September 2022 brought a lot of interest and new active users to the blockchain games industry. New blockchain games, such as FootballCoin, appear on gamers’ radars.
Many blockchain games registered an increase in user activity in September, as many play-to-earn (P2E) games reported significant increases in their active users.
According to DappRadar data, half of the top ten games have increased in the past 30 days in terms of unique wallet addresses interfacing with DApps smart contracts. All five top games were in the green in that period.
The Web3 gaming platform Gameta and the blockchain-based games Alien Worlds and Solitaire Blitz, Benji Bananas, Splinterlands, and Benji Bananas are the top DApps that have seen growth during September.
Many of these blockchain games are mainly used on mobile devices, and they have a huge potential to bring in new users and familiarize them with the blockchain. The main advantage of all these P2E games is that they allow anyone to earn crypto without any prior investment or knowledge.
According to DappRadar’s report, these games have brought “1.7 million users from Web2 into Web3 gaming”. They believe that users are now convinced that it pays off to invest in crypto during bear markets as it will pay off during the next bull market.
The largest increase in users was seen by Animoca Brands’ Benji Bananas (Polygon), which saw a 151% rise over the last 30 days in terms of users. This game was not available on mobile until March 2018. Animoca introduced play-to-earn (P2E) elements via the Bored Ape Yacht Club affiliate ApeCoin (APE).
Although it’s not clear what caused the increase in Benji Bananas users, hosting a gaming event that featured a number of valuable NFTs for the winners did undoubtedly help.
However, it’s worth noting that some games did experienced decreases over the last 30 days.
NFT games are not dead!
This blockchain game surge comes as a revigorating response to the news that the NFT market registered a 97% drop in trading volumes since January 2022. (source Bloomberg). While some complain that the NFT trend is dead, this new wave of blockchain gamers proves that there is still a lot of interest.
More blockchain games are becoming just as easy to use and enjoy as ordinary games. Some may have been off gamers’ radars but are starting to pick up. Blockchain games such as FootballCoin use daily activities as a hook, ensuring that users find enjoyment once they interact with it, while solid tokenomics encourages everyday use and retention.
It’s true that NFT prices have declined, but many games, which don’t usually make the news, require relatively inexpensive NFTs, and this still attracts new users.
Eduard Banulescu, the brand manager of FootballCoin, a pure P2E blockchain game, pointed out that the fantasy football game has seen a surprising increase in daily active users.
FootballCoin’s representative emphasized the importance of user activity and the number of people who start using Web3, including blockchain games: “We are proud that FootballCoin was one of the very first play-to-earn games. We’re also happy to see a great increase in interest in these types of blockchain games. The platform has been updated consistently over the past five years. We’ve also seen continuous, albeit sometimes slow, growth in terms of our user base. In recent months, however, the number of new FootballCoin users has spiked. “
Just like the top blockchain games mentioned by DappRadar, FootballCoin has also seen a remarkable increase in the number of users and demand for its NFTs. According to Banulescu, FootballCoin registered a 35% increase in new accounts during September 2022.
“Over the past month, we’ve seen a 35% increase in the number of new accounts. Fortunately, many of these accounts have also been active in the game. The prospect of earning crypto rewards and of owning the assets that they purchase in the game seem to have been particular highlights for new users. With the World Cup fast approaching, we are planning to introduce additional rewards and features.”
FootballCoin has many years of experience in this industry. t’s probably one of the few truly independent crypto projects that still exist. Considering the fast evolution of Web3, this might be one of the blockchain games that will evolve during this era of global crypto adoption.
P2E grows and games feature real world events
FootballCoin is a fantasy football game that attracts thousands of new users each month. As the 2023 World Cup is fast approaching, the blockchain game promises to feature the popular competition.
FootballCoin already features the world’s best football leagues, including Premier League, Serie A, and the Champions League. Furthermore, the Brazilian top-tier Série A, highly requested by users of the game, will be added in October 2022. Users will have the opportunity to test their skills as football managers and choose their football team before each stage of the competition.
While the FootballCoin team hasn’t yet disclosed the total prize pool for the World Cup, users will get to play for free, at least for the first stages, where all teams are still involved in the competition.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have reached a higher level of popularity and acceptance by both the online and crypto communities. NFTs with utility are here and are no longer considered a bubble, as more projects join the space and give new utility to the created NFTs.
The rise of metaverse NFTs in 2021
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) caught the public’s attention when the record-breaking Beeple’s The First 5000 days was sold by the Christie’s arthouse for $69 million, on March 11, 2021. This became the cornerstone of NFT art and spiked a new trend for digital artists and traditional artists as well.
Since then, NFTs have expanded to include music, art, in-game assets, and even tweets. Basically, anyone can tokenize any real-world or digital asset and use NFT minting to provide unique ownership. FootballCoin is one example of one of the first free-to-play blockchain games to offer in-game NFTs, that are available for trading.
According to DappRadar’s report, the NFT market generated over $23 billion in 2021.
The most significant move for NFTs and the entire metaverse space was when Facebook announced its rebrand as Meta, on October 28, 2021. The social media network aims to become more than a social media channel, and will not focus on creating a new metaverse, which will integrate social media, virtual working spaces, gaming experiences and more. The news created huge waves within the crypto space, and most metaverse-related cryptos surged in price. Some of the most hyped coins were Decentraland (MANA) and Sandbox (SAND).
However, the NFT craze started way before that. Most of you might remember CryptoKitties, the Ethereum-based game, launched in 2017. The game caused network clogging and a huge network gas fee increase, as the demand for digital kitties increased. Most of the kitties collectors were attracted to the game by the potential of breeding and selling their NFT. The hype slowed down over the next months, but the idea of speculating over the price of digital assets remained in the crypto community.
Today, investors can find new and trending NFT collections on platforms such as OpenSea and Rarible. Some of the most popular NFT collections are CryptoPunks and Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC).
GameFi is the game-changer
GameFi protocols were the key moment of watershed for NFTs who followed the metaverse hype. What is GameFi? GameFi can be described as the integration of gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) within one ecosystem. According to Huobi Research, GameFi has revived interest in blockchain gaming.
Axie Infinity is the leading protocol in this area in 2021. This game universe allows gamers to collect Axies and create kingdoms for their pets. AXS, and SLP are the native tokens that power the game ecosystem.
Sky Mavis, a Vietnamese game developer, developed the Ethereum-based game. It was first released in March 2018. The Axie-Infinity collection quickly rose to become the most traded NFT in NFT history due to the excitement created by the community around it. The collection has more than $4 billion in annual sales. Axie Infinity’s current trading volume has outperformed other blockchain games by miles.
This game is based upon Ethereum but blockchain-based games are becoming more popular across other blockchain networks such as Solana or the Binance Smart chain. Many games have enjoyed popularity on blockchain networks, including Splinterlands on Hive and Wax and Alien Worlds on Wax and Upland on EOS.
Refusal to adhere to traditional gaming regulations
GameFi is disrupting gaming by introducing blockchain technology. However, traditional gaming has not been well-received this innovation. Steam/Valve removed all blockchain-based games in 2021. Over 26 companies and advocacy organizations have called upon Steam/Valve to reverse its ban.
The South Korean government also blocked the release of new play-to earn (P2E) games and requested that existing blockchain games with a model P2E be removed be from the Apple Store and Google Play Store. Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, stated that they are open to blockchain-based games that support crypto and blockchain-based assets.
But the GameFi trend continues to grow despite the opposition from regulators and the traditional gaming industry. ProShares, the company that launched the first Bitcoin-based ETF, has plans to launch an ETF focused on Metaverse. The ProShares Metaverse Theme ETF was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. If the registration is accepted by the SEC, it will track the performance of the Solactive Metaverse Theme Index, which includes companies involved in the adoption and usage of metaverse-related technologies.
Even one of the big four consulting companies, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Hong Kong, have dipped their toes into the Metaverse. A land plot was purchased by the company to play in a metaverse Sandbox. After a deal with Velas Network, a Swiss blockchain startup, Ferrari even hinted at NFTs.
These enterprises can use blockchain technology to build business models within the Metaverse, and gain efficiency and compatibility with the real world. It is very likely that 2021 will be regarded as the year for NFTs and DeFi, and 2022 will be the Year of GameFi and Metaverse.
