Despite the ongoing bear market, the GameFi sector has remained profitable. The number of unique wallet addresses in the GameFi sector increased by 8%, registering an additional 912,000 addresses in August, and securing its market dominance as more than 48%. As DappRadar underlined in its ‘Q3 Industry Reportโ, the data signals an upward trend.
What Catalyzed the Growth of GameFi?
The GameFi sector is defined by games that leverage blockchain technology, tokens, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to enable players to earn cryptocurrencies while they play. The nascent sector also gives developers the chance to create new worlds that are full to the brim with creators, events, and objectives, all of which can be funded by a self-sustaining in-game economy.
Sponsored
The popularity and value of the GameFi sector often heavily relies on the value of the NFTs integrated throughout the virtual world, as they typically serve as the main incentive for players.
According to DappRadar, in August, 2022, during The Sandbox’s newly launched ‘Alpha Season 3’, users registered more than 4,000,000 wallets, and the game boasted over 200,000 active users.
Alpha Season 3, presented an update to the events and experiences available within the world, giving players access to new NFT collections, gameplay mechanics, and goals. Numerous, notable brands across every spectrum of entertainment have been featured as part of The Sandbox Alpha Season 3, including Steve Aoki, Snoop Dogg, Atari, The Walking Dead, The Smurfs, Bored Ape Yacht Club, World of Women, and more.
The DappRadar report further outlines that Immutable X, a Layer-2 blockchain built on Ethereum (ETH) that supports fast, cheap, energy-efficient transactions, generated 87% higher NFT trading volumes compared to the previous quarter, making it the only blockchain game to record an uptrend so far in 2022.
The notable growth was fueled, in part, by an array of partnerships, including deals with Rarible, Undead Blocks, Gods Unchained, and StarHeroes.
Meanwhile, Gameta was the best performer in blockchain gaming, growing its playerbase to 1.9 million. The platform offers users a wide range of casual games, and aims to seamlessly migrate users away from Web 2.0, and into the Web 3.0 era; or in other words it aims to further incentivize the usage of blockchain technology. Originally created on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, Gameta currently operates on the BNB Chain (BNB).
Currently, Gameta has 76,000 active users, and was voted the ‘Most Valuable Builder (MVB)’ in GameFi, with seven games currently active through its client, those being: Tadpole Count, Super Gloves, Invest Master, Ants Runner, Sleep Ragdoll, FrogPrince Rush, and Human Tower.
MVB is a BNB-focused accelerator program hosted by BNB Chain and Binance Labs that aims to help projects grow.
On the Flipside
- According to the DappRadar report, in Q3 of 2022, demand for NFTs saw the sector’s trade volume register at $2.75 billion, reflecting a 67% downtrend compared to the previous quarter.ย
Why You Should Care
The growing number of new users indicates that the GameFi industry has survived the collapse of Terra, DeFi’s second-largest ecosystem at the time, and the ensuing market crash which wiped $40 billion from the total crypto market cap, having a knock on effect on every related sector. The GameFi sector has also survived the 67% drop in NFT trade volume for Q3.
Find out more about how the Metaverse and Gaming Industry is growing:
Metaverse and Gaming Industry Raised $748 Million
Learn the differences between GameFi-related jargon below:
Crypto Gaming, Play-to-Earn, Metaverse, Blockchain Gaming, GameFi, And NFT Games: What Are The Differences?