Key Takeaways
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Inside a couple of 12 months, NFT video games at the moment are getting ready to overtaking PC video games in recognition
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In comparison with typical PC video games, solely 10 video games are extra fashionable than high NFT editions
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$2.5 billion raised by blockchain video games in Q1 of 2022, on track for $10 billion this 12 months in comparison with $4 billion for 2021
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Whereas costs of gaming tokens have been in freefall alongside wider market, person progress and funding has been stout
With NFTs crumbling because the market continues in full risk-off mode, I made a decision to dive into the statistics behind a sector I consider is likely one of the most intriguing use instances for this novel know-how.
Positive, a number of NFTs are overpriced and could be attributed to bear market hysteria, however I’ve at all times felt that the wedding between gaming and NFTs is a pure one. Gamers pour a lot time into taking part in sure video games, in addition to cash into in-game additions, that defining possession and sustaining a historic report on-chain appears to make sense.
So what do the numbers say about NFT gaming adoption in comparison with typical gaming, and do they paint a extra bullish image than the freefalling token costs?
One 12 months progress
When it comes to energetic customers, the expansion within the final 12 months has been meteoric for NFT video games. A report from DappRadar calculated the expansion in blockchain gaming as 2000% since Q1 of final 12 months.
Additionally in Q1 of this 12 months, $2.5 billion was raised for blockchain video games and different metaverse tasks. Whereas this got here earlier than the ugly downturn of current months, it’s nonetheless promising given $4 billion was raised in all of 2021, a interval when the bull market was in full swing. That places gaming and metaverse tasks on track to boost $10 billion by way of 2022. So, even a vastly conservative 60% lower to funding would place it above 2021 ranges.
NFT gaming customers
The funding is stout, however so too are the customers. A take a look at the under graph exhibiting the highest 10 NFT video games confirms that the sector is beginning to achieve mainstream attraction and seize an increasing number of distinctive customers per thirty days.
To place the above numbers in context, a neat present benchmark for NFT video games is that of PC video games. The under graph exhibits the highest 10 most performed PC video games on the Steam platform. Whereas the information for complete customers in a month is tougher to acquire, the under graph presents the common variety of concurrent gamers over the past 30 days (reasonably than complete distinctive customers per thirty days as per the above graph).
Assuming that 5% of energetic gamers are on-line at any given time, the under graph then compares how NFT video games stack as much as the preferred PC video games, with NFT video games in blue and standard PC video games in orange.
This exhibits that whereas NFT video games are but to overhaul PC video games, this can be very near occurring. Solely the highest 10 PC video games are capturing extra customers than the highest NFT sport, Alien Worlds, and the margin could be very slender, with Alien Worlds solely about 1,000 customers off.
But regardless of the bullish progress in numbers, these video games are being brandished as fads as a result of general pullback in crypto markets. Moreover, the under graph for 2 of the most important tokens – Alien Worlds and Axie Infinity – present that the freefall has been stark after explosive run-ups final 12 months.
However in trying previous the costs of such tokens (a big a part of which might have been on account of hypothesis) and as an alternative digging into person progress and the funding being put into these platforms, the long run nonetheless seems shiny.
It’s a reminder that regardless of the bearish sentiment within the markets, there’s very actual know-how right here that’s making a distinction and disrupting industries. To be getting ready to the highest 10 PC video games already is sort of the achievement, given the nascent nature of the house.
As for whether or not these tokens are good investments at present costs? Effectively, that’s a problem for an additional day.
Sources
https://dappradar.com/weblog/dappradar-x-bga-games-report-q1-2022
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1266486/blockchain-games-user-number/