Most people think you need to be a professional tournament pro to make money in CS:GO, while that does help there are other ways you can turn your hobby into real-life money.
Not all methods will guarantee you quick money, but at least you will have fun trying!
1. Stream on Twitch
While this one does help if you are exceptionally good at CS:GO, charisma will certainly give you the upper hand.
There are multiple ways to make money through streaming:
1. Getting donations from your viewers
If you are entertaining it’s surprising just how many people will be willing to send you a donation as a thank you. Many streamers have managed to replace their full-time jobs with Twitch donations alone.
2. Product Sponsorship
Get yourself a decent following and it won’t be too long before you start getting sponsorship deals, in-fact there are even agencies out there designed to put streamers in contact with brands who are looking for sponsorship deals.
In almost all cases, you will also get free merchandise to use for your sponsorship too, making this method just that bit more awesome and of course profitable.
3. Upload your videos to Youtube
Upload some of your best streaming moments to Youtube and monetize your account. Again, this might take some time to build a following, but once you have a steady stream of viewers, the money will start coming in much quicker.
4. Affiliate Programes
There are tons of affiliate networks out there, such as cj.com that will hook you up with companies who are looking for advertisements for their products or brands.
Place an affiliate link in your Twitch description and your Youtube video descriptions and each time someone makes a purchase, you will get a cut of the money.
2. Play in professional tournaments
I know I said at the start that you don’t need to be a pro, but for obvious reasons for this one, you do need to be!
There are two potential revenue streams from playing in pro matches firstly if you are good enough to win the prize money can be an insane amount.
Win a tournament or two and it won’t be long before you start getting professional sponsorship requests. Brands will happily finance a player or team in return for help showcasing their products.
And if you find that you just can’t make the cut to play professional CS:GO you can, of course, try another similar game, as there are tournaments for tons of games out there, all with massive prizes to be won.
Take a look at how much this Fortnite player won last year!
3. Sell Skins
There are two ways to make money with skins, either collect and open boxes or by playing the marketplace.
The problem with collecting and opening crates is that 9 times out of 10 they will just give you crap and you will need to pay for a key to find out you’ve got said crap.
Yeah, you might get lucky and land a knife worth a decent amount, but no matter how many people you’ve heard boasting of such luck, the odds are against you on that.
The best way forward is buying cheap skins on the Steam marketplace and waiting for them to go up in price.
If you have the patience, you can look at historic data, see which items fluctuate a lot and take the chance that if you buy, they will at some point go up, above what you bought them for.
The second obstacle is how to sell them for real money and not Steam credit, thankfully there are websites out there, dedicated to helping you sell skins for real money, making it much more worth your time.
4. Bet on games
Until recently, if you mentioned gambling you would think of casinos or horse racing, well not anymore.
Gaming has actually started becoming a major part of the gambling scene, with websites now allowing customers to make bets on professional matches.
Personally I’m not a big fan of gambling, but if you suck at playing and don’t have the time or dedication to play the market, this could be an option for you to make some money from CS:GO. Although, if you do attempt this method, I urge you to do so only within your means.
If you find yourself gambling too much there are organizations available to help, such as Gamble aware.
Final Thoughts:
While we all like the thought of getting rich and making money, above all, do remember games are there to be played and enjoyed! That being said, there are plenty of ways to make money from playing CS:GO if you have time, skill and patience.
