How to Make Money on CS:GO | Making Money From Your Favorite Game

CS:GO is a global phenomenon. The game has millions of players around the world and only grows each year. New expansions add more content for players to earn and further fuel the player base that continues to rise in player numbers. However, there’s only so much time you can put into a game that doesn’t pay you. Unless you can earn money from the time you put into it. In this guide, we’ll cover how to make money on CS:GO, covering the best ways to earn cash from your passion for this game.

How to Make Money on CS:GO

We’re going to go through the most obvious money-making methods first. You might be aware of these already, but we’re going to cover them for those who haven’t thought of them before.

1. Become a Pro Player

The first way you can earn money by playing CS:GO is to become a professional player. A CS:GO professional will attend events with teams or participate in tournaments online for cash prizes. Since pro players are required to practice under an intense schedule, players are often paid a full-time salary while they’re signed to a team. If they’re not paid, these pro players can use the fame they gain through the CS:GO pro scene to build up a reputation and start earning money through Twitch.

Becoming a pro player can be difficult. You need to be markedly better than millions of other players. You also need to pay to attend tournaments so that scouts will notice you. If they do, they will approach you regarding joining a team. This method of earning money relies on your skill and determination. If you don’t think you’ve got the skills to be one of the best players in the world, though, there are plenty of alternative methods.

2. Rent Your Skins to Other Players

If you have many skins at your disposal, you should consider renting your CS:GO skins to other users. All you have to do is deposit your skin with a company such as LootBear, and you’ll get paid a percentage of the fee others pay for using those skins. Everyone wants to look good while playing, but getting the best skins in the game is time-consuming and expensive. That’s why so many users rent skins for the time they’re playing. To date, more than 76 million hours have been clocked up by players renting skins from Lootbear, and all those providing the skins have made millions in the process.

3. Become a Professional Twitch Streamer

Twitch is a streaming platform that pays a large percentage of its creators. You can become a Twitch streamer and start earning quite a lot of money, but there are a few requirements you need to meet.

First, you need to sign up and create a Twitch account. Then you’ll be given access to a series of requirements that lead to you becoming accepted as a Twitch Affiliate. Those requirements are as follows.

• At least 500 minutes broadcast total for the past 30 days.
• Seven unique broadcasts in the past 30 days.
• An average of three or more concurrent users for the past 30 days.
• At least 50 followers.

Hitting these requirements takes time. You can stream every evening for three hours and still not amass 50 followers. The key is to find a niche that people are interested in watching and double down on it. More specifically a game that might be a smaller niche so you can grow a community faster from the get-go. Most Twitch streamers are entertainers first. They have a personality that people enjoy watching. You won’t follow a streamer for no reason, which is why you need to give yourself an edge, something to make you worth watching if you want to make this work.

Becoming a Twitch Partner

After you’re accepted as a Twitch affiliate, you can start trying to become a partner. Twitch partners earn money from ads and subscriptions and can even be offered sponsorship by certain companies. The requirements for a Twitch Partner aren’t as clear as those for Affiliates. However, there are some guidelines you can follow.

Twitch states that a solid streamer has a regular concurrent viewership of between 20 – 200 people. They also recommend engaging with viewers regularly to grow that viewership. The more regular your viewers are, and the higher the concurrent numbers, the more likely you will be accepted into the partner program.

Have a schedule

The final part of this is having a regular streaming schedule of at least three days per week. This is a requirement that not everyone can stick to. Your best bet is to pick three – five days you always play games on and use those as your time to stream.

4. Trade Skins

Skins are probably the most lucrative way of earning money for any CS:GO player. Part of this is because players crave the latest skins and coolest skins CSGO has to offer. They need to own them. You can buy, sell, and trade skins in a few ways.

Trade CSGO Skins to Make Profits

Using Steam’s native inventory trading system, you can trade skins with players within the Steam ecosystem. All you have to do is assemble a trade and offer it. Other players can accept, refuse, or alter the trade to something they want instead. It’s a great system that works well, but sometimes you want to be able to buy a skin that no one you know has.

Sell

If you have a skin that you don’t want, you can sell it. This is done by showing people what you have and offering it for a specific price. Usually, this is done through a skin broker, a third-party who takes the details of both the seller and the buyer and assembles the deal. Although Lootbear is known for renting skins, we do offer this service on our platform as well. This is the safest way to sell a skin because it ensures that you get paid for the item you’re offering.

Sometimes it could be worth holding on to a skin for some time to not trade it as a loss.

The most expensive skin ever sold was $150,000. Depending on the condition of your skins, you could be sitting on a potential gold mine. Every time you earn a new skin, you could be making money. This isn’t something that will replace a full-time job, but it’s certainly a great way to earn some cash from your favorite game.

5. Play Amateur Tournaments

There are loads of amateur CS:GO tournaments every year. You can take part in these without the lofty expectations that pro tournaments have. All you need is a passion for the game. Of course, you also need to be able to play the game quite well. If you can’t, then there’s no chance that you’ll win.

You can find these tournaments in several places. Most of them are online, but that only makes them easier to attend. However, the prizes for these tournaments are usually restricted to the winners only, or the top three places. This means that you’ll need to be better than almost everyone else. While the prize money for these tournaments isn’t as good as that of the pro ones, it’s still a good starting point for learning how to make money on CS:GO.

6. Coach Other Players

They say that those who can’t, do teach. If you’re among the millions of players who aren’t good enough to become a pro, then you could use your skills to teach others how to be a little or a lot better depending on your coaching skills.

Websites such as Fiverr will let you post-coaching sessions for people to purchase. This is something that only a few people offer, but loads of players are looking to buy. You’ll be able to make money from your favorite game without needing to be a top-level player. All you need is passion.

It’s easy to spot where other players are going wrong. You can point out the flaws in their gameplay and give them constructive feedback on how to be better. You could develop strategies and help a team develop a winning formula that never fails. Or you could just help someone get into the game from the starting point of a newbie.

Through this coaching, you might find that you’re able to develop your skills and take this to the next level. You could start offering professional coaching services, or maybe even become the coach for a pro team. All it takes is an analytical eye for detail. You don’t have to be a great player, you just need to know what it takes to be one.

7. Play Solo Games for Cash Prizes

There are several websites out there that offer to pay you a little bit of money for playing according to their tournaments or bounties. A good example is Epulze. These websites host small tournaments, usually with between one and three players. The rewards are only around the $10 range, but you can win a lot of money over time. All you need to do is bring the skills that see you beat all the other tournament players.

Using this method, you might be matched with someone who is interested in a quick match. These are over fast and can award the most cash over time. All you need to do is win, and if you do, the prize is yours.

There are often challenges represented as bounties on these websites. They’re tasks that help the site fill up its roster and keep users engaged. The prizes won’t be brilliant, but they’re worth doing if you love the game. This could see you play a single match, five, or just add a friend. As with all of these types of sites, it’s working on the earnings over time that will pay off.

Finally, there are tournaments and leagues to play in. These work just as they do at the professional level. They’re just open to a lot more players. Once again, the prizes will be limited to the top players, and the prize pools won’t be as large as those of pro tournaments either. Still, these are a great proving ground for any individually skilled and aspiring pro player.

Conclusion

These are just some of the ways that you can earn money by playing CS:GO. As we’ve mentioned, the game is always growing, and the market around it will never stop doing the same. There are methods that we haven’t covered here, such as blogging and YouTube, which can make just as much money if you put the effort in. At the end of the day, it all comes down to how much knowledge you have of the game and how determined you are to make your pursuit a success.