I Tried 4 Apps That Claim You Earn Money By Playing Games. I Only Kept One

Are these “side hustles” really too good to be true?

Photo by Max Mishin from Pexels

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…