than their base salaries. The gamers typically get a cut from the prize winnings over the years the cash prize stake in Esports has become much bigger, multiple tournaments now offer multi-million dollar prize pools.
The largest prize pool ever happened in the history of Esports in a single event was DOTA 2 international competition in 2018, They had a total prize pool of $25.5 million dollars :
1st place: $11.2 million dollars
2nd place: $4 million dollars
RedBull, The U.S Air Force, Rocket Mortgage sponsor Esports events in hope to reach Esports audience which is about 380,000 million viewers.
In 2018 of Esports 900 million dollar revenue in that 353.3 million is from sponsors alone, A company like RedBull has over 22 Esports athletes and they pull an average $91,000 dollars plus the Live Streaming is another huge money maker.
Sites like YouTube and Twitch provides gamers with lots of monetizable eyeballs.
“Over 850 million hours of content is watched in October 2018”. And the most watched game is you guessed it Fortnite.
On the other hand, Streamers make money whenever they go live. They don’t have to rely on tournaments to earn cash, Streamers make money through Paid Subscription, Bits, Donations, Ads, Sponsorship’s, and Merchandises. They either stream Full-Time or Part-Time, so bigger the audience the more money is to be earned. Streamers like Richard Tyler Blevins a.k.a Ninja,
stream up to 12hrs each day that translates to him making $500,000 per month from twitch playing games like Fortnite.
With the Global gaming market expected to hit $148.1 billion revenue by 2019 and sites like Twitch to increase viewership up by 40% in 2018, Gamers can expect to pull more cash in the years ahead.
While Esports may be smaller than traditional sports leagues like soccer’s Premier League in the U.K. or the NBA, it’s growing rapidly with new jobs and careers being made.
