In crypto communities online players based in the US or UK have said that play-to-earn is currently paying their rent, generally this is still an with apartments and roommates.  Nothing wrong with that though, and it beats most jobs available to young people, often college students.

But in 3rd world countries, the crypto that can be earned on 'play to earn' platforms can easily bring in more than 90% of jobs, period. 

Teenagers dedicated to it are already out-earning their parents in some countries.

Gaming As A Business...

Most play to earn games require an initial investment, in this case the person who puts up the funds to create an account is considered the business owner.

Then, acting as 'employees' there will be several players who have shifts throughout the day.  One person doing this tells us they play for 3 different owners, in 3 hour shifts "So I log in to one Axie account from 11am-1pm, another from 4-6pm, and the last shift is 9pm-11pm" said the player, who asked to remain anonymous.

50% of the profits are split between 5 players (10% each) and the other half goes to the owner. 

The start-up costs the 'owner' needs to put up aren't insignificant -  just to begin playing Axie Infinity you need to purchase  3 characters, and 0.14 ETH is the lowest price you'll find one. That's $560 at current Ethereum prices, after buying 3 that's a startup cost of $1680 (plus transaction fees).

Those who work for the owners as players would never be able to start playing without the owner's initial investment.

But The Big Money Comes When Someone Is Earning In The Game, and At The Same Time, The Token's Value Rises...

...and in the case of Axie - rises fast.

Players who started early were able to benefit from the token taking off shortly after.  If someone played June to August the AXS token stayed in the $4-$20 range, then it began to rise fast - it's worth $128 today. 

That means a player who played for the first 60 days and was holding $5000 worth of tokens (through buying and playing) could have stopped playing after those 60 days, and those tokens would be worth $160,000 today.

It's Becoming So Popular, Real Estate Agents Who Accept Crypto Are Busier Than Ever...

In Venezuela, Axie Infinity has become the main source of income for dozens of people.

Carlos Grau is the operations manager the real estate company Grau, which accepts cryptocurrency payments. According to Grau, the calls began a couple months ago from Axie Infinity players "All over the country" he says "Many of them are Axie Infinity players looking for houses or apartments."

Only The Beginning...

So far, Axie Infinity is the only play-to-earn game where players are earning enough to qualify as 'making a living' from playing - but it won't be the last.

With literally hundreds of new releases using this model expected over the next year, and with the number of players growing at rapid speed as well, we expect multiple titles will soon exceed Axie's earning potential.