If you are a user of Steam, then you probably know that it is one of the biggest online video game market places out there. However, you might not realize that there’s actually a way to put money into your Steam wallet funds without spending anything.
Keep reading to find out how to make money play games on Steam.
Table of Contents
How to Earn Money on Steam Marketplace
Before getting started, it is important to note that there is no way to take the money you get on Steam out of your wallet fund. So, if you were planning on making a career out of the Steam market place, you might be out of luck.
However, there are other uses for the money you get. While you can’t take the money out of your wallet, you can still use it to buy video games or other things on the market place like trading cards or cosmetics. This is a good way to make your video game habit a lot more affordable with little effort.
By the way, if you also play games on Twitch, read this to learn how to make money streaming on Twitch.
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1. Trade Your Cards
Most games on Steam have trading cards you can receive for playing them. You get one to three cards the first time you play a game after playing for two hours.
Most cards you get end up only being worth a few cents. However, you might get lucky and receive a foiled card that’s worth a couple of dollars. If you want to earn more cards, try using a site like Steam Idle Master.
Additionally, about every week you have a random chance of receiving a trading card Booster pack of three cards. You can either sell the pack as is, which is usually only worth about thirty cents or open the pack for the chance of getting foiled cards.
When you try to sell a card, you’ll notice a graph will appear that shows you how much the card was worth in the past.
Here are a few tips that apply generally to all cards:
- The newer the game is, the more the card will be worth
- Sell cards from new games as soon as possible
- When a card reaches a certain selling price, Steam will begin to take a small percentage
2. Sell Your Cosmetic Crates
Some games give away cosmetic crates that can be purchased with in-game currency or real money. If you get one of these crates, you should see if you can sell them for some decent cash.
Some games that let you do this are:
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive
- Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)
- Payday 2
- Team Fortress 2
- Warframe
But, the two main games that people use to make money are Counter Strike and PUBG.
With Counter Strike, you can earn crates by:
- Playing the game every week
- Operations (seasonal DLC)
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds will let you get crates with battle points, which are earned whenever you kill other players and last long into the game. You can then sell the crates for twenty cents to a few dollars each.
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3. Hold onto Pre-release Items
When a game is available for pre-order, you will sometimes be given an early-access cosmetic item. Hold onto that item instead of redeeming it and you might make a ton of money.
For instance, PUBG released a cosmetic set for everyone who pre-ordered PUBG. Right now, it sells for over $200.
This isn’t the only game that this happens too. A general rule is that if you think a game is going to be really popular, chances are their pre-order crates will also be just as popular.
4. Don’t Buy & Open Crates
You might consider trying to buy as many crates as possible and then opening for the small chance of getting a nice item. Ultimately, this is not worth the risk.
Most rare items have as low as 0.01% chance of appearing in a crate. So, you might have to spend thousands of dollars on thousands of crates just to get the item. It’s better to save up your money and just buy the rare item outright on the market place rather than spending all that money on what is basically gambling.
5. Sell a Video Game
There’s only one way to make real money on Steam which can be redeemed. Making a video game is a long process that requires a lot of skill in coding, writing, and art, but it can be worth the effort.
To put a game on the Steam store, you need to invest $100 for the Steam Direct Product Submission Fee. After that, you can start selling games you’ve made on Steam. Steam takes a 30% cut of all sales that you make. If you sell $1,000 worth of games, you’ll be refunded the $100 you paid originally.
It’s important to remember, however, that your game will need to be a decent quality to get good reviews and actually make sales. It also takes a lot longer to develop a game than to sell some trading cards.
Other Ways to Earn Money on Steam
Here are a few other options to get you thinking outside the box…
- Make & sell mods in the Steam Workshop
- Sell items and item drops
- Sell your own game via Steam Direct
- Sell your art, design and other freelance work
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, after reading this guide, you have a better picture of what it is like to earn money on Steam. It isn’t as easy as you think but it can help you save a few bucks on the next video game you buy.
Do you think it’s viable to sell Steam cards and cosmetic crates? Have you scored any major sale through the Steam platform? Let us and our readers know about your experiences below, as well as any tips you think can help others who may be trying to learn how to make money on the Steam platform.
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