Activity in the gaming sphere accounted for just over 50% of all Blockchain activity, according to DappRadar’s latest report. However, with the sharp rise, Axie Infinity is no longer a favorite.
Blockchain Gaming Grew 2000% Last Year. The Blockchain-based gaming sphere is looking quite promising after meteoric growth this year. According to a Wednesday report by DappRadar and Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA), Blockchain gaming activity grew 2,000% in the last 12 months. Popularity increased as more money from accredited investors entered the sector despite some complex challenges, such as hacks and the downtrend in the cryptocurrency market.
DappRadar said Blockchain gaming attracted 1.22 million unique active wallets (UAW) in March 2022. The figure illustrates a boost compared to the 1.1 million UAWs logged in daily on average during February, which accounted for about 50% of total Blockchain activity.
Investors pumped millions into Blockchain gaming
The popularity of Play-to-Earn (P2E), or play-to-win, games that leverage non-fungible tokens (NFTs) drove the sector’s growth. According to the report, Ethereum sidechain-based games such as Polygon contributed heavily to the growth, accounting for more than half of the 1.22 million UAWs.
Specifically, according to the data, platforms such as Crazy Defense Heroes, Pegaxy, Arc8, and Aavegotchi spurred a 219% increase in Polygon game activity since 2022. Blockchain games attracted large sums of money from venture capitalists and other investors. According to the report, the entire sector raised $2.5 billion in funding during the first quarter of 2022, up 150% from last year.
Major deals highlighted in the report included Animoca Brands raising $360 million. This round increased its valuation to $5 billion, positioning the company as a brand and a leader in Web3. On the other hand, Yuga Labs, creators of the popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), received $450 million in a round that saw participation from The Sandbox, FTX, and Coinbase. The startup now plans to launch its Metaverse with P2E games.
Axie Infinity loses popularity
As for the most popular games, Splinterlands took first place. The HIVE-based game, reminiscent of the famous Magic cards, is currently the second most popular gaming app regarding user volume, according to the DappRadar listing. Just below Alien Worlds, with over 915 thousand users, Splinterlands has registered just over 566,000 users in the last 30 days.
Meanwhile, until recently, Blockchain gaming sensation Axie Infinity seems to be going through a challenging period. The UAW amount of the popular game has been falling this year due to several factors, including a massive hack that drained more than $600 million from the Ronin Network sidechain. The report highlights that:
“While the hack forced Ronin’s native dApps to halt operations, the drop in activity on the Axie Blockchain was not entirely a result of the latest attack; it was already in decline. Activity on the game’s Blockchain peaked in January when the game recorded more than 55,000 UAW per day on average and dropped to nearly 22,000 UAW per day in March.”
Despite this decline, Axie Infinity still ranks among the top 15 most-played games based on daily usage. The monster-breeding and collecting game also accounted for 22,000 of the total average number of unique active wallets during March.
Metaverse: A Promising Horizon
Metrics on the decline in popularity of Axie and the recent growth of Polygon-based games are in sync with reduced activity on networks such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ronin. According to the report, usage of these chains has been declining since late last year as users attempt to minimize risk on more volatile chains.
Finally, the statement mentioned the more recent fad of the Metaverse, which they perceive as “one of the most exciting opportunities in the Blockchain industry.” Although transaction volume in virtual worlds declined slightly from Q4 2021, it reached more than $430 million in Q1 2022.
“The ownership that NFTs are entitled to and the underlying financial ecosystem enabled by cryptocurrencies and play-to-win games will change the paradigm of the traditional Metaverse that is limited to an augmented virtual reality,” DappRadar said of the trend.
The list of companies in the Metaverse is growing by the day. Some estimates indicate that the Metaverse built on Blockchain may become the successor of today’s Internet.