"I'm 17 and made £17k playing video games - I pay my own college fees"
- 11 months ago
A teenager has made so much money playing video games his parents now encourage him to log on - instead of doing homework.
Mason Bristow, 17, has earned £17k making content for Rec Room, a virtual reality game, since 2018.
He has used the cash to go on holiday with pals, buy clothes and shoes and even pays for his own college education.
Mason, who has dyslexia, says he wants to show anything is possible despite his learning difficulties and has encouraged his friends who struggle at school to play the game too.
The teenager lives at home in Bristol with his dad Alan Bristow, 63, a support worker, and mum Natalie Bristow, 50, a nurse, along with his four siblings.
Even his parents now encourage him to play the game, with Alan and Natalie being amazed by how much money their son has earnt from his bedroom.
Now, he says he wants to carry on earning money by playing video games as he completes his studies.
While he's not employed by the company, Mason makes real money - he gathers in-game currency which is then cashed out by the game developers.
He spends between 10 to 20 hours per week playing the game and creating new content.
Mason said: “I used the money to go on trips with friends, buy clothes and shoes and pay tuition fees at the college I'm going to - I pay £1,200 per year.
“It’s a musical theatre course and I’m doing two years; it’s just helping fund my studies and uniform.
“The game has given me the opportunity to follow a dream - when you have money it allows you to do things that I wouldn’t have been able to do normally."
Mason first started playing Rec Room – a virtual reality game where users can interact with one another, create rooms, and play team games – in 2018, during lockdown.
He quickly gained a following on the platform, where he now has 21,000 followers and over 1.5 million visitors to the rooms he created in the game.
He received his first payment after the games creators reached out and told him his work was so popular, they were going to pay him.
In April 2021 his first paycheck for £800 landed in his bank account – with Mason saying it was the most money he’d ever had in bank account at one time.
He continued creating for the game and now receives between £800 - £1.2K monthly, earning himself £17,000 in total.
“When you create a room, you get game tokens when people visit the rooms, and they reward creators who build things the community likes,” said Mason.
“Once you hit a big amount of tokens you can either use it in the game or when you have quite a few million you can cash that out for real money.
“When I received the first payment, I was very sceptical and wasn’t sure if this company in America would send me the money – then one month later I had my first paycheck.
“I was shocked, it was the most I'd ever had in my bank account at once, I was so shocked by the amount I had - I felt my life was going to change from that point.
Mason Bristow, 17, has earned £17k making content for Rec Room, a virtual reality game, since 2018.
He has used the cash to go on holiday with pals, buy clothes and shoes and even pays for his own college education.
Mason, who has dyslexia, says he wants to show anything is possible despite his learning difficulties and has encouraged his friends who struggle at school to play the game too.
The teenager lives at home in Bristol with his dad Alan Bristow, 63, a support worker, and mum Natalie Bristow, 50, a nurse, along with his four siblings.
Even his parents now encourage him to play the game, with Alan and Natalie being amazed by how much money their son has earnt from his bedroom.
Now, he says he wants to carry on earning money by playing video games as he completes his studies.
While he's not employed by the company, Mason makes real money - he gathers in-game currency which is then cashed out by the game developers.
He spends between 10 to 20 hours per week playing the game and creating new content.
Mason said: “I used the money to go on trips with friends, buy clothes and shoes and pay tuition fees at the college I'm going to - I pay £1,200 per year.
“It’s a musical theatre course and I’m doing two years; it’s just helping fund my studies and uniform.
“The game has given me the opportunity to follow a dream - when you have money it allows you to do things that I wouldn’t have been able to do normally."
Mason first started playing Rec Room – a virtual reality game where users can interact with one another, create rooms, and play team games – in 2018, during lockdown.
He quickly gained a following on the platform, where he now has 21,000 followers and over 1.5 million visitors to the rooms he created in the game.
He received his first payment after the games creators reached out and told him his work was so popular, they were going to pay him.
In April 2021 his first paycheck for £800 landed in his bank account – with Mason saying it was the most money he’d ever had in bank account at one time.
He continued creating for the game and now receives between £800 - £1.2K monthly, earning himself £17,000 in total.
“When you create a room, you get game tokens when people visit the rooms, and they reward creators who build things the community likes,” said Mason.
“Once you hit a big amount of tokens you can either use it in the game or when you have quite a few million you can cash that out for real money.
“When I received the first payment, I was very sceptical and wasn’t sure if this company in America would send me the money – then one month later I had my first paycheck.
“I was shocked, it was the most I'd ever had in my bank account at once, I was so shocked by the amount I had - I felt my life was going to change from that point.