Earning money by playing games: how game offers pay, and the traps

Who pays you to play

A game studio pays to find new players who stay. It pays an offer network for each new player who installs its game through an offer and reaches a point that shows they are really playing: a level, a building, a number of days played. The network pays the reward site, and the reward site passes part of that to you. The studio pays because a player who gets that far is likely to spend money in the game later; you are being paid for your time, the studio is betting on your purchases.

That is why game offers can pay more than surveys, and why the bigger rewards sit at the far milestones that few players reach.

How a game offer is built

A typical offer reads "install and reach level 20 within 14 days". Many are split into steps: a small reward for reaching level 5, a larger one at level 20, more at level 40. Each step has its own reward and usually its own deadline counted from the install. Some offers pay only at the end. On Offerwall.GG, one of the two networks behind the advertiser offers on Valyxtra, each rewarded step you reach is reported to us separately, so you are credited step by step and do not have to finish the whole offer to be paid for those steps.

Only a new player counts: if the game was ever installed on that device or linked to your game account, the studio usually will not pay. Some steps ask for a purchase in the game; you pay for it yourself, so count it against the reward.

Is it worth your time?

Before you install, read every step and its deadline, then estimate the hours. A step that needs "level 40 in 30 days" may mean an hour or more of play every day. Divide the reward by those hours and compare it with what else you could do with them. Early steps are often quick; late steps are where games slow you down, sell shortcuts, or ask for a purchase.

Play games you would not mind playing anyway, one or two at a time. Note the install date and each deadline, because a step reached a day late is not paid.

Making sure it is tracked

Start every game offer from the wall: click the offer, and install the game from the store page it opens, on the same phone, without an ad blocker or VPN in the way. On Valyxtra, Offerwall.GG offers open in a new tab; let them, because Offerwall.GG told us an app install started inside the embedded wall may not be tracked. Open the game soon after installing, keep it installed until every step you want is confirmed, and do not reset the phone or switch devices midway.

When you reach a step, the studio's tracking tells the network, and the network tells Valyxtra's server directly; nothing you click can add a reward. Some steps confirm within minutes, others within a day or more. If a step you reached has not appeared after the time the offer states, write to support with the game, the step, the time and a screenshot of your level; only the studio can confirm it.

Traps to avoid

Games that pay from their own balance. Some apps show cash that climbs fast at first and slows to fractions of a cent just before the withdrawal minimum. They earn from the ads you watch and may never pay. A real game offer is paid by the reward site, not by a balance inside the game.

Anything that asks you to deposit or bet money. Casino and betting offers are not games you are paid to play: you stake your own money. We have turned off Offerwall.GG's "Deposits" category on our wall, where its casino offers were, and GemiAd's casino and betting offers one by one, as GemiAd has no such category; Lootably removed the casino offers we found on our Lootably wall at our request; if you see one anyway, skip it and tell support.

Purchase steps you would not make for yourself, "boosters" sold to beat a deadline, and anyone who offers to level up your game for a fee or asks for your game account password.

Keeping your rewards

Use one account, your own phone and your real location: Valyxtra's Terms forbid VPNs, proxies, emulators and second accounts, studios reject players who come through them, and every withdrawal is reviewed by a person. A very large reward on a single step is not credited automatically: a person checks it first, which takes longer. A studio can still reject a step later (for example after a refund of a purchase); the reward is then taken back, as described on How it works.