I Tried 4 Apps That Claim You Earn Money By Playing Games. I Only Kept One
I’m skeptical of allegedly easy ways to make money. In my experience, the “easiest” ways to make money involve a lot of work behind the scenes, or don’t actually make money. Or worse — they’re just a side hustle scam.
But yesterday, I saw yet another ad as I was scrolling on Tumblr that promised to pay me real dollars if I just installed an app and played a game! (The ad showed a woman getting an $800 PayPal deposit, which, I have to admit, did sound very appealing.) Earn money playing games? Sign me up.
After doing some research on this income stream, it looked like many personal finance influencers thought that earning money playing games merited enough attention to fully call it a side hustle.
I love working on my freelance journey, but of course, if I could really make money just by playing games, I would.
I decided to try four, for science. I found them by clicking on the original Tumblr ad I was served. Helpfully, I was then shown additional “earn money playing games” apps in subsequent ads on those apps I downloaded.
Here’s what I found.
1. Mistplay Review
Mistplay’s offer:
To earn money playing games with Mistplay, it asks you to download and play on apps. Mistplay tracks the time you play the games it recommends. You earn “gems” for downloading the game, spending a certain amount of time playing it, leveling up, and other arbitrary “achievements” like playing it for one hour after 11 pm for some reason.
You can then turn the gems into gift cards, including Amazon, PayPal, Visa, Starbucks, H&M, and others.
This app doesn’t make any huge promises, unlike some of the other ones. It merely claims you can earn money while playing.
The reality of Mistplay:
I picked a Farmville-esque game called “Family Island ™️— Farming” because I love pseudo-productivity games where you click on things to make things to build other things. After accidentally spending a jaw-dropping two hours playing it (whoops), I earned a grand total of 842 gems. This was enough to purchase me not one, but two 50c Amazon gift cards.
I then downloaded another game through Mistplay, because the earlier levels earn you gems faster. Within 20 minutes I was able to earn another 462 gems with the introductory bonuses. Another 50c in the Amazon bank!
The hourly rate for Mistplay:
$0.65/hour. Yes, you really can earn money playing games!
My verdict on Mistplay:
If you like playing these sorts of time-wasting mobile games anyway and you have the battery to spare, why not? I don’t judge you for it. I love listening to audiobooks while mindlessly tapping away.
You can earn some money for doing it, probably around $5 a week if you spend an hour per night on it and download lots of different games.
Screenshots of Mistplay:
Screenshots I took of the Mistplay app, showing how I earn Gems with Mistplay, earn money playing games through Mistplay, and finally actually cash out my whole $1.50 with Mistplay.
2. Rewarded Play Review
Rewarded Play’s offer:
Rewarded Play “rewards” you for downloading games, playing them for a minimum time (usually about 2 minutes), spending money in-app (lol) and leveling up in-game.
The reality of Rewarded Play:
I followed the prompts to:
download three games which I chose more or less at random;
play them all for the specified minimum time; and
complete the tutorials.
However, these games were all so boring and glitchy (and full of ads) that I gave up after an hour faffing about downloading different games and trying to figure out what counted as a tutorial.
I earned 19,450 points before giving up. I needed 45,000 points to earn the minimum, which was a $5 Amazon gift card.
In theory, you can earn money playing games with Rewarded Play. In practice…
The hourly rate for Rewarded Play:
Officially, $0/hour. Extrapolating out, it would have taken me 2.5 hours to earn $5, which is a $2/hour rate. We’ll see how far you actually get if you try it yourself.
My verdict on Rewarded Play:
Not worth the effort. It’s too frustrating playing games that are too buggy to get through the tutorial, much less to the cash-out point.
Screenshots of Rewarded Play:
Screenshots of Rewarded Play. Can you earn money playing games with this app? Well, you can see you earn “points” by spending in-app money. You also earn points for completing tutorials. I made it to 19k points with Rewarded Play before deleting the app in frustration.
3. Solitaire Cash Review
Solitaire Cash’s offer:
Solitaire Cash, according to the ad I watched on one of the other games I downloaded, promises to pay you literally hundreds of dollars via PayPal for playing Solitaire.
The reality of Solitaire Cash:
I like playing Solitaire — who doesn’t? It’s simple and fun. However, the ridiculously optimistic promo material leaves out the fact that 1) you have to actually win at Solitaire in order to earn the money, and 2) you have to deposit at least $5 to enter the tournaments that let you win money. Unbelievable. Embarrassingly, I played for 20 minutes before I realized this. Basically, you can earn money playing games by first paying money to play games with this app, AKA gambling.
The hourly rate for Solitaire Cash:
I can’t calculate the rate because it depends on how much you’re willing to pay to enter, and whether you’d actually win or not. It’s gambling.
My verdict on Solitaire Cash:
Solitaire Cash may not be a full scam, but it definitely plays on false advertising. Most reviews left on the app’s page say they never earned enough to reach the cash-out point. I have not seen anyone claim they’ve made the $100s of dollars that appear on their ads. Can you earn money playing games with this app? My guess is yes, but only if you’re willing to gamble and pay upfront.
Screenshots of Solitaire Cash:
Solitaire Cash Screenshots. It’s pay-to-play, and you have to deposit money in the app to play. However, the marketing material shows you earning $100s of dollars with it. I think this is very fishy. They say you can earn money playing games, but leave out you have to pay first.
4. Blackout Bingo Review
Blackout Bingo’s offer:
Blackout Bingo’s promo ad featured stock video content of attractive women looking delighted, paired with hypothetical text questions like “What if you earned $30 a day playing bingo? Then you’d earn an extra $900 a month!”
“I’d love to earn money playing games! An extra $900 a month would come in super handy!” I thought excitedly to myself. So I downloaded the app.
The reality of Blackout Bingo:
Like the Solitaire game, this app claims you can make money by winning at Bingo. But you have to deposit money first to enter the games where there’s a chance to win actual money. They offer the ticketz as a prize for the free games.
I played several games, really enjoying myself. Before long, I’d managed to earn exactly $0 and five in-game “ticketz.” (For context, in order to earn a $100 Amazon gift card, I’d need 2 million ticketz.)
The hourly rate for Blackout Bingo:
Again, I wasn’t realistically able to earn money without first depositing money, which was too close to outright gambling for my tastes.
If we go instead by the ticketz system, at 2 minutes a game, I’d have to play for over seven calendar years straight to earn the $100. Not exactly feasible.
At two minutes per ticket, it would take me 4 million minutes (or 7 years) to earn $100 on Amazon. Earn money playing games? Yes, if you’re willing to play for the better part of a decade.
My verdict on Blackout Bingo:
If you enjoy Bingo, go for it! But don’t expect to earn money playing games with this app unless you pay first.
Screenshots of Blackout Bingo:
Screenshots showing the “ticketz” I won, as well as how much money it costs to actually play Blackout Bingo.
The best apps earn you a small amount of money. The worst are time-wasting scams. Tread carefully.
Two of these apps that claim you can earn money playing games turned out to be straightforward game center apps that basically paid you to watch ads through the games they funneled you to. However, Rewarded Play was so frustrating that I couldn’t get anywhere near the payout amount. Only Mistplay earned me a payout, which was less than a dollar an hour.
The other two ended up being pay-to-play glorified gambling centers.
Originally, I wanted to test out more than four apps. But after wasting — er, spending the day playing silly games for literal pennies, I’d had enough and wanted to move on with actual money-earning work.
My conclusion remains the same: the claim that you can earn money playing games is too good to be true. If you really could make hundreds of dollars a month by playing Bingo, you already would be. In reality, your day would be more profitably spent doing anything else.
I kept Mistplay since it’ll earn me a few bucks a week for playing games I’d play anyway, which was great. But I won’t fool myself — I’m not earning anything like minimum wage playing these games, and neither will you.
Creators, freelancers, and side hustlers: don’t be taken in by these ads. You cannot earn enough money by playing games.
