Remember once your teacher laughed at you because she asked you what you wanted to do when you grow up, and you said, “Mario Kart”? Well, nowadays you can laugh right back at her. 

Not only is playing Mario Kart for a living a perfectly viable option, but it’s a pretty lucrative one too. There are a lot of ways you could play games for a living, either by competing or simply entertaining and they are pretty good at bringing in a good income if you don’t make a mess of it. 

So, what’s the catch? Well, the catch is that a lot of people are well aware of these points, making it a very attractive job option, which means the market is flooded. You’ll have to stand out amongst a lot of loud voices all shouting, “Look at me!” 

If that doesn’t put you off, then you’ve come to the right place. From here we can establish you as a player and guide you through making a real go of it. Read on for all the details. 

Choosing your platform

Fortunately, this is a simple choice between YouTube and Twitch, since there aren’t any other big competitors in this department. But when you dig deeper, you will see a lot of differences. 

When it comes to streaming, Twitch is the clear winner in terms of sheer numbers. There are far more daily viewers logging in to watch gamers stream, but YouTube keeps its place for the substantially higher numbers with pre-recorded content. For your purposes, you are aiming to stream, and perhaps supplement with pre-recorded segments. 

But before you go making your Twitch account, consider that bigger creators on the platform have recently expressed dissatisfaction with Twitch. YouTube is currently sniping all Twitch’s best exclusive players, including Ninja, and, most recently Ludwig, said that “I’ve never felt particularly loved by Twitch”. Valkyrie, who was also sniped, backed him up by saying that behind the scenes, YouTube is more appreciative of their creators. 

It is something to consider since we’re talking about a career here.

Choosing your game

No one is saying you should exclusively stick to one game forever, but, and this is especially true if you are looking to compete, you will need practice. If you want to create engaging content, you can’t be dying every five minutes, or the second you engage something big, so you’ll need to practice.

To make that easier, it’s best to go with the one game to start out with. This might be an easy decision. You have a favourite game, you play it all the time, you’re pretty good at it. 

Well, there might be more to think about. Is your game an online multiplayer or single player? You might get more engagement if there is some back and forth between other players. Is your game popular? Then it will appeal to younger players that never get sick of watching the same thing. Or is it more niche. 

You can entirely mix it up and call yourself a game reviewer. Try a game for a couple of weeks and give your verdict on it, but you will need to be eloquent enough to not only notice but express what you think is wrong with the game. 

You can even hit up the online casinos and practice your poker skills. Poker tournaments are a big industry, with tournaments held all year and broadcast around the world. Plus, a lot of the pros take up their time in between tournaments to stream their games online, a la any other CS:GO or Fortnite player out there.

Choosing your skills

Gaming professionally, I’m afraid, won’t be as simple as playing a game and waiting for the fans to flood in. You’d be better off doing some research into online marketing, to get yourself out there. 

You can follow guides for free online or go so far as to take a course in digital marketing. Digital marketing is far more effective than traditional media marketing, but you have to know what you’re doing. If terms like SEO, keyword research and affiliate marketing confuse you, you need to do your research.

You won’t just have to make a YouTube or Twitch account, but also a Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to start. You can post snippets of your gaming to intrigue fans to watch and engage with fans to cultivate your following. 

However, there is more to it if you’re looking to make money. Look into affiliate marketing and brand deals, to ensure that you know what you are doing if you are approached by a brand. Learn to see red flags in contracts and negotiate what you’re worth.

On top of that, you will need to learn how to edit. If you are choosing to do this all yourself, which is likely in the beginning, you will need to know how to edit your stream into more digestible chunks for other platforms. Creating content kind of turns people just looking for fun into Jacks of all entertainment industry trades: director, editor, cameraman and performer. Luckily, as a gamer, it is only vital that you fulfill one role of those, but you will get further the more content you put out and therefore will need to learn more. 

Choosing to look after yourself

Look, the South Park idea of a gamer isn’t far from the truth, without discipline. Sitting for hours a day by a desk isn’t going to do wonders for your health, and the world knows it. 

Have you ever heard of Emma? She is a life-sized model created to showcase the effects of sitting in the office in front of a computer for hours a day. You don’t want her varicose veins, heavy belly and hunched back. 

Keep the energy drinks to a minimum, no matter what the established gamers are peddling to you, and make sure you’re working out as much as you are sitting at your desk.