Gaming guilds have gained popularity in the world of play-to-earn blockchain platforms because they lower the financial barriers to entry. Our Top 5 list of the biggest guilds by token market cap outlines what they offer and which games you can play by becoming a scholar and joining their programs.
Contents
- Merit Circle
- Yield Guild Games
- GuildFi
- BlackPool
- UniX Gaming
- Next 5 Biggest Guilds
Gaming guilds open up the world of GameFi and play-to-earn platforms to users who might otherwise be unable to afford entry. Their treasuries are stocked full of avatars, coins, trading cards, alpha passes and virtual racing cars. And, for a small share of the profits that are generated, they will loan their NFTs out to people so they can play. It sounds like a win-win for everyone.
Below, we’ve outlined the five biggest gaming guilds by market cap. There is also information on what games each guild is partnered with. Bear in mind that there is a lot of crossover with each guild often playing the same game. For instance, all of them offer players the chance to play Axie Infinity and users can play in The Sandbox and CyBall with the majority.
So to avoid repetition, the lists below are not exhaustive. But finding out which guilds offer which games is only a quick search and a few clicks.
Merit Circle
The biggest guild token (MC) market cap, Merit Circle is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that has been enabling blockchain gaming participation since September 2021. Merit Circle offers its gamers a 70/30 split of gaming profits alongside a generous staking system.
Merit Circle is backed by Bitscale Capital, Mechanism Capital, and the Digital Currency Group, among others. According to reports, the guild has been through two funding rounds and raised $4.6 million.
Its scholarship program – scholars are gamers who play-to-earn with a guild’s NFTs – is managed via its Discord channel. Merit Circle is also active on Substack and maintains an informative Gitbook.
Games that users can play through Merit Circle:
- Axie Infinity
- Elfin Kingdom
- Sidus Heroes
- VulcanVerse
The titles in the list above are just the games that are live right now and currently available to play with Merit Circle. Below are some of the titles that Merit Circle will soon introduce to their roster:
- Blast Royale
- Civitas
- Heroes of Mavia
- Genopets
- Illuvium
Other Merit Circle blockchain gaming investments:
- Goons of Balatroon
- Crypto Raiders
- Footium
- Lava Labs
Yield Guild Games
Alongside Merit Circle, Yield Guild Games may be one of the two best-known play-to-earn guilds. The guild began in the Phillippines back in 2018 when co-founder Gabby Dizon began to lend his Axies to other Axie Infinity players who couldn’t afford to buy their own.
During the global pandemic, Yield Guild Games saw that it was creating real wealth for Filipinos who would have otherwise struggled without work. Since starting out with Axies, Yield Guild Games now offers affordable entry points to a whole raft of play-to-earn games.
Its YGG token has taken a bit of a battering over the past month, but the drops are roughly in line with the rest of the crypto market. Although there is no staking function on the Yield Guild Games’ website, there are YGG Vaults where users cut lock their YGG tokens. In return, they will receive token rewards from games in the vault.
Games that users can play with Yield Guild Games:
- Guild of Guardians
- Illuvium
- Splinterlands
- Star Atlas
- Zed Run
Other Yield Guild Games investments:
- Ember Sword
- VulcanVerse
- CyBall
- Mavia
- Legends of Venari
GuildFi
GuildFi aims to drive as many users as possible toward blockchain and play-to-earn gaming. It launched its MVP back in Q3 of 2021 and has been building rapidly ever since. A rewards system, an early Guild Network, and a gaming launchpad giving players early access to games have all already been completed.
GuildFi also has a staking system with over $15 million already locked away. It currently offers a very high annual percentage rate of return so there is money to be made there. But always remember, with high reward often comes high risk. So always practise due diligence.
GuildFi is backed by some of the biggest names in web3. It counts Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, COINBASE Ventures and Pantera among its financial supporters. The guild is currently in its Federation phase where it plans to introduce the following:
- Advanced leveling system where players get ranking by XP.
- Guild Network to grow the community and ecosystem.
- Scholarship Portal will make choosing a scholarship much easier.
- BYO Modules to scale access to virtual assets to meet market demand.
Games that users can play through GuildFi:
- Ascenders
- Crypto Raiders
- DeVerse
- Nitro League
BlackPool
BlackPool is not a straight-up gaming guild. It’s a fund operating with the NFT industry that manages a range of assets from sports cards to game items to digital art. But as it holds so many NFTs as investments, BlackPool started the BlackPool Troops.
‘BlackPool Troops was born to help players monetise time spent playing games’ and anyone can apply to join. The application is fairly extensive so put aside a few minutes to prepare some good answers to questions such as ‘Why do you want to play for BlackPoolHQ?’ and ‘What is your biggest gaming achievement or moment you are most proud of?’
BlackPool also has a staking portal on its website that links directly to SushiSwap and Cometh via an API. Through this portal, users can stake Blockport (BPT) which is the governance token for BlackPool.
Games users can play through BlackPool:
- Gods Unchained
- MetaSoccer
- Aavegotchi
- Guild of Guardians
UniX Gaming
UniX Gaming is an ecosystem and platform to onboard new GameFi projects into their own virtual world. It has over 200,000 members on its community Discord and claims to have 27 million followers across its streamers.
The guild offers income streams through scholarships, breeders, research and development, moderators and teachers. Education is a big part of Unix’s mission. They plan to educate close to 30,000 people per week for free via its native Learn-and-Earn platform.
The guild’s token UniX underpins the entire economy of UniX Gaming. It’s built on the Ethereum blockchain and will serve as both governance and utility. Gamers can earn UniX through challenges and community contributions.
Games that UniX Gaming plays
- Star Atlas
- Decentraland
- Splinterland
- The Sandbox
Next 5 on the list
If none of the guilds above offer quite what you’re looking for as you explore the world of web3 gaming, maybe the five ones below are right for you. These are the next five platforms by token market cap and they each offer something slightly different.
- Avocado DAO – AVG coin with 11,000 scholarships and over 45 GameFi project investments.
- PathDAO – native token is PATH. The platform has 5,100 gamers and over 16 million USDC in their treasury.
- Perion – native token is PERC. Has investments from Gemini, Animoca Brands and Pantera.
- Play It Forward DAO – native token is PIF. In early 2022, PIF DAO successfully raised $6 million in investments.
- Good Games Guild – native token is GGG. A gaming hub that aims to sponsor and invest in play-to-earn gamers.
