Rewarded Play Review [2024]: Earn Gift Cards by Playing Online Games

Key takeaways

• Can you actually make money? Yes, thanks to Rewarded Play's new user promotion, I earned a $5 Amazon gift card within the first two hours. However, earning beyond that initial payout became incredibly difficult without spending money on in-app purchases within the games I played.
• How do payouts work? Rewarded Play only offers gift card redemptions, with options including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and more. Once you accumulate 45,000 points ($5 value), you can request a gift card, which is then manually processed and can take up to 14 days to receive.
• What are the earning limitations? Activities like watching ads or reaching higher game levels often yield just fractions of a cent, making it hard to accumulate enough points for additional gift cards.

Is Rewarded Play legit?

Yes, Rewarded Play is a legitimate app that actually paid me out after I earned my first $5, but earning more beyond that point proved quite challenging.

Rewarded Play has over 10 million downloads on Google Play and a rating of 4.4 out of 5 from over 200,000 reviews. Its app runs pretty smoothly in my experience, although some users pointed out some technical issues with time tracking while playing different games on the app.

What is Rewarded Play?

Rewarded Play is basically an app that incentivizes exploring new games by rewarding you for the time and progress you make within each game. You can also get paid to watch ads or complete daily activities.

The app was released in 2019 by Daniel Todd and Gabe Coyne of Influence Mobile, Inc., a digital media company in Seattle, Washington.

After about two hours of playing three different games, the app paid me a $5 Amazon gift card. It also gave me a $25 reward that I was excited to redeem for a Target gift card.

However, I quickly found out that I could only redeem this reward as a discount on a hotel booking via Expedia, a similar discount on gourmet cookies from CookieCo, or a few other similar options. None of the available options were useful for me, so I gave up on the $25 reward and walked away with the $5 Amazon gift card I earned.

Platform availability	Android
Rating	4.4/5 on Google Play
Minimum redemption	$5 in gift cards
Redemption options	Gift cards Discounts on certain online purchases
Earning activities	Playing games Watching ads Completing daily tasks

My experience with Rewarded Play

Right off the bat, Rewarded Play gave me 6,000 points and showed me two promotions for a total of $30 that I could earn in three days or less. The $30 was split into a $5 gift card and 25 credits ($25 in rewards), which I wasn’t yet clear on how to use. Nonetheless, this was an exciting start for an app I had just downloaded.

Earning 6,000 points for simply downloading and starting the app made me wonder what’s the value of each point, so I decided to investigate before using the app to play games. On top of the app, it showed that 45,000 points would give me a $5 Amazon gift card. This is a value of roughly 0.011 cents per point or $1 for every 9,000 points. This meant that the 6,000 points I earned were worth about $0.66.

After checking other gift card redemption options, I found that this value is universal.

Points	Dollar value
10	$0.001
100	$0.01
1,000	$0.11
10,000	$1.11
100,000	$11.11

Rewarded Play has 30 different gift card options, including Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buy, Target, and more.

However, I was disappointed to see that Rewarded Play doesn’t offer cash withdrawals via PayPal. Testerup and Mistplay are two of my favorite gaming rewards platforms, and both make it easy to get your money via PayPal. As I continued reviewing Rewarded Play, it became clear to me that these alternative platforms are superior for even more reasons.

And so I started playing

The games available on Rewarded Play run the gamut from simple casual puzzlers to more immersive world-builders and casino-style games. I tried out three different options:

• Monopoly Go: This mobile adaptation of the classic Monopoly board game was fun and nostalgic. The gameplay was smooth, and I enjoyed the city-building elements alongside classic property trading. However, progression felt quite slow without putting money into in-app purchases.
• Cake Sort: A simple but addictive matching game where you clear rows of different cake pieces. It grew repetitive over time but was decent for quick bursts of playtime.
• Hexa Sort: In this game, you have to arrange hexagonal pieces on a board to create merged pieces of the same color. The levels ramped up in difficulty quite quickly.

While I had fun with all three for a while, none of them really kept me hooked for long sessions. The games were decent for quick breaks but got repetitive after 20 to 30 minutes. There were also quite a few ads interrupting gameplay frequently.

But my aim was to complete the requirements for the new user promotion. Installing three games was the first step. Next, I needed to get to level 5 in each of these games, which only took me around 30 to 40 minutes per game.

Collectively, these activities rewarded me with 45,000 points, the exact number I need to earn a $5 gift card. Once I completed these requirements, I was able to submit a request to redeem my points for a $5 Amazon gift card.

However, Rewarded Play requires each redemption to be manually processed. This is a slow and tedious step that makes reward redemption difficult and unnecessarily lengthy. The platform states that each redemption can take up to 14 days to process, which is a lot longer than what you can expect to see on some of the best game apps.

Earning Rewarded Play’s useless credits

In addition to the $5 Amazon gift card I redeemed, Rewarded Play also credited me with 25 credits. I was excited at the prospect of getting a nice $25 gift card until I realized the heavily restricted redemption options.

The 25 credits could only be used for random discounts on things like hotel bookings through Expedia, gourmet cookies, audio-guided workouts, and a few other niche online purchases I had no use for.

These limited redemption options didn’t make much sense to me, especially considering how easy it is to find similar (or even better) discounts, coupons, and cashback opportunities through services like Capital One Shopping and Rakuten.

That’s why none of the available options appealed to me as a simple gift card redemption would have. So despite earning that $25 reward through my gameplay, it ended up being essentially useless since I couldn't even convert it to a gift card at popular retailers like I could with Rewarded Play’s regular points.

Earning points beyond the new user promotion

Once I hit my goals for that promotion and was able to submit a request for the Amazon gift card, I decided to start making progress toward the next $5 gift card. But suddenly, earning points became much more challenging, and accumulating 45,000 points looked quite unreachable.

For example, I could earn points by:

• Watching 10 ads to earn 26 points (less than a single cent)
• Playing Cake Sort for 5 minutes to earn 129 points (1.5 cents)
• Reaching level 700 in Hexa Sort to earn 2,750 points (30 cents)

Hitting the highest levels in these casual games was incredibly difficult without spending money. Speaking of which, Rewarded Play does offer the option to earn big points through in-game purchases. For example, I could earn points by:

• Spending $49.99 in Cake Sort to earn 178,750 points ($19.86)

However, spending $50 to hopefully earn a $20 gift card didn't seem worth it to me. So without spending cash, the true earning potential felt quite limited beyond the initial $5 from the welcome offer.

Overall, the gameplay experience was decent but not particularly engaging long-term. And the earnings were quite low for a casual gamer unwilling to spend money on the games themselves.

Tips for earning more points

If you want to maximize your point earnings on Rewarded Play without spending money, here are some tips:

• Strategically choose your games: Focus on the easier games that have quick levels to rack up points.
• Use bonus opportunities: Watch for bonus point opportunities like the daily bonus to earn more points with longer daily streaks of using the app.
• Earn twice for the same activity: Complete available short tasks that apply to the games you already play. However, I recommend avoiding ads since each ad goes for 30 to 60 seconds and only provides a small number of points.

While persistence can earn you some gift cards over time, don't expect to make any serious money through Rewarded Play unless you're willing to spend money on in-game purchases and gameplay advantages. That’s why I recommend viewing Rewarded Play as a method to explore new games and maybe earn a little bit of extra side money rather than a lucrative earning opportunity.

How much money can you make?

In my experience with Rewarded Play, I was able to earn $5 within the first two hours, thanks to its new user promotion. However, my earnings beyond this promotion quickly tanked to mere pennies per hour.

I also qualified for 25 credits, equal to $25 in rewards, though it had very restricted redemption options I ended up not using.

To earn additional points and gift cards, I would need to spend considerable time playing games, completing tasks, and watching ads. Simple activities like watching ads would only earn me a fraction of a cent. Reaching higher levels required grinding for potentially weeks to accumulate enough points.

Alternatively, I could spend money on in-app purchases within the games. Making an in-app purchase of $49.99 could earn up to $19.86 in gift card value, but that didn't seem worthwhile.

Other users seem to have a similar experience based on reviews. Some report earning $20 to $100 over months of casual play, but also hit a wall where meaningful earnings became quite limited without spending considerably on in-app purchases.

Overall, Rewarded Play provided an easy $5. However, sustaining any decent return on the time I spend on the app as a casual player was very difficult after exhausting the new user promotions.

How to get paid

Rewarded Play only offers gift card payouts, with no option for cash via PayPal or other methods.

Once you accumulate 45,000 points ($5 value), you can redeem them for gift cards to retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and more.

To request a payout, you go to the gift card rewards section and select the retailer you want. Rewarded Play then manually processes each redemption request, which can take up to 14 days though I received my $5 Amazon card within 24 hours.

What are other users saying?

Rewarded Play has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on Google Play. The app isn’t available on iOS, so it has no rating there. Many user reviews on Google Play echo my experience with Rewarded Play, both positive and negative.

On the positive side, V.V. King gave the app 5 stars, citing that it's a legitimate way to earn gift cards.

"Y'all want to know if this app is real, right? Yes, it truly does reward you! I just used my first reward ($25 at Walmart)." - V.V. King’s 5-star review on Google Play

Jeffrey J. also gave Rewarded Play 5 stars thanks to the consistent money he made from the app.

“Rewarded Play is one of the easier, and fun to use, rewards apps out there. I've been using it for over 6 months now and play it casually and have earned a little over $100 in gift cards.” - Jeffrey J.’s 5-star review on Google Play

Long-time users like PrincessZelda983 highlighted the consistency over years:

"I have had this app on various phones of mine for about 10 years now. It's super easy to cash out. Updates are always on point, and if I ever have any issues, customer service is always helpful and friendly." - PrincessZelda983’s 5-star review on Google Play

However, there are also critical reviews citing time-tracking issues. This is why Rachel S. dropped her review rating.

"I'm having more and more issues with it tracking the time that I'm playing. It takes 20+ minutes to reach 5 recorded minutes." - Rachel S.’s 2-star review on Google Play

While Rewarded Play offers a legitimate opportunity to earn gift cards, users like DeAnne H. echoed the challenges of sustaining earnings long-term.

"I loved this app...have earned hundreds in gift cards! However, the game selection isn't what it used to be. All of them are ad-fueled cash grabs as of late." DeAnne H.’s 1-star review on Google Play

The general consensus from users matches my experience — Rewarded Play can initially provide easy gift card money but has more limited long-term earnings potential.

Alternatives to Rewarded Play

Rewarded Play might not be the best fit for someone looking for a more consistent and rewarding way to earn money through mobile gaming. While initial earnings can be easy, further money-making opportunities are quite challenging. That’s why I recommend checking out platforms like Mistplay or Testerup instead.

Mistplay

Mistplay is an Android app that enables you to earn units (in-app currency) by playing a wide variety of mobile games across different genres. You can then redeem these units for popular gift cards like Amazon or cash via PayPal.

During my time with Mistplay, I found the earning structure to be far more engaging and rewarding than Rewarded Play. Specific level milestones and achievements were tied to unit payouts, motivating me to keep progressing through each game.

After around 3.5 hours of gameplay, I had already earned my first $15 payout, which felt like a much more reasonable return on my time compared to Rewarded Play.

Visit Mistplay or learn more in our Mistplay review.

Testerup

Testerup is another platform I enjoyed using, though it takes a slightly different approach by allowing you to earn money through gaming tasks, app testing, and surveys.

The gaming tasks were my personal favorite, as they offered solid payouts for reaching specific levels or milestones within different mobile games. The platform also provided clear earning structures upfront, making it easy for me to judge if a particular game or task was worth my time before diving in.

While Testerup's $70 minimum payout threshold was on the higher side, seeing that first PayPal payment come through after hitting the requirement in about five hours felt incredibly satisfying. I might have been lucky, though, as many users seem to reach the minimum payout in about seven to 14 hours of gameplay.

Visit Testerup or learn more in our Testerup review.

FAQ

Rewarded Play review: bottom line

After thoroughly testing and comparing Rewarded Play to other popular gaming rewards platforms that I previously reviewed, it became clear to me that Rewarded Play fell short in terms of long-term earning potential and overall user experience.

Sure, the new user promotions on Rewarded Play provided a nice initial boost, allowing me to earn $5 within the first couple of hours. However, sustaining any meaningful earnings beyond that point proved incredibly challenging as a casual player.

The payouts for activities like watching ads or reaching higher game levels were minuscule, often amounting to just fractions of a cent. Unless I was willing to spend money on in-app purchases (which didn't seem worthwhile), my earning potential hit a hard ceiling quite quickly.

In contrast, platforms like Mistplay and Testerup offered a more consistent and rewarding experience. While none of these platforms will make you rich, the more consistent and rewarding earning structures of Mistplay and Testerup made them far more enjoyable and worthwhile experiences in my book.