How to Setup your Gaming Livestream and Make Money as Gamer

When it comes to making an income from Gaming, being a professional gaming creator or a gaming celebrity is not the only way. Live game streaming is one of the excellent ways to earn income as a gamer. Two decades back, people wouldn’t have even thought about the possibility of generating income just by allowing viewers to watch gamers playing their favorite games. However, with so much of modern advancements in technology, you can enjoy a steady income and take it as a great career by just live streaming games.

While success and earnings vary, truly dedicated gamers have proven that video game streaming can be a lucrative full-time career. Not just money, you can even gain the opportunity to compete in gaming tournaments in front of millions of viewers.

What Do You Need to Live Stream Games?

For all new gamers, the choice is to decide between the two biggest platforms - Twitch and YouTube. Alternatively, you can create a game streaming platform of your own to reap more benefits of live streaming. Though the setup required to stream games varies based on the platform you choose, here are some of the essentials to start with.

A good internet connection

If you are using Twitch, an upload speed will be a minimum of 3 Mbps to create a steady 720p 30 fps stream. The more bandwidth you have, the more it allows you to stream up to 1080p at 60fps. Alternatively, you can stream games for your platform, a computer with a decent CPU and a solid internet connection with upload speeds of 3-5mb/s would be preferable.

Games

You need to choose a set of games your viewers want to indulge in. Ask yourself whether you want to focus on a single game or want to be a variety streamer. Typical advice is to choose the game you are good at as if your knowledge is lacking, you won’t see any improvement in the number of views.

Streaming hardware and live streaming software setup

To set your gaming live stream, there are different types of setup you can run. Switch, Xbox, PS4, and PC are your best bets. Let’s quickly explore some of the most common ones.

Streaming from PS4 or Xbox

The best part about streaming to Twitch is that you can begin with Xbox or PS4 as they have integrated live streaming software and capture cards to stream directly. All you have to do is to register on Twitch and plugin credentials onto the streaming on your PS4 or Xbox.

Streaming from the PC

If you have a PC with a CPU and GPU, you stream right from your PC. You just need an OBS to broadcast your gameplay on Twitch. Even if you are game streaming to your own platform, you can use the best video streaming software to stream from your PC with at least an Intel Core i5-4670 CPU or the AMD equivalent and 8GB RAM to broadcast smoothly. You can stream high-quality videos depending on the strength of your PC.

Streaming from the Switch

The switch doesn’t come with an inbuilt video streaming software and hence you will need a streaming PC and a capture device to stream. You can use standalone devices like Elgato HD60 to capture both video and audio from your Nintendo switch and input to your PC to stream games. Connect your switch to the compatible device, and the device then connects to your PC and a display. The PC then handles live streaming to the platform with live streaming software.

You can use OBS as it is completely free and professional software. The combination of the Elgato and good software allows you to add graphics, overlays, and alerts to your Switch stream. You can also use Elgato with a PS4 to improve your streams as well.

How to Make Money From Live Streaming Platforms?

Here is how you can make money playing games and streaming them live.

Ask for donations

Whether you are streaming games via platforms like Twitch or streaming from your own website, adding a donation button to your channel allows you to earn donations from your fans. Donations can range from $1 to thousands of dollars. While the latter isn’t the norm, some streamers receive large donations on their channels. If you use a live streaming software to build your own platform, you can set up a donation button on your stream that allows your fans to send money. While Twitch also allows setting up donations, it does take a share of the donation and there are conditions attached to the same.

Earn from Ads

Viewers generally don’t like ads, but they do back the video streaming platforms in terms of revenue. If you own a game streaming website and start gaining subscribers, you can start earning Ad revenue. You can also start placing ads or sell direct sponsorships yourself.

Affiliate and merchandise

You can link to the products you use or love and make a commission of the sales made out of your website. It is recommended to link to the gaming equipment you use like a gaming keyboard, mouse, or any other gadgets you commonly use. Amazon is the most common website to use as it has tons of products to link to and it is easy to set up as well. Another idea is to design and develop your own merchandise and sell to your fans who would love to represent you and support you as a video game streamer.

Subscriptions

Offering your viewers access to a website tied to a subscription fee allows you to generate money out of your gaming platform. If you are looking for different ways on how to make money from Twitch, subscriptions are a great alternative. When a user subscribes to your Twitch channel, you receive 50% of the total amount. You can provide incentives to viewers by offering perks like ad-free viewing, custom emotes and other exclusives. However, it cannot match up to the revenue you can earn by setting up your own game streaming platform as no middle parties are involved.

Streaming software

Any good live streaming software like OBS allows you to really improve your broadcast with a bunch of great features. It is worth to take time to set up a decent broadcast scene. A good live streaming software allows you to build a stream with overlays, text, and other features to make your stream appealing. It helps you to put together your gaming video, audio, webcam, and microphone in a single scene to set up an interactive and cohesive game stream.

Stream enhancers

A high-quality webcam and mic get far to help you grow a user base and enhance the interactivity of your videos.

Wrapping up

By using live streaming to connect with the audience all over the world, game creators now have the opportunity to directly make money game streaming through donations running ads, affiliate programs, selling merchandise, and more. Even with professional gaming setup, it takes consistency and time to build a sizeable audience.

Have you already started video game streaming or still learning about how to earn money on Twitch? Feel free to share your experience with setting up your live game streaming platform in the comment below.