Arc8 is a Polygon-based play-to-earn dapp for mobile devices, which has taken the gaming world by storm. In the past 24 hours alone, the game attracted 310% more players, boosting the total number of unique active wallets interacting with the platform to more than 6500. The strong wave of interest towards Arc8, however, also points to a more global trend in blockchain gaming – users want to be able to play on the go.
Blockchain-based gaming is somewhat of an infant as a whole. Yet big names like Axie Infinity, Alien Worlds, and SPLINTERLANDS have solidified their spots as the most visited gaming dapps across all blockchains. One thing they have in common – they are all available on mobile as well.
Arc8, the new kid on the block, is steadily following in the footsteps of these behemoths. However, an important distinction here is that the platform is available only on a mobile. The whole Arc8 ecosystem is built in the mobile app, essentially allowing players the freedom to sign up, get started, and play all while on the bus, or while waiting for their doctors’ appointment.
If we look at the top competitors in the space, the situation is a little different. Axie Infinity has a mobile app version, however, players still need access to services through a browser, in order to play on mobile. Splinterlands, the Hive-based wonder, also has a mobile version, however, with limited capabilities. Alien Worlds, on the other hand, only recently made the move to mobile, by launching a smartphone-friendly version. Still, in the grand scheme of things, a trend is obvious – gamers want to be able to play from anywhere at any time, without being tied to a computer.
Arc8 redefines mobile-based blockchain gaming
Turning to an all-mobile mode of operation seems to be the right approach. Arc8 has had a stellar performance in the past 30 days, boosting its user base by more than 2500%. In the past month, more than 379.500 user wallets interacted with Arc8, generating upwards of 4.61 million transactions.
Importantly, because of the way Arc8 was structured until a couple of days ago, these interactions don’t necessarily mean a game was played. On October 20th, Arc8 concluded its minting phase. This allowed users to simply log in to the app and mint GMEE tokens. The idea behind the minting phase was to give players a head start before the full platform launches.
During the minting phase, there was a single game available on the platform, and still, players flocked to try it out. Now that GMEE minting has concluded, Arc8 starts to let players experience the full capabilities of the platform. According to an official announcement, several batches of top minters have already gained access to the complete Arc8 experience.
Regardless of your success during the GMEE minting phase, the full version of Arc8 will become available to all players in the near future.
Play-to-earn while waiting for your bus
The play-to-earn sector has seen one of the fastest bursts of development in the history of the blockchain industry. According to a recent DappRadar and Blockchain Gaming Alliance report, play-to-earn is dominating the blockchain gaming space. Still, most of these gaming opportunities are still exploring ways to bring the experience to mobile.
The reason behind this push is flexibility and convenience. In our modern-day style of life, everything should be possible on the go. Time is a commodity that everyone treasures dearly. Consequently, game developers know they have to fight hard to get a piece of it. Therefore mobile gaming has become a multi-billion dollar business.
As mentioned above, all top play-to-earn opportunities at the moment have introduced mobile versions of their games with that idea in mind. Being able to play on the go opens up a whole new field of players to attract. What Arc8 has done, however, is to focus all its effort on a mobile platform. And it looks like this was a good call.
DappRadar will continue monitoring the play-to-earn movement and blockchain gaming. Especially, as more platforms launch and seek out ways to go mobile. Arc8 is a perfect example of the power mobile-based gaming can hold. To find out the latest news about play-to-earn and Arc8, follow DappRadar on Twitter and Discord.
Newsletter 
