Buy a smurf or level one yourself: the hours, side by side
Levelling a second account is free only if your time is. Here is what each game actually asks in hours before the account is usable — and where the line sits between grinding and buying.
The honest version of this comparison starts with the part nobody writes down: levelling a second account is not free, it is paid in evenings. What follows is how many.
The hours, by game
| Game | Gate to reach | Realistic hours | What you still lack at the gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| League of Legends | Level 30 for ranked | 100–150 | Champions — ranked needs an owned pool, and BE income is slow |
| Valorant | Account level 20 | 30–50 | Agents, which unlock through contracts, not levels |
| CS2 | Prime status | 20–25 (or the Prime purchase) | Trust factor, which builds with clean playtime |
| Fortnite | No gate at all | 0 | Everything cosmetic — the locker is the product |
| Clash of Clans | Town Hall 12+ | 800–1 500 | Hero levels, which are the real wall |
| Brawl Stars | 30k trophies | 400–700 | Maxed brawlers, which need resources, not matches |
Two things stand out. In the shooters the gate is a formality — a weekend, and the account works. In the builders the gate is the game itself: nobody grinds eight hundred hours for a second village.
Where buying actually wins
When the gate is long and the content is the point. Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars are the clear cases: the account is years of progress, and no amount of weekend play substitutes for it.
When you need the account now. A ranked season has a calendar. Levelling to 30 while it runs means playing the part of the season that does not count, then starting placements when everyone else has already climbed.
When what you want cannot be earned at all. Retired cosmetics have no grind attached — an OG Fortnite account or a locker with 200 skins and up exists only because someone was there in 2018. Hours cannot produce it.
Where levelling wins
When the gate is short. Valorant to level 20 is a weekend, and the account you finish with is yours from the first login — nobody has the email, nobody can recover it.
When you want the rating to be honest. A bought account with a rank hands you someone else's hidden rating. Levelling your own means placements start clean — which is the same argument as buying an unranked smurf rather than a ranked account, arrived at from the other side.
When the budget matters more than the calendar. If you have the evenings and not the money, the maths is simple.
The middle option people miss
You do not have to choose between a bare level 30 and a stacked main. The cheapest useful purchase in most games is the account that clears the gate and nothing more: ranked-ready in Valorant, a 30-level League account, a CS2 account with Prime already paid for. You skip the part that is not the game and start at the part that is.
What to check before either route
If you buy, three things decide whether the purchase holds: full access, escrow until you confirm, and the number on the card matching the account data. Those are covered in how to check a game account before you pay.
If you level, the only thing to get right is the region — it is the one setting that cannot be changed for free later, in every game on this list.
For what accounts actually cost across the catalogue, the price report has the medians by game, recalculated from live listings rather than quoted from memory.
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