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Blockchain Gaming Development Report: Boom and Growth

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Judging from the ever-increasing content and performance of blockchain games, it's clear that developers are trying to pave the way for a larger, more mainstream audience.

The state of the blockchain gaming industry

The first quarter of 2021 is a period of construction and expansion for a number of games already live and still in development in the market. Various projects have focused on side chains and Layer2 solutions rather than Ethereum, such as Polygon and Immutable X, while Wax Chain has cemented its position as a gaming platform for NFT applications. Game developers are clearly trying to pave the way for a larger, more mainstream audience.

content

1. Key points

2. Gamers grew by 148%.

3. Increase game activity tenfold

4. Increased transaction volume by 651%

5. Most active games in the first quarter of 2021 & NBSP;

6. The fastest growing games in the first quarter of 2021

7. Games, updates, and user growth

8. The rise of money making games

9. Different levels of player involvement

10. Why games are booming now

11. Welcome to the meta-universe game world

12. Keep breaking through

The key points

1. Increased game activity by 148%, with 73,512 daily active wallets & NBSP;

2. Wax, Polygon, and BSC increase market share.

3. In the last week of March, the number of transactions increased tenfold to 51 + million

4. The total transaction volume increased by 651%, and the daily transaction volume reached $1.1 million +

5. Alien Worlds is the largest blockchain game on the market in terms of daily active wallets

6. The monetising game genre is growing in size, thanks to the popularity of NFT and the growth of user categories

Gamers grew by 148 percent

As game developers increasingly use the DeFi mechanism to excite users. Player rewards, and the growth of blockchain games is tied to the hype surrounding NFT. In games, however, the value of user transactions is low. As a result, the $20 GAS charge on the Ethereum chain is not appropriate for gaming.

Despite these adverse gaming conditions, the number of active wallets on the Ethereum chain nearly doubled to an average of 1,274 daily active wallets in the first week of the year, and rose to 2,398 daily active wallets in the last seven days of March. In the last week of March, the gaming sector saw huge growth, with an average of 73,512 active wallets per day. This is a 148% increase from the average of 29,563 active wallets per day in the first week of the year.

This hype around blockchain games shows that blockchain solutions that offer free transactions are more advantageous. EOS's active wallet doubled thanks to virtual property game Upland, while Hive showed a small increase thanks to its popular Splinterlands game. Additionally, the number of users of ultra-casual games on Thundercore has doubled.

However, BSC (Binance Smart Chain), Polygon, and Wax show real growth. Gaming on the BSC is still in its infancy, but the number of daily active wallets has grown from almost nothing to 1,238. By comparison, it took Matic nine months and a name change to make an impact on the blockchain gaming scene. It's now called Polygon.

Polygon's game dApp active wallets increased 734 percent to 2,294 daily active wallets, while Wax's daily active game wallets increased 502 percent to 23,095.

Polygon, Wax, as well as BSC and EOS have all benefited to some extent from Ethereum's high GAS bill. No player wants to pay high GAS prices, so these four blockchain solutions are the first choice.

Projects like F1 Delta Time, MegaCryptopolis, and Aavegotchi started with the Ethereum chain, but now the ecological center of gravity has shifted to Polygon. At the same time, Wax is expanding its portfolio of games and has also supported Ethereum cross-chains in order to enrich its Defi ecosystem.

BSC's strategy is the opposite. They first made a big push into Defi and are now very focused on games. Projects like Gala Games, My Neighbor Alice, and Alien Worlds have all integrated BSC into their ecosystems.

Game developers who want to jump directly into the Ethereum ecosystem will obviously have to wait for the right Layer2 solution. Immutable X and their ZK-Rollup could be a solution, and in recent weeks, many game and NFT project parties have announced the integration of Immutable X as their preferred extensibility solution. Immutable X promises no casting and NFT transfer fees, and then all the data stays on the Ethereum chain.

The game activity increased tenfold

There are many blockchain-driven games that work perfectly without having to interact with the blockchain all the time. Axie Infinity is a good example, as players need to have three Axies's to join the game. Since then, users can only receive SLP rewards by interacting with the blockchain. On the other hand, games like Alien Worlds click on the blockchain every time a player makes a change or activates a mining activity. As a result, Alien Worlds has documented more on-chain activity.

Axie Infinity is now moving its ecosystem to a side chain called Ronin to create a more user-friendly environment for players to play in. Meanwhile, other blockchain solutions such as EOS, Wax, BSC, and Polygon have seen a surge in activity due to their free to use nature.

The blockchain gaming market generated 5.1 million transactions in its first week. In the last week of March, that number increased tenfold to 51.01 million transactions.

Transaction volume increased by 651%

This increase in transaction volume makes more sense as the number of daily active wallets and on-chain activity increases. Every game on the blockchain is driven by a thriving economy, where players compete for resources, trade items, and earn rewards.

In the first week of the year, the average daily transaction volume in the blockchain gaming industry was $147,327. By the end of the first quarter, the average daily transaction volume had increased 651% to $1,107,674 a day.

Volume peaked at $3.7m on March 12, bringing the total average volume for March to $1.6m, compared with just $360,000 in January.

The growth in value is closely linked to the growth in retail and investment interest in the blockchain space. Game tokens are integrated with the Defi ecosystem to bring more value and fun. Axie Infinity (AXS), Megaacryptopolis (Mega), Gala Games (GALA), F1 Delta Time (Revv), The Sandbox (SAND) and Aavegotchi (GHST) The price of all tokens showed a huge increase in the first quarter.

The most active games in the first quarter of 2021

The most active games in the first quarter were measured based on peak activity data in the last seven days of March 2021. We focus only on individual active wallets, measuring on-chain activity, such as bids, deals, or winning items. Some games allow users to play the game without any blockchain interaction, which means we can't monitor user activity on the chain.

The fastest growing games in the first quarter of 2021

Another important metric for games is actual growth. When we compare the data from the first week of 2021 to the last week of March, we can see which games are growing the most in their indie wallet activity.

Games, updates and user growth

,Aavegotchi

Aavegotchi currently has 1,589 active individual wallets per day. For most of January and February, the Defi game was tied to Ethereum GAS charges. But the moment the project is launched on the Polygon side chain, users are no longer affected by GAS charges. As a result, the number of users on the program has ballooned to more than 3,000, and the number of daily stable active wallets is 1,500.

,Alien Worlds

Alien Worlds launched on the Wax chain in the third week of December 2020. The game allows players to mine TLM tokens. In February 2021, growth leveled off until the game's development team announced that landowners could issue NFTs as mining rewards, which sparked interest among gamers seeking free rewards. Another wave of growth came when Alien Worlds announced in the last week of March that it had received a $2 million investment from Animoca Brands and was expanding Eco to BSC.

,R-Planet

Until mid-February, players can pledge their NFT on the Wax chain for the Aether reward. On February 15th, the game application scene was added, and players were able to put their Aether into use, driving user activity to a peak. Players can now use their Aether to find materials, which in turn can be used to find rare materials, etc. The development team introduced several new NFTs in March that can improve mining speed.

In each of the games mentioned above, there is a correlation between the ability to earn something and the number of active players in the game. When a game optimizes the way it gets new tokens or NFT, new players flood in. This highlights the importance of the "play games for money" business model as a motivation for engagement.

The rise of money making games

What all these games have in common is that the player creates value by being active within the game. In Aavegotchi, players can care for their pixelated little ghosts and then enter rare agricultural contests to win valuable prizes; In Alien Worlds, players need to mine TLM tokens; In Sorare, a fantasy football game, players compete for money and NFT prizes. The ones that have boosted activity in the game wallet are products that leverage the "play games for money" business model.

Since all games utilize blockchain technology, players can be rewarded with tokens or NFT. Rewards have real value and can be exchanged for other things at will.

The ability to swap, sell, and trade in-game items is a feature that resonates with modern gamers. Before that, it's possible to spend billions of dollars on a game without ever getting any tangible return on the time spent.

The "play games for money" business model is based on the notion that every gamer is a contributor to an emerging economy and should be rewarded. In most cases, players need to make an initial investment before they can start making money. For example, Sorare requires the player to have a few cards; Axie Infinity Axies and Aavegotchi need a little ghost. Projects such as Alien Worlds and R-Planet have a lower barrier to entry, as they are at the lowest level and therefore have the least chance of winning a jackpot.

In order to level up to a platform that is profitable for the player, the player can hold some NFT first. Fees to join Alien Worlds range from $10 to $20, while Sorare can cost up to a few hundred dollars.

Different levels of participation in the game

Not everyone can afford to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a virtual game world. Depending on the type of project, there will always be varying degrees of participation. Some people would take risks, some people would get resources on the farm, and there were also landowners or merchants. Eventually, landowners will need farmers, and when NFT becomes a farmer, new commercial options will emerge.

At Axie Infinity, we've seen the rise of a number of new game projects that allow players who don't have three Axies to join the game through something called a scholarship. Currently, the cheapest Axie on the Axie Infinity market costs $168, and players need to have any three to start earning SLP tokens. Scholarships, on the other hand, can lead new participants to understand the concept of "playing for money" and allow them to start making money through games, while the scholarship provider generates passive income.

Yield Guild Games (YGG), a decentralized, autonomous organization in NFT that promotes a "play Games for money" business model, has more than 2,500 users. Their efforts to target players in countries around the world have proved successful, as they raised $1.3 million in early March for expansion. This is a clear indication that the "play games for money" business model closely associated with DEFI and NFT will fundamentally influence how people evaluate games in general.

The reason why games are now thriving

Currently, there is a clear demand for blockchain games and virtual worlds. However, developing a blockchain-powered economy game takes time. Developing a game takes years, not months. On top of that, it's much easier to start playing blockchain-driven games.

Not every game requires the user to have a wallet and private key, because these elements can be created in the background and the user can simply log in using their email address. Most importantly, there are now many alternative blockchain solutions to Ethereum's higher cost.

1. Lower entry threshold provides better user experience for players

2. Improve the user experience with a lower-cost blockchain alternative

3. Games are getting better and better

4. Developing a game takes a long time

5. Other sources of income during the epidemic

The combination of these five trends will help the blockchain gaming industry grow. While we often see traditional financial investments in Defi and cryptocurrencies, participation in the blockchain gaming industry from the traditional gaming industry is still very low.

Capcom has released some NFT collectibles on the Wax blockchain, Bandai Namco has invested in Genies, and Ubisoft has launched a fantasy football game called OneHot League. It may be a while before we see Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty join the blockchain industry.

First, the blockchain gaming industry needs to develop its own killer app, similar to how Angry Birds ignited confidence in mobile gaming more than a decade ago. That killer app could lead to a paradigm shift in gaming that will bring a wave of attention to meta-universe gaming and propel it as the next frontier for gaming and commerce.

Welcome to the meta-universe game world

NFT enables us to collect and actually own, trade, sell or share digital assets. These assets can be anything from art to music, from game props to digital fashion. We can use cryptocurrency to buy these NFTs, and the ownership is stored on the blockchain. Games are just one of the platforms where we can use our digital assets, as the true potential of the meta-universe is slowly being unleashed.

The meta-universe is a virtual environment where people can influence the world by socializing, conducting business, entertaining, or voting on governance. Instead of thinking of the meta-universe as a program or a virtual world, think of it as a virtual world of the Internet, where users can connect their wallets and then interact with services. If you've read or watched Ready Player One, you probably know something about the meta-universe.

Technically, we're not there yet. But various organizations are working to create open standards for the meta-universe. Cryptoavatars is selling one-of-a-kind avatars that players can use as their virtual identities in the meta-universe. Owners can use their personas in a variety of applications, from VR chat to Somnium Space (VR social apps) and Webaverse. At The same time, The Fabricant and Digitalax are working to create an open standard for digital fashion NFT, while Crucible is creating an application layer for an open world, providing tools for builders and creators, and providing portable digital identities for users.

The recent popularity of the NFT concept has also increased interest in the meta-universe. The Metaverse search term recently hit an all-time high in popularity, according to the Google trend. Although search traffic pales in comparison to search terms like NFT, crypto, or blockchain.

Continuously break through

Among the alternatives announced in April, the side chain and Layer2 solutions emerged quickly. In early April, Enjin launched Jumpnet (Interoperable Bridging Network), a side-chain solution for its entire ecosystem. Meanwhile, Reality Gaming Group is developing Doctor Who: Worlds Apart (BBC series Doctor Who NFT trading card), also running on its own private Ethereum side chain. Similar to Axie Infinity's Ronin Side Chain, these solutions all share the same features: cheaper and faster transactions.

Gods Unchained Immutable X Layer-2 Solution Immutable X Layer-2 Solution Gods Unchained, an Ethereum blockchain based game trading card game, will be released by Immutable X Layer-2. After that, the technology will be applied to more NFT projects and games. In the meantime, we can expect BSC to do more in the gaming space, and Polygon will continue to grow strongly.

Wax Blockchain already offers free and fast transactions, and they are working to connect Wax to Ethereum by leveraging their Defi ecosystem. Wax's hit game Alien Worlds, though, has set its sights on the BSC. In general, game projects are looking for solutions because the answer to their problems is definitely not on the Ethereum mainnet.