Getting paid to play: how milestone offers work

A game offer pays you for reaching a defined point in a game: level 15, a certain building, seven days of playing. The advertiser is buying a player who actually plays, not an install, which is why these offers pay several euros rather than a few cents.

The milestone is the contract

Whatever the offer names is exactly what counts. Not roughly, not the spirit of it. If it says level 15 within 14 days, then level 14 on day 15 pays nothing. This sounds harsh, and it is the reason we put the conditions on the offer before you start rather than in a help article afterwards.

Many offers split the reward across several milestones. That is usually the better shape: you see money arrive early, and if you stop enjoying the game you keep what you already reached.

How to judge an offer before you start

• Divide the reward by the days it needs. Twenty euros over three weeks of daily play is a different proposition from twenty euros over a weekend.
• Check whether the milestones are staged or all-or-nothing.
• Look for whether progress requires spending money in the game. If it does, that is a purchase decision, not an earning one.
• Be honest about whether you would keep playing without the reward. If not, the late milestones will not happen.

Things that will cost you the reward

Install the game through the offer, not from the store beforehand. An existing install usually cannot be attributed. Emulators, modified clients and progress bought from third parties are detected by the advertiser, and the conversion is reversed. Playing on a second account for the same offer does not work either.

The waiting

Milestone rewards land as pending like everything else, because advertisers audit for automation after the fact. Reaching the milestone is the work; the hold period is just time passing.