Sim racing is one of the most exciting gaming experiences you’ll ever have, and we doubt you’ll ever get tired of exploring it. But spending all your time sim racing can be tricky since there are bills to be paid. But, what if we gave you tips on how to make money in sim racing to make your life paradise?
That’s right! You can earn money while doing what you love best, sim racing! You’re already good at the gaming part, so knowing about the opportunities and putting in a little effort will help you convert your hobby into a career.
How to Make Money in Sim Racing
To learn how to make money in sim racing, you need to identify the avenues you can explore. There are six primary ways through which you can earn money in sim racing:
- Perfecting your skills and winning competitions
- Getting sponsorships (skill-based)
- Streaming gameplay on Twitch and establishing a sizeable following
- In-stream Donations
- Becoming a YouTuber and uploading videos on the channel
- Providing coaching for sim racing
Let’s look at each of these avenues individually to explore what you’ll need to convert them into a money-making activity.
1. Winning Events and Competitions
The first earning potential comes from playing competitively and getting good enough to have consistent top performances. Sim racers can make a few thousand dollars or a few hundred thousand depending on how good they are, so this option is ideal if you’re confident in your skills.
Several businesses, platforms, etc., hold official e-sports championships, inviting the best sim racing players to participate. They offer attractive winning prizes to ensure they get the right participants and the competitions have high viewership.
Following are the top prizes sim racing champions get from winning competitions:
- F1 Esports Pro Series is funded by Aramco and offers $750,000 as prize winnings to the top player.
- FIA Gran Turismo World Championship offered a $250,000 winning prize.
- iRacing’s eNASCAR Coca Cola series gave out cash prizes worth a total of $300,000 to winners.
And these are only a few of the top in compensation. There are several other championship events you can participate in to have fun and earn prizes.
However, winning e-sports competitions isn’t as easy as it sounds. Keep in mind that several professional racers and coaches have also taken a liking to sim racing, and you might find yourself competing against them in a championship.
Therefore, you need to perfect your skills.
Tips for Improving your Sim Racing Skills
The best way to prepare for sim racing competitions is practice and determination. Here are the top ways to ensure you keep moving in the right direction to be a competitive sim racer:
a. Play individually as much as possible
You can find several sim racing games that don’t require multiplayer modes. You’ll need to perfect your skills playing those while exploring events to gain ground.
b. Compete and improve skills
Attend sim racing events to learn and improve skills by competing against other players. Individual gameplay is the first step to skill improvement, but playing against other racers is the best way to know where your skill level stands.
c. Get a coach
If you’re serious about making sim racing the main source of income, get a coach. Sim racing coaches are becoming common, and they can leverage their real-life or virtual gaming experience to improve your skills.
They also have racing expertise, so they can tell you new techniques you can deploy to get an edge over other players during competitions.
2. Sponsorships
The best part about competitions is that the winner isn’t the only one who gets the spotlight. Sure, they may walk away with the best earnings, but the runner-ups will also get recognition and fan following. The more people pay attention to what they do, the higher their chances of landing sponsorship deals.
Therefore, don’t get disheartened if you don’t get the first prize. Keep doing well and steadily create a loyal following. It will help you get sponsorships from brands hoping to reach out to your followers through you. Sponsorship deals pay well if you choose the right partners, so it’s a good earning opportunity.
3. Streaming on Twitch
Twitch needs no introduction because it is famous as the top streaming platform for gamers. The good news is that Twitch pays gamers between $3,000 and $5,000 for playing 40hrs a week. That pay is separate from ad compensation of $250 you can earn once you get per 100 subscribers.
The best part about earning on Twitch is that you don’t have to be among the top 5 sim racing players to get the opportunity to earn. You need to be a good enough player to hold the audience’s interest and have enough peers in the sim racing community to spread the word about your channel.
This combination of racing and communication skills can help you make enough money to be comfortable.
4. In-Stream Donations
You may have heard of Patreon, Ko-fi, and Kickstarter, the famous platforms where creators upload exclusive content for their audience for a small membership fee. These platforms are a surprisingly successful source of income for streamers and comic artists.
However, you’ll have to be strategic about using them to earn an income.
a. Avoid Sudden Changes
Several artists have failed despite a massive following because they shifted all their content to a membership-based platform, leaving only teasers or redirection videos. The lesson is to slowly introduce your Patron or Ko-Fi to your audience and invite them to donate if they enjoy your content.
b. Create Several Donation Brackets and Offers
The best way to draw an audience is to give them several donation options and offer exclusive content to patrons of the more expensive tiers. Patreon allows people to set donations as low as $1, so you can use that as a starting point.
Work on some special guide videos you know your audience will like or similar content for the more expensive membership options. For example, comic artists typically offer members discounts on customized designs or send them sticker packages in addition to giving them early access to several comic strips.
c. Do not Stop Creating Regular Content.
Our advice would be to continue creating content for everyone on your preferred platform, whether or not they are paying members. You’ll need to optimize your time, so it’s okay to reduce your posting frequency, but try not to stop it altogether.
It will prevent the alienation of followers who like your content but aren’t in a position to give money due to tight budgeting.
5. Become a YouTuber
YouTube income has a similar strategy to Twitch, but the styles are different. Twitch is more of a live platform, whereas the YouTube audience is accustomed to viewing prerecorded content. You can also explore several types of videos, like guides, reviews, playthroughs, etc., and use edits to make them more presentable.
6. Become a Coach
Lastly, you can become a coach to make money in sim racing. However, this option will only become applicable once you have spent a couple of years playing consistently and becoming known for your excellent performance.
Winning a few competitions will help your marketing, but getting placed among the top 10 players is also a good enough pull for sim racers interested in learning the tricks of the trade.
Wrapping Up
That wraps up our guide on how to make money in sim racing. We hope you enjoyed reading and try a few techniques to monetize the gaming experience.
