As cryptocurrencies suffered a price correction this past weekend, play-to-earn games continue to pull in the crowds. Two leading blockchain games with a play-to-earn mechanic both amassed over half a million unique active wallets over the last seven days. In contrast, some commentators think GameFi is a fad, the data points in a very different direction.
At the time of writing, SPLINTERLANDS has increased its unique active wallets week over week by around 4%, now up to 590,000. At the same time, Alien Worlds saw a rise of almost 10% to more than 576,000 active wallets. That’s over 1.1 million unique active wallets between these two games alone. The common thread is that both dapps have underlying tokens that players can earn, then sell on an exchange to release real monetary value. Hence the tag, Play-to-Earn.
We talk about unique active wallets or UAW because nobody can be sure who’s behind these wallets. One user might be operating multiple wallets. However, it gives a clear indication of user activity within the dapp.
Additionally, games with mining mechanics tend to become more popular when the price of the underlying token drops, as players can capture the same amount of tokens, then HODL them until a price increase arrives. More recently, the token prices of these games were surging. Meaning that most players knew a correction would come reasonably soon and decrease the value of their rewards. In the last 7 days, the price of SPS, the native token of Splinterlands, has been down almost 30%. At the same time, Alien Worlds TLM is down 29%. Notably, both are showing signs of recovery.
All change
It’s safe to say that the DappRadar rankings have changed a lot in 2021. Gone are the days of Ethereum dominance with hints of Tron and EOS. More importantly, gone are the days of the rankings dominated by DeFi dapps. A keyword in 2021 has been diversification, and it’s never been more evident than when looking at today’s top ten dapps. Six dapps are gaming, 3 are DeFi, and then Atomic Assets. The NFT marketplace hub on the Wax blockchain.
Ironically, this massive shift in attention from users was stimulated by developers combining the mechanics of dapps in different categories. Namely DeFi and Gaming. It’s also worth noting that there isn’t a single Ethereum dapp in the top 10 at the time of writing. Peaking gas fees on Ethereum have forced developers to expand to other networks to pursue low transaction costs and faster speeds for users. The result of which is starting to show more clearly.
2022
In November, and for the first time, play-to-earn dapps surpassed $1 billion in NFT trading volume, growing 71% month-over-month. Blockchain-based metaverse projects became as valuable as ever; the market cap for virtual world dapps reached an all-time high, surpassing $4.6 billion at the end of November. There’s a shift occurring in focus and attention as developers eye up play-to-earn games as a way to bring more people into the industry and get closer to the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in ETH, BTC, ENS, FTM, IMX, FLOW, GRT, OMI, GALA, and CDC.
