Everyone has free time to spare. Oftentimes, they spend it reading books, grocery shopping, sleeping, or going to the gym.
For 1.13 billion people worldwide, it’s by playing online games. Online games allow us to divert our attention from reality, build cross-border connections, engage our minds, and enjoy the allure of achievements.
But did you know that you can make money by playing online games aside from streaming, testing, and joining a pro eSports tournament?
Play-to-Earn (P2E) games allow gamers to earn rewards or in-game assets with monetary value. These games use blockchain technologies to create decentralized non-fungible tokens to allow users to take ownership of the asset. This ownership status allows users to take the assets from the platform by withdrawing, selling, or transferring them to other NFT/crypto wallets.
Read on this TRU Insight as we explore the potential profits you might enjoy when playing games.
How to Play Games and Earn Money
The increasing smartphone ownership and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the boom of the online gaming market, with a forecast of $32.56 billion in global revenue in 2027.
However, game developers are not the only ones who can earn money through the gaming market.
Here are several ways to earn money while playing games.
Game Streamers
Some game enthusiasts can’t play the game they want themselves. Additionally, there’s no denying the clout you can enjoy by being a gaming influencer.
Thus, game streaming has become a reliable income stream for those who venture into the scene.
Game streamers broadcast themselves playing video games live on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Stadia, and GeForce. They interact with the viewers while they play to bolster parasocial relationships.
They earn money through subscriptions, donations, sponsorships, and ad revenue.
Game Testing
If you’re a real geek in gaming and can spot bugs, glitches, or issues, you can be a game tester.
Game testers play video games to identify any technical issues before releasing the game to the public. They provide feedback, which helps developers troubleshoot issues and improve the game’s quality.
eSport Tournaments
The eSports market has become so big that it is forecast to reach 1.8 billion global revenues in 2025.
Through this competitive scene, a professional or amateur gamer (as an individual or team) joins a tournament to win monetary prizes and titles in various video games like Dota 2, League of Legends, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
Play-to-Earn Games
Play-to-Earn (P2e) games allow players to earn cryptocurrency or other in-game assets by playing the game, which can then be traded or converted into real money.
These games often incorporate blockchain technology and NFTs to make the assets convertible, ownable, and storable of value.
The most popular P2E games are the Axie Infinity and Pixel, which experienced explosive growth during the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deeper Look into Play-to-Earn Crypto Games
Play-to-Earn (P2E) games are an innovative approach to the gaming industry, allowing gamers to earn rewards with real-world value.
This leverages blockchain technology to create a decentralized finance system and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This asset can be transferred from the gaming ecosystem while retaining its monetary value. These tokens are cryptocurrencies that are forged as game tokens. Also, a P2E platform may use existing cryptocurrencies as an in-game token.
By providing a potential revenue stream to users (gamers and non-gamers), P2E has become a hot topic in the financial markets and gaming industry. The P2E market is sized as $2.7 billion in 2024 and is forecast to be worth around $26.59 billion by 2034.
It was Axie Infinity that paved the way for this innovative gaming model. Powered by Ronin Network, game players collect, breed, and battle their Axies to level up. These Axies are NFTs with scalable monetary values and can be traded and converted to real money.
However, the $600 million Ronin Network exploit disrupted the gaming platform’s prevalence. As Axie Infinity’s main power provider, the network breach led to the initial shutdown of Axie Infinity and the losses of Axie investors.
How Do Play-to-Earn Games Work?
Let’s look at how P2E games work and how they differ from the traditional gaming models.
Notably, P2Es run on blockchain technology to allow the creation of NFTs and facilitate user’s ownership of the tokens.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Technology Integration
A P2E gaming platform must be powered by a decentralized network, especially a Layer 1 blockchain network like Ethereum, Solana, or BNB chain. This DeFi integration allows the platform to facilitate a secure NFT transaction as this technology validates and finalizes all on-chain transactions.
Once a blockchain network is integrated, the game developer can start creating crypto-compatible applications or platforms that run on the blockchain network.
Non-Fungible Token Creation
Only a gaming platform that operates on a public ledger or blockchain can create NFT in-game assets.
These tokens are the heart of P2E platforms. Unlike traditional gaming platforms, P2E in-game assets carry real-world, monetary value outside the gaming ecosystem. This means the user can trade their tokens to speculate their future valuation, transfer to another digital asset wallet to hold, or convert to fiat currency for withdrawal.
These NFTs are the property of the players. In other words, you rightfully own these intangible tokens.
NFTs are made unique from one another through digital identities to make them inimitable and irreplaceable. This ownership ensures your asset’s sustainability as it keeps its value regardless of what happens to the gaming platform or game developer.
However, the developer can use an existing cryptocurrency to remove the need to develop a native one.
Pay-to-Earn Games vs Free-to-Play P2Es
Play-to-Earn games can be categorized into two groups- either free to use, or a fee or payment is needed to use the platform.
As the name suggests, Free-to-Play P2E games are free for players. A player doesn’t have to pay a registration fee, invest, or buy an NFT upfront before playing and earning from the platform. The popular Axie Infinity, Pixel and The Sandbox are examples of Free-to-Play P2Es.
On the flip side, Pay-to-Earn P2Es are the exact opposite of the latter. This requires users to put up capital to use the platform and profit from it.
How to Earn Money Using Play-to-Earn Games?
Now, you learned the basics of P2E games and their profitable opportunities for game users. Let’s explore here how you can earn money and take advantage of the profitability of P2E games.
Find a P2E with High-Reward Potential
Despite being relatively new to the market, P2E games are already saturated in the market.
This saturation means that all P2E games are not created equal. Thus, you must find high-yielding P2E games to earn real money.
To know whether the platform carries high-reward potential, you need to look at the market capitalization of the native token.
Open an Account
Once you find a P2E gaming platform with high-reward potential, check whether the platform is regulated and follows financial industry standard best practices.
Remember to open an account with a gaming platform that has sufficient safety technologies to combat potential cyberattacks that could harm your earnings.
Complete Tasks or Collect Tokens
The completion of tasks or collection of in-game assets or collectibles is the actual funnel to earn money.
For instance, players in Axie Infinity collect Axies (gaming characters), as well as breed and battle them to level up and grow their earnings.
Top 4 Play-to-Earn Games with High Reward Potential in 2025
A high-yielding P2E gaming platform is your gateway to ensure your profitability in this gaming scene.
Here are four P2E games to play and earn real money in 2025.
Axie Infinity-Classic
| Token | AXS |
| 52-week Range | $3.20 to $13.17 |
| Market Cap | $573.89 million |
Axie Infinity paved the way for the P2E gaming industry. In fact, it took Southeast Asia by storm in 2021 as the public was stuck within the four corners of their homes, looking for entertainment and income streams.
Through this platform, the user buys Axies (the game character/NFT) and collects, breeds, and battles them to accomplish tasks and level up to grow their character. Doing so allows the user to increase their NFT value, which increases their Axie Infinity Shards (AXS).
In 2022, Axie Infinity was shut down following the Ronin Network exploit. However, it was introduced back into the gaming scene as Axie Infinity-Classic in the same year.
Pixel
| Token | PIXEL |
| 52-week Range | $0.04 to $1.02 |
| Market Cap | $61.67 million |
Pixel is another Ronin Network-powered P2E gaming platform.
It’s an idle farming type of game that incorporates social aspects due to its community-focused approach. It’s the counterpart of Stardew Valley
Through this gaming platform, a player can buy and grow their own farmland and purchase and breed Pixel pets – which are NFTs.
Decentraland
| Token | MANA |
| 52-week Range | $0.21 to $0.85 |
| Market Cap | $566.38 million |
Decentraland is an Ethereum-powered P2E gaming platform that allows players to create, sell, and profit by creating in-game wearables and emotes. This game provides an immersive experience by designing a 3D virtual world.
Additionally, users can rent out their properties and be of service to other users to earn more MANA – the token that can be traded and converted into real money.
LAND, an interchangeable token, is the actual land that you created by purchasing properties or items using your MANA. When you use up a MANA, you essentially burn it, and it can’t be used anymore.
The SandBox
| Token | SAND |
| 52-week Range | $0.20 to $1.06 |
| Market Cap | $787.72 million |
The SandBox was once a traditional open-world multiplayer game. The company has been in the gaming industry since 2011, but it recently just incorporated blockchain elements to make some of their asset NTFs in 2018.
SAND, the platform’s native token, is powered by Polygon.
To earn money by playing, the user creates or buys in-game assets (buildings, landscapes, objects, or characters) to design and customize their world. A player can also complete quests to earn more SAND tokens.
