They say you are never really spending money when enjoying hobbies, but in most cases, you probably are. Hitting the gym and socializing are hobbies that can eat into your disposable income, which is bad when the cost of living continues to increase!
The best things in life are free, and this does include hobbies. When ‘free’ hobbies are suggested it is usually outdoor activities and we think of hiking and walking. Yeah, they’re great for health and are free but they are weather-dependent, so what other free hobbies are people enjoying?
Online gaming has become popular in the last ten years because it’s cheap and fun. The worldwide gaming market generated $184.4 billion in 2022. More people have become aware of online gaming platforms because of social media and have realized it doesn’t require location-based accessibility. This has contributed to the increase of online gamers and an increase in new free gaming platforms.
Income changes have increased the popularity of gaming online as a hobby in 2024. Games offer incentives and rewards to loyal gamers, and gaming sites sometimes have sales on their additional features to encourage gamers to buy them. This is especially the case in online casinos, where certain games will start gamers off with a bonus or a certain amount to spend how they choose.
For gamers, this provides them with an incentive to play, because they could win more by spending less money, making them feel like they have received value for money. This is why so many people are playing pokies, or online slots, which are online versions of your typical slot machines with the same gaming mechanics as normal slots, just in a digitized version.
The bonuses and rewards do vary, but playing pokies online, for example, is popular among online gamers because sometimes casinos offer incentives to play pokies, such as free spins of the reels or matching the gamer’s initial deposit when they begin the game, making pokies well-liked by casino enthusiasts.
Others choose low-cost gaming options not because of what they can get from them, but for the easy socialization opportunities they provide via free chat rooms and text-to-voice chat features. Although, whatever a person is seeking from online hobbies, there are ways to enhance your experiences with online fun, without breaking the bank!
1. Take advantage of discounts and sales.
As we have said, gaming platforms and centers have sales around certain times of the year like Black Friday. Using online discounts and sales can help you buy the games you want, without paying full price. Game release season is from September to December and there are new games every week, which can be bad for those who game all the time.
Using discounts or sales from browser extensions or promotional offers can make gaming less expensive. Black Friday gaming deals are already out, so keep your eyes peeled.
Discount codes and sales can relate to other online hobbies. For those who enjoy creative things like digital art and design, design software companies offer discounts a few times a year, giving access to programs costing less than a yearly membership.
2. Try different online hobbies
We can’t say that this isn’t an obvious tip, but trying different online hobbies can help you find your niche. Online gaming is one thing to try, but why not branch out into more creative hobbies, like online courses, writing, or blogging? With some online hobbies, there are even options to make money working online depending on if a person is good at it!
Monetizing can be an incentive to try different online hobbies and can assist with advancing any hobbies that a person finds they enjoy more. Creative hobbies like digital art can be monetized and money made from them could be put towards buying better software or doing more advanced courses to excel at the specific hobby.
3. Be consistently online
It isn’t hard to be consistent with having an online presence in this day and age. Interestingly, social media has fuelled a rise in alternative hobbies research by Samsung, states.
Online hobbies require consistency regardless of whether they are on the internet. A person who enjoys something online should still set goals and take time out of the day to work on their hobby.
Setting aside a specific time to engage with your hobby is the easiest way to hold yourself accountable and ensure you don’t slack in developing skills and having the downtime to enjoy your hobby.
4. Use Free Resources and Tutorials
The beauty of the online world is that plenty of free resources exist to help start a new hobby online. Many online learning centers offer free trials where you use a catalog of video tutorials to learn new things. There are also tutorials on YouTube for skill-based hobbies like coding which can be watched as many times as necessary. Even YouTube can provide information about how to use your new hobbies and the different methods you can use to get good at them.
Even if you are not trying to learn something skill-based and only want to have fun, tutorials, and free course learning centers can be entertaining to see what kind of things are available online to learn and try since the courses have instructors who are well-versed in that hobby.
