Overwolf has announced the acquisition of Tebex (previously known as Buycraft), an end-to-end solution for game studios and creators looking to monetize private servers, which spans from managing the creation of web stores to game servers receiving payouts. Already well established in some of the biggest games on PC, Tebex has helped gamers earn over $500 million USD in games like Minecraft, ARK: Survival Evolved, Garry’s Mod, CS:GO, and Rust. In December 2021 alone, Tebex paid out over $10.5m to creators.
Overwolf is at the forefront of the evolution of user-generated content, so the move is pretty natural. Originally established as a platform for sharing user-created apps for competitive games like League of Legends and Dota 2, the company has expanded its reach to cater to mod-makers, and now, server hosts. The company is now billed as the all-in-one platform to build, share, and monetize in-game apps and mods.
It’s a great move for Overwolf, and a great move for players too. As private servers become more prominent and sought-after gaming spaces, their monetary value has also skyrocketed. From 2018 to 2019, Minecraft reports aftermarket sales of $50m, with an average purchase value of $18.39. One can only imagine how the increased popularity of online social spaces due to the pandemic has increased this number.
And with Overwolf and Tebex coming together, it’ll now be easier than ever to set up and manage a private server. Several hugely successful servers already use Tebex technology, including Cosmic PVP, Hypixel, Cubecraft, and more. Using Overwolf’s tools, you can create beautiful web stores to sit alongside your private server, using the custom theme editor to add your own personal branding to the page. Their stable infrastructure means that you won’t have to worry about connectivity issues either.
With user-led games like Minecraft and Roblox getting bigger by the day, the potential for monetising in-game communities is huge. In Minecraft, private servers host players of all types from casual players, to competitive multiplayer gamers, to social roleplayers.
How to monetise a Minecraft server
Want to set up your own server? Luckily Mojang and Xbox Game Studios understand the appeal of private servers and make it pretty easy to set up your own, and from there, it’s only a few extra steps to start monetising it.
For starters, you’ll need to have Java installed on your PC and up-to-date. Once you’ve got Java installed, head over to the official Minecraft help page for a step-by-step guide on how to configure your server to your specifications. While setting up your server, you can set specifics like difficulty, max players, and game mode.
Once you’ve got your server up and running, it’s super easy to start monetising it with the Tebex payment plugin. You can get started with the Starter plan, which is free, except for 5% of the income you earn by using Tebex. This will allow you access to worldwide payment processing, fraud and chargeback protection, detailed statistics, web stores, and more. You can even start monetizing your own Discord server.
For the more advanced user, try the Plus plan which includes all the Starter plan features, along with more useful features including a web store HTML and CSS editor, abandoned basket recovery, purchase follow ups, a custom domain name, and much more. All accounts receive a 14-day free trial of Tebex Plus, so you’ve got nothing to lose by giving it a go.
Different charges apply to different game servers, so head over to the Tebex website to see the full list of games supported and the services they offer.