How to Make Money on Minecraft in (2024)

Are you curious about whether it’s possible to make money on Minecraft? It’s a question many Minecraft players ponder from time to time.

Although it can seem like a complicated task, it’s anything but. Actually, there are several ways to make some extra dollars playing Minecraft, and many of them are easy enough to do.

This article explains whether it’s possible to make money with Minecraft, how to do it, what you’ll need, and more. So keep reading to find out all you need to know.

Can You Make Money on Minecraft?

Yes, you can make money playing Minecraft. Minecraft is one of many ways you can get paid to play games online.

The popular world-builder offers several ways for players to earn income while playing.

You can make money with a Minecraft game server, make money streaming Minecraft gameplay, earn extra money building stuff for other Minecraft fans, and so on.

That said, don’t expect to get rich quickly, if at all. While it’s possible to earn money, in some instances, you’ll need perseverance and a bit of elbow grease to get there.

In addition, you’ll need skills and resources to make this side hustle work.

How Much Can You Make on Minecraft?

The amount of money you earn depends on your chosen monetization method. You can turn anywhere between a handful of dollars to thousands (and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars).

What You’ll Need to Make Money on Minecraft

You’ll need the following items if you plan to make money playing Minecraft:

• A Minecraft Account: There aren’t many ways to make money with Minecraft without registering a Minecraft account, so open one if you haven’t already.
• A Decent Computer: PlayingMinecraft requires you to have a powerful gaming computer that can handle the processing power and graphics needed for this game.
• An Internet Connection: You’ll use the internet to access your Minecraft account, start Minecraft live streams, earn YouTube partner program ad revenue, etc.
• Entertaining Minecraft Skills: Creating entertaining Minecraft streams requires a lively personality. 

The above items are the bare minimum you’d need to start this side hustle. Depending on your chosen monetization method, you may need other items (e.g., your Minecraft server).

Where to Start Making Money Playing Minecraft

Here are several awesome ways to make money with Minecraft. Let your skills and resources determine the method you choose to pursue.

1. Start a Minecraft-Related YouTube Channel

One of the most lucrative methods of making money playing Minecraft is starting a related YouTube channel. 

The YouTube Partner Program lets you earn ad revenue when you reach “1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months or get 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.” (read more here). It can be a lucrative way to earn passive income, but it’ll take effort and dedication to grow your channel.

How Much Can You Make?

If your YouTube videos and live streams take off, you can make hundreds to thousands of dollars every month passively. 

What Makes This Option Great?

This is the best way to make money playing Minecraft. Some content creators on YouTube make money from videos they uploaded years (even decades) ago.

• Typical Fees/Commission: YouTube will take a 30% commission on all ad revenue your channel generates.
• Typical Payment Methods: YouTube (Google, really) will pay the AdSense revenue you earn via check, direct deposit, or electronic funds transfer.

2. Minecraft Partner Program

If you don’t want to become a streamer, another way to earn money with Minecraft is through the Minecraft Partner Program. It provides a means to make money playing and offering in-game services. 

Some of the ways to earn extra income through the program include offering advice to fellow Minecraft players, selling in-game items that make it easier to play, and creating and selling maps.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make a few dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on your project’s scale. As of 2021, Minecraft Partner Program developers have generated over $350,000,000 on the platform collectively. 

What Makes This Option Great?

This option will be excellent for you if you’re a serious Minecraft fan because it lets you earn money while honing your creative skills. There’s also the satisfaction of creating worlds other Minecraft fans will enjoy.

• Typical Fees/Commission: Minecraft charges creators in its partner program a 30 to 50% commission on every sale made on its marketplace.
• Typical Payment Methods: The Minecraft Partner Program website doesn’t share how it pays creators. You can assume you’ll be paid into your bank account.

3. Earn Minecraft Loyalty Rewards via Buff Gaming

Buff Gaming is another excellent way to make money playing Minecraft. This application lets you earn loyalty rewards passively while playing. You’ll need to download it before launching Minecraft.

When you earn points, you can redeem them for items like gaming hardware, video games, merchandise, and gift cards. It’s an all-around great app to make more money.

Related: is Buff legit?

How Much Can You Make?

The value of the items you earn can range between $10 and $60 (depending on what you win).

What Makes This Option Great?

This option is excellent because it lets you earn while playing Minecraft.

• Typical Fees/Commission: Buff doesn’t charge fees or commissions.
• Typical Payment Methods: You get Buff points while playing Minecraft, which you can redeem in Buff’s in-app marketplace.

4. Stream Minecraft Games on Twitch

This option is similar to the first method on this list, the difference being you stream Minecraft gameplay on Twitch rather than YouTube.

You can become a Twitch partner and earn revenue from the subscription fees paid by your channel’s followers. Generous subscribers can donate if they find your content entertaining. And you have a chance to attract sponsors.

How Much Can You Make?

If you grow a large Twitch following, you can earn hundreds or thousands of dollars. It’s can receive invitations from sponsors who want you to promote their products to your followers.

What Makes This Option Great?

This monetization method is fantastic because you’re not limited to subscription earnings. You can also earn through donations, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and your merchandise.

• Typical Fees/Commission: Twitch collects 50% of its creator’s subscription fee earnings.
• Typical Payment Methods: Twitch pays its partners via check, PayPal, direct deposit, wire transfer, and hold payouts.

5. Host a Minecraft Server

If you’re tech-savvy and have some experience hosting Minecraft servers, you can earn money with a laptop and give Minecraft players server access.

Many players double as Minecraft server hosts, making money by providing access to a reliable Minecraft server. You can offer paid memberships or create a shop-like server where other players can buy in-game items.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make a couple of dollars from each member recurrently.

What Makes This Option Great?

Making money from private servers is an excellent way to receive recurrent income as a Minecraft player.

• Typical Fees/Commission: You can choose between Minecraft’s official servers and third-party options. It can be free in either case, although some providers charge $15 per month or more (depending on the number of players). Finally, self-hosting requires a powerful computer, which can cost $1,000+.
• Typical Payment Methods: Minecraft doesn’t allow its players to charge for anything in-platform without using Minecraft’s currency. Users typically use PayPal (off-platform) to charge memberships to their private servers.

6. Sell Minecraft-Related Art on Fiverr

If you’re knowledgeable about Minecraft and you have decent art skills, you can use your skills to make some cash. 

Some Minecraft players love the game so much that they’re willing to pay for drawings that feature their characters from the Minecraft world. You can tap into this love by selling drawing commission gigs on Fiverr.

Your customers will want everything, from YouTube banners to desktop wallpapers, meaning you’ll always work on something new.

How Much Can You Make?

You can charge between $5 to $100 and beyond, depending on your skills.

What Makes This Option Great?

This Minecraft monetization option is great because it lets you do something enjoyable with your art skills. You’ll also get satisfaction from your customers gushing about your Minecraft-related artwork.

• Typical Fees/Commission: Fiverr charges a service fee amounting to 5.5% of the gig’s final price. If you price your gig under $50, you’ll also incur a $2 small order fee.
• Typical Payment Methods: Fiverr pays via PayPal, Payoneer, bank transfer, direct deposit, and Fiverr’s revenue card.

7. Build Stuff on Minecraft

Do you know how to build amazing Minecraft architecture? You could put those skills to good use and earn some money on the side. There are many people who want to build Minecraft maps, worlds, etc., but lack the skills needed to do it. 

That’s where you come in. You can show off your Minecraft creations on gig marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork and offer your skills for a fee.

How Much Can You Make?

Typical amounts for these types of gigs range between $50 and $100. You can charge more depending on your project’s complexity.

What Makes This Option Great?

This monetization option is great for building your skills.

• Typical Fees/Commission: Fees and commissions vary depending on the marketplace you use (see option six above for Fiverr’s fees and commissions)
• Typical Payment Methods: Payment methods vary by gig marketplace. Fiverr’s payment methods are listed above.

8. Start a Minecraft-Related Print-On-Demand Store

You can create Minecraft-related artwork and sell it on your online store using the print-on-demand business model.

You might need to use this monetization method in conjunction with one of the streaming ones, as you’ll need a following to make it work. With that said, you can also rely on the built-in traffic print-on-demand marketplaces like RedBubble and Teepublic.

How Much Can You Make?

Print-on-demand marketplaces typically pay royalties per item sold. Since you’ll be selling items like mugs, stickers, and T-shirts, the amounts you make will depend on the item’s price and your profit margin. Expect to earn between a couple of cents up to a dollar per unit sold.

What Makes This Option Great?

Selling Minecraft merchandise via print-on-demand is fantastic because it can provide a passive income stream. Thanks to the way the business mode works, you don’t have to spend on inventory or storage.

• Typical Fees/Commission: The print-on-demand website takes the item’s base price. For example, if it sells mugs at $3 a piece, and you price a mug with your Minecraft art at $6, the website takes the base $3 while you keep the other $3 left over.
• Typical Payment Methods: Payment options for print-on-demand sites include PayPal, Payoneer, check, and direct deposit.

9. Blog About Minecraft

You can blog about Minecraft to make money. Like option eight, this monetization method works best in tandem with another option (e.g., the one involving hosted servers). 

Blogging requires work, perseverance, and some SEO knowledge to get your posts to show up on Google’s search engine results pages. But if you get it right, you’ll get plenty of traffic you can monetize in multiple ways.

How Much Can You Make?

The sky is your limit once you get traffic. Some blogs earn thousands of dollars every month from multiple sources.

What Makes This Option Great?

Blogging about Minecraft is excellent because you have multiple monetization options. You can sell server membership, drive traffic to your print-on-demand store, get ad revenue from Google, sell affiliate products like gaming laptops and accessories, plug your art services, and so on.

• Typical Fees/Commission: You’ll need to pay a yearly renewal fee for your blog’s domain name and hosting package.
• Typical Payment Methods: The available payment options vary depending on the monetization methods you pursue. See the above options for their payment options.

Why You Should Consider Making Money on Minecraft as a Side Hustle

There are several compelling reasons to make money with Minecraft, including:

• It’s Fun: Creating Minecraft-related art, worlds, and items can be a fun way to put a little extra money in your pocket.
• Passive Income Potential: When you use monetizations like blogging and YouTube, you can set yourself up for passive income long-term.
• Build Marketable Skills: Some of the Minecraft monetization options let you strengthen marketable skills (like illustration).
• Make Money from Your Passion: Are you a hardcore Minecraft fan? If so, this side hustle is for you.

Problems With Using Minecraft for Money

You may want to rethink your Minecraft money-making plans for the following reasons:

• Expertise Required: If you don’t have any drawing or design skills to speak of or don’t know how to play, you won’t have many money-making options.
• Low Pay: Some of the options don’t pay well (cents to a few dollars), so you might want to manage your expectations.
• Time and Effort Needed: Unfortunately, the most lucrative Minecraft money-making options (streaming, blogging, etc.) require a significant time and money investment.
• No Guarantee: Despite all your efforts, there’s no guarantee that you’ll make money.

How to Make Money on Minecraft: Step-By-Step Instructions

Things to Consider When Using Minecraft to Make Money

There are several factors to consider when making money with Minecraft, including:

1. Skills and Resources

The majority of monetization methods available to Minecraft players require skills. If you decide to create a blog, you’ll need good writing skills.

Video streaming requires you to know your way around a camera and screen-sharing software. Creating art on Fiverr or for print-on-demand requires art skills, and so on.

2. Your Responsibilities

Even though many players have made a tidy sum from the platform, don’t expect to do the same without committing time and effort to the cause.

Therefore, if you have responsibilities like a full-time job, you’ll just need to be able to do this side hustle in your spare time.

3. Your Equipment

It bears repeating that you need a computer with excellent processing power to play Minecraft. The game’s minimum system requirements include a computer with:

• 4GB RAM
• At least 1GB game core HDD
• 64-bit Windows 7 operating system (or above)
• A GPU of Intel HD Graphics 4000
• An Intel Core i3 CPU or equivalent
• A screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or better

You’re golden if your computer meets the above requirements, as you can offer your streaming fans or game players the best the platform has to offer.

4. Your Audience

Although many of the people who play Minecraft are teenagers and young adults, the platform has a considerable preteen user base (it’s suitable for kids 7 and up). 

Therefore, you’ll need to be mindful of the content you put into your games (if you go the development route). The platform has had issues with kids getting exposed to inappropriate content, and you wouldn’t want to add to the problem. You can avoid problems by pointing out age restrictions (where necessary).

Frequently Asked Questions

Similar Ways to Get Paid

Not a fan of Minecraft? Here are similar side hustles you can use to earn spare cash:

• Get Paid to Play Games: It doesn’t have to be Minecraft. You can play other games on specific websites that are willing to pay you to play.
• Get Paid to Watch Videos: If you don’t want to make videos, try being on the viewing end instead. There are several websites that’ll pay you to watch videos.
• Make Money on Steam: The Steam gaming platform has a huge library of games you can play while earning some cash. It’s an excellent alternative to playing Minecraft.

Wrapping Up

Minecraft offers plenty of opportunities for the average user to make money. Many of them are easy to start, and if you put in the effort, you might have moderate success. 

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