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So, in your most recent match, you came out on top of the leaderboard and were recently elevated to master tier. Have you ever considered pursuing a career as a professional gamer? Perhaps you believe there isn't enough money to go around or that only the best players make it. You'd be surprised, to say the least. So, how do you go about becoming a professional gamer?
A Professional Gamer's Definition
You may believe that this is a trick question, but it is not. What does it mean to be a professional gamer? A professional gamer is a full-time competitive video game player who gets paid to play. It's nearly like having a job in the gaming industry. Most professional players are paid to compete in the world's top esports competitions by their clubs or sponsors. Many of these tournaments have large monetary prizes for the winners, which can account for a significant portion of a seasoned gamer's profits.
Is it better to be a gamer or a streamer?
There have been ways to exhibit abilities and talent since internet gaming became popular. Players used to post a collage of their best plays to their YouTube channels because it was the only website that drew the majority of game watchers at the time. Many gamers still do so nowadays, but Twitch.tv is a much bigger and better platform for exhibiting your gaming abilities.
Twitch.tv and Mixer.tv are online streaming systems that allow gamers to broadcast their gaming in real time to a global audience. People may now witness the entire, raw, unedited game action instead of simply the highlights from an edited video. The switch from YouTube to Twitch and Mixer has been hailed as a success, with many gamers' revenues skyrocketing.
It not only allows viewers to interact with the player in real time, but it also allows them to contribute to the stream and support the streamers through live donations.
There is now a subtle distinction between a gamer and a streamer. A gamer is typically a professional player who is paid to play games for a living by a company or sponsor. A streamer, on the other hand, is someone who generates money mostly from donations, advertisements, and affiliate income while streaming internet entertainment. Although a streamer is not required to stream exclusively gaming material, the majority do. People enjoy watching high-skilled gamer's streams, which has become the most popular way to be active in the gaming world in 2019.
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What Are the Different Ways Streamers Make Money?
Streamers, unlike professional gamers, deliver live material to their audience in exchange for subscriptions, donations, affiliate schemes, and ad money. These are the four basic ways a streamer might generate money on the Twitch.tv platform, for example.
Subscribes
Twitch.tv allows users to subscribe to their favorite streaming channel for $4.99 per month. The membership enables a number of unique features, like new emoticons in the chat room, a unique subscription badge, and even the opportunity to be shouted out by the streamer themselves.
According to the default split, half of this goes to the streamer for providing the material, while the other half goes to Twitch. Seems fair, right? Larger streamers with a huge number of followers and viewers are said to be able to negotiate better split deals, with 60 percent to 70% in their favor.
The number of subscribers a streamer can gain is highly dependent on the type of material they produce. If they're the most popular streamer in a particular game category, they could be earning $500 or more every day. Subscriber rates are also affected by the streamer's schedule. Subscribes are less likely to be received if a streamer only streams once or twice a week for a few hours. When compared to someone who approaches it like a profession and streams 6+ hours a day, every day, they will undoubtedly gain more subscribers.
Donations
Donations are the second way streamers make money. A viewer just pays any amount between $1 and $1000+ to the streamer, who receives it directly. The donating party does not receive any unique emoticons or benefits, only the joy of knowing that they are helping the streamer.
Many streamers set daily objectives for how much they want to earn each day; they can range anywhere from $10 to $100, as most users prefer to set realistic targets. The greatest recorded gift on Twitch.tv is now $57,000 USD, which was given to Sodapoppin by the mystery user Amhai, who is known for his awesome comedic attitude in his "World of Warcraft" streams*. As you might see, that's a substantial sum of money, enough to cover the streamer's living needs for the next few months to a year.
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Affiliate Programs
Streams can be a goldmine for businesses wanting to market their products because they attract a very specific clientele. Many streamers take use of this to sell affiliate items. Streamers frequently include affiliate links and advertising in their channel descriptions for viewers to click on.
Many people are aware that these are affiliate links, but they will continue to use them because they are helping the streamer and it does not cost them any additional money. If anything, the stream occasionally offers special discount coupons that actually lower the price of the item, making it a win-win situation for everyone. The viewers receive a discount on the goods, the streamer receives a commission, and the company sells its product.
For physical things like keyboards, mouse mats, and t-shirts, the streamer receives a fee of 3–10%; for digital products like eBooks, game codes, and so on, the streamer receives a commission of 10–50%.
Advertisement Revenue
Paid revenue from sponsors or other businesses is another type of ad revenue. Many businesses may offer big-name streamers perks in exchange for helping them market their website or product on their channel. This can be highlighted on the streamer's website, on their stream, or in the gamer's stream description with a banner and a link.
Ad videos on Twitch are another big source of ad revenue. While broadcasting, the player can choose to show a short ad that lasts anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds the first time someone joins the live. This is especially useful when the streamer needs to take a break but does not want to leave the viewers with a blank screen. The player will be paid a CPM, or cost per 1000 views, for each advertisement that appears on the stream. This can range between $2 and $3 every 1000 views, while the exact amount varies from streamer to streamer.
Some of Twitch's most popular streams
At any given time, television has over 30,000 viewers. Showing them an advertisement would theoretically yield $60–$90 each time, however due to the prevalence of ad blockers on the internet, many of the possible views are lost, resulting in lower revenue for the streamer. Over the course of a 6-hour streaming session, streamers are likely to show commercials three to six times. These ad income may not seem like much at first, but they can pile up over time.
Get Noticed
If you're not too concerned with making money and instead want to join a competitive gaming squad, streaming can help you do so. Streams can give you a platform to show off your talent to the rest of the world and gain notice.
How is anyone going to scout you if you're a really skilled gamer but you're hidden in the shadows? If you want to succeed like a pro, you must first get yourself known. You must not only establish a loyal fan base, but you must also show off and attract the attention of scouts.
Because they used broadcasting as a tool to gain noticed, many high-level streamers have gone on to join professional gaming teams.
How to Become a Professional Gamer: The Master Plan
Now that we've covered some crucial fundamentals, it's time to break down how to become a professional gamer step by step.
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Decide on your game and objectives
Gaming is a broad phrase, and if you want to be a professional gamer, you must choose a specific game to play. Whether you're playing League of Legends, Dota 2, Overwatch, or something completely new, there are a few things to keep in mind first.
The first and most obvious question is: which games do you excel at and enjoy? Selecting a game that you enjoy is a smart idea because you will be less likely to become bored with it. It's also a plus if you're skilled at the game. You could always practice if you don't know what you're doing.
The second decision you'll have to make is whether you want to be a competitive gamer that travels the world with a team and competes in gaming events or a professional streamer. Being a competitive gamer is difficult and requires a lot of practice time. This is the way to go if you want to win big money; the main prize at the League of Legends World Series is $1 million, split among the entire team. Using some fast arithmetic, this would come to roughly $200k per player unless subs and managers were included, in which case it would be slightly lower. Dota 2 is another famous game that holds the record for the largest eSports award, with the winning team getting $6.6 million in total.
These prizes may appear to be quite appealing, but the bad news is that your chances of winning them are extremely slim. The good news is that you don't have to be a competitive professional player to make that much money.
Streaming is undoubtedly the way to go if you'd rather make a lot of money than have your name written in the history books of gaming. On Twitch.tv, there are hundreds of examples of full-time streamers who have built a good living. In fact, many of them make more money than professional gamers.
Perfection comes with practice
Whether you want to be a competitive gamer or a streamer, you must practice, practice, practice. If you're a competitive gamer, you'll be up against the top players in the world all of the time, so make sure your skills are up to par.
If you're a streamer, on the other hand, people will only watch high-ranked players. If your content isn't up to par, your audience will suffer, and you'll lose subscribers, donations, and ad money. Nobody wants to see a Bronze 5 player, after all!
All of these issues fade away when you practice. Every piece of practice, whether it's analyzing game strategies, practicing CS, or learning new champions, will help you become a better player. Observing other professional streamers is a good way to enhance your game. Twitch.tv streams are a requirement of many competitive pro gamers' contracts with their teams. This means you may watch and play games with world-class competitive players online. This is a terrific way to learn new tips and techniques for your favorite game.
Published by Micheal Warner
