Make money playing games on your phone

MSE_Sarah

If you've got an Android phone, it's possible to make some extra cash just by playing games on your mobile. Perfect for lazing by the pool over the summer holidays (or in front of the TV at home).

Read the full guide: Make money playing games on your phone

Brie

"It took us less than a day to earn a £5 voucher."  So exactly how much time was that?  And by us, do you mean you and your colleagues were taking turns using the same device?  Or did you have the same account on multiple devices so several of you were all playing at the same time?

And what is it that earns you the money?  Is it data farming or the fact that you end up watching numerous ads and get a split of Mistplay or whomever?

And why are these ads allowed saying "I quit my job and am now earning £17k a month" or similar?  Doesn't false advertising, deception, etc come into it??

Jenna_Appleseed

Brie said:

" did you have the same account on multiple devices so several of you were all playing at the same time?"

I'm pretty sure that'll be against Mistplay's terms of service.

Jenna_Appleseed

Guide currently says Misplay gives you "Two units per day for maintaining a daily streak" - I've never had this or seen any one else online mention it - only the daily streak that gives bonus points every time you complete a streak (7, 14, 21 days etc.) and you need to keep playing everyday to get the higher bonuses.

Looks like only some members get daily units for the streak
https://support.mistplay.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000675967-How-do-I-earn-units-

"Daily Play

Tapping the flame icon in your top bar will bring up your Daily Play streak, which can help you earn weekly bonuses. To increase your play streak, all you have to do is play some games through Mistplay every day. For some users, once you play for seven days in a row, you’ll earn a unit bonus! For other users, you will see that you receive daily units instead."

GeneRax

There are a suite of apps that weren't mentioned, which can be (relatively) huge payers, and that is those by PlayTime. There are several apps that are all basically identical, such as PlayTime, Game Tester, Money Kitty, and the best variant imo, Cash Money. However, they come with caveats. Tracking can be sketchy - the apps like to close themselves, or going into a "Are you still playing?" loop, so before you hit an achievement, I have found it best to close the game and then re-open it.

They pay just for opening the games each day, and at 2 minutes play, 5 minutes play, 10 minutes play and 15 minutes play (they also claim to pay for 30 minutes play, but this never seems to track). Offers of cash for achieving awards are not cash - it is the equivalent in Google Play credit - just be aware of that.

They do offer achievements, like reach a certain level for bonus points etc (see above), but also bonuses for playing a certain number of days, and purchasing bonuses, which can boost you big time. For example, make any purchase (say, 79p) and get £3 cash back (at the Google Play transfer rate). That is where another caveat comes in - they pay out in Amazon vouchers, but that costs twice as much as Google Play credit. They also claim to pay out PayPal - I haven't tried this, as every review I have ever read claims that PayPal rewards simply do not pay out.

Whether you find it a big payer is down to your individual mileage. For myself, over a couple of months, I now have over £500 in Google Play credit, and cashed in around £150 in Amazon vouchers (sadly, then, my Android install became corrupted, forcing me to factory reset my tablet, meaning all my games and progress was lost, and the apps will not pay out for my device again). This makes the amount I have previous earned using MistPlay look like chump change.

This is not a recommendation for these apps - it is merely making you aware of their existence, and sharing my thoughts on them, and the experiences I have had.

sunnymilano

Like Brie above I am interested in what the trade off is - you don't get something for nothing.  A little internet research talked about data harvesting.  It would be really helpful if you could find out how these apps make money.  If it is data harvesting what data would they collect? Thanks

GeneRax

sunnymilano said:

Like Brie above I am interested in what the trade off is - you don't get something for nothing.  A little internet research talked about data harvesting.  It would be really helpful if you could find out how these apps make money.  If it is data harvesting what data would they collect? Thanks

From my experience of these apps, they all have the same basic tenet. The apps themselves do not contain their own ads. Instead, most of the games do (but no more than if you have downloaded them from the app store anyway). Resource management games tend not to (generally). The game publishers get money from advertisers, some of that filters to the app publishers, in turn, some filters to the end user. The game publishers are also hoping you will make purchases by getting hooked on the games (this is why the resource management games tend not to bother with adverts, as they are more immersive and engrossing than a "pick me up, put me down" kind of game). Don't forget that any purchases made are clear profit for the game publisher, as you're not really paying for anything at all, apart from being able to advance a bit further in the game.

Do they harvest data? Who knows? But if you already use social media, TikTok, YouTube, Google etc etc etc, your data has already been harvested more than you could possibly imagine. If some company is really that desperate to know that I play Board Kings for 15 minutes a day, they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for information...

[Deleted User]

R. O. I.   return on investment - using this sideways analogy on this makes me, personally, think :- 

Just how long i have to wait to see this return given there are these blips in some systems...
How does it exceed, therefore profit, on the monthly contract payment of a phone .....
How many minutes do i have to waste doing the exercise....
What follow-on adverts/marketing will i targeted/subjected to afterwards ...

I realise due diligence is everything but to make a profit on this it seems like the actual reward/profit isn't great.

EDIT:
Reread OP, this is just a fun thing and not a serious money making exercise, so my comments are irrelevant.

GeneRax

[Deleted User] said:

R. O. I.   return on investment - using this sideways analogy on this makes me, personally, think :- 

Just how long i have to wait to see this return given there are these blips in some systems...
How does it exceed, therefore profit, on the monthly contract payment of a phone .....
How many minutes do i have to waste doing the exercise....
What follow-on adverts/marketing will i targeted/subjected to afterwards ...

I realise due diligence is everything but to make a profit on this it seems like the actual reward/profit isn't great.

EDIT:
Reread OP, this is just a fun thing and not a serious money making exercise, so my comments are irrelevant.

Oddly enough, I have been doing these apps for months, and whilst they're not going to make you rich (only a fool would believe the ridiculous claims made by some), if you are playing a game anyway, what is there to lose? It's the equivalent of doing a week's shopping without a reward card.

I have tried a lot of different apps. A LOT. The ones I mentioned in a post above were the highest payers by a country mile. Mistplay was the most reliable, had the largest selection of games, but was time consuming. Very. JustPlay is a waste of time - the games are limited and poor quality, and accruing earnings is painfully slow. TapChamps, which was heavily advertised at one point, has very limited games, but okay for making a quick £20. There is another suite of apps, which includes Money Rawr and App Flame (if you're hunting, and see an app that looks similar in the screenshots, it's basically the same app) which is interesting - they're slow paying, but you do not need to be actively using the device. As I have solar panels, I just left the tablet running for hours a day using free leccy - like I said, it's slow to accrue, and they only pay out to PayPal in euros (so then you get stuffed with PayPal conversion fees), but it's still free cash.

As for the idea that you can quit your job etc as promoted by more unscrupulous ads, anyone with an IQ outside of single figures should know that this is nonsense. The adverts do circumvent being taken down by having a tiny disclaimer on the bottom stating "Amount paid out is not guaranteed and subject to the rules in the app" (or some boilerplate nonsense along those lines).

Is it worth doing? Depends on your point of view. From my perspective, I've earned a free PC, so am more than happy with my results.

Chris4

Just to provide an initial indication, after after reading the article today I put in 1h 40m gameplay via Mistplay (according to their app), playing two games with high boosts at the time - Coin Master and Doomsday - and I earnt 1000 points. 2000 points is a £5 Amazon voucher. I was half watching TV through some of that time too.

So probably 3-4 hours casual gameplay would earn you a £5 Amazon voucher, which matches up with what MSE said in the article earnings per day, or more per point if you save up for a bigger reward. Might sound a lot of time, but on average people spend 3 hours a day on phones, so if you spend that earning a little money rather than scrolling social media, then time well spent I'd say! Thanks MSE for sharing.

A word of warning: do not become addicted. The objective of these addictive games are to get you playing them regularly, to the point where you want to pay your own money for them. That's how these apps earn money. I've been addicted to mobile games before, and the two I played I could see were built for high addiction. So please, be careful, and play them, but don't let them play you.

P.S. Unfortunately all the games MSE Sarah mentioned were good in the article - Woodoku, Love & Pies, Royal Match & Cooking Madness - no longer appear to be available! 

stonec0ld

I tried this, figured I'm playing anyway so I'd earn some coffee money.

I signed up to Mistplay and played a game until I hit level 5 then moved onto a new game, to maximise the credits I got. I earned enough for a £10 Starbucks card in about 3 or 4 days, and placed my order.

The next morning I woke up to find my account had been blocked and I would not be getting my gift card.

I contacted the help desk to understand why I was blocked  and they were VERY unhelpful. They said I had violated their terms of use, but when I questioned how, they said they couldn't tell me due to security reasons but that my account was blocked and they would not reinstate it.

I reviewed the terms of use, and they say you'll be blocked if you have a rooted phone or software that shows you as active when you're idle, or if you have some autoclicking software. I have none of these things, so I'm am completely clueless as to why I was blocked.

All I know is I played games as normal and they screwed me. Personally, I would tell people not to bother with Mistplay, seems they don't want to pay out and make up reasons to block you.