CS: GO Background

Released in 2012, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) is one of the leading multiplayer FPS games in the world. It forms part of the four Counter-Strike games series, and it is by far the best performing edition compared to the previously released editions. According to a 2020 report by Statista, CS: GO has an estimated 24M monthly users, with the peak concurrent player number clocking over 1m in February 2020.

This huge following is largely due to the impressive graphics and seamless gameplay, which has propelled the game’s popularity to mythical proportions. If you are a frequent CS: GO player, you have probably wondered whether you can make money playing the game. Albeit not easy, you can make a pretty decent income playing CS GO. In fact, there are hundreds of gamers around the world who have managed to make a career playing CS GO, and they’re raking in some good money.

Unfortunately, the proliferation of money-making ventures on the platform makes it hard to discern which is the best.

In this article, we are going to reveal the best methods you can use to make free bucks. They include;

Streaming

One of the best and easiest ways to make money as a CS: GO player is to stream your videos. Multiple gamers have managed to turn their gaming skills into a full-time career by streaming videos when playing to their viewers. The biggest advantage of streaming is that you don’t need to have professional-level gaming skills, as long as you can entertain your audience.

Whether you are streaming on Twitch, Youtube, or any other streaming platform, you should be able to access a fairly decent audience, considering that CS: GO has a huge online following. To make the content more engaging, you can play custom games or hold tournaments, whereby your audience can participate and interact with you.

Not interested in live game streaming but still want to showcase your skills? There are alternative ways to make money such as creating montages and Frag movies and uploading them to your channel. Still, you can create video guides on how players can improve their in-game skills or even implement certain strategies.

Betting

Another great way to make money with CS: GO even when not playing is to bet on other players. There are multiple tournaments where you can place bets on the team you think is going to win, with CS: GO Major Championships being the biggest tournament. It takes place twice per year, with the winning team taking home a prize pool of $1 million.

Along with the Major, there are other famous tournaments you can make wagers on including Intel Extreme Masters Leagues and ESL One. The good thing about betting is that you can bet using free coins to bet, there are plenty of sites where you can get a referral code and play without wagering your money.

Partaking in Tournaments

If you have the skills and aptitude to play CS: GO, you can also try your luck by entering an eSports tournament, and potentially win a cash prize.

There are multiple CS: GO amateur contests offering a price pool of up to $200. You simply need to part with a small registration fee and battle it out against other gamers. However, if you want to take the bulk of the bacon home, you need to turn professional or become part of a pro team. The richest and most decorated CS: GO professional player in 2020 is Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, whose overall winnings are over $1.75m

With that said, most professional eSports players don’t solely depend on the prize money as they receive a retainer salary from their respective teams.

Trading & Investing

Trading and investing is another money-making venture with CS: GO, and there are several ways to do it. First, you can invest in eSports by purchasing shares in streaming, publishing, or hardware companies. However, the most lucrative venture in CS: GO is trading miscellaneous in-game items such as graphics, skins, and audio clips.

Although they don’t improve your character’s abilities, in-game items are purely for aesthetics purposes, and they help improve the appearance of your character.

You can start by purchasing skins together with their unlock keys and reselling them for a markup. Along with that, you can also trade other items that hold value such as stickers, containers, and cases. Most of these in-game items are a great choice if you are looking for a long-term investment because they are deleted once used. As such, they become rarer as time moves by, which drives their prices up considerably.

Start Coaching Other Players

CS: GO has a fiercely competitive ranking system and nothing matters more to any serious CS: GO player than their current rank. And since no one wants to be grounded on a particular level, you will find players willing to pay a fortune to be coached on how they can improve their CS: GO rankings.

If you happen to be a skilled player that has a higher rank, you can start one-to-one coaching sessions to assist low-ranking players to hit their ideal levels. And if you are an established streamer, the sky’s the limit in terms of prices you charge for giving out helpful strategies to rank up.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are several ways to make money with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. With an average professional CS: GO player raking in a monthly salary of anything between $1,000-$7,000, plus tournament winnings, it is a worthy venture to try out. Whether you choose to play professionally, trade skins, participate in amateur tournaments, or even coach other players, the key lies in understanding the game and sharpening your gaming skills by practicing and playing it time and again. Only then can you start making a reasonable income with CS: GO