In the past year, blockchain games have experienced explosive growth.
According to DappRadar's data, the number of independent daily active wallets interacting with chain game smart contracts was 23,000 in Q3 of 2020, and has now increased to 1.22 million, an increase of 52 times.
The daily active users of the earning game Axie Infinity once reached 2 million, and its revenue surpassed OpenSea, Solana, Ethereum, and even "Glory of the King".
At the same time, the layout of the public chain is accelerating, and the game public chain is showing a state of blooming.
Popular chain games such as DeFi Kingdoms, Splinterlands, Alien Worlds, Farmers World, Upland, Mobox, etc. come from multiple non-Ethereum public chains. Ronin, Flow, and Immutable X have opened up the paradigm of chain games making their own public chain/second layer.
In the chain game ecology, Ethereum no longer occupies a dominant position. As of writing, the GameFi users of the 35 public chains are mainly divided by WAX, Hive, BSC, and Polygon. Among them, WAX and Hive accounted for 37% and 34% respectively.
Chain game player distribution, source: Footprint
The three chains with the best daily transaction volume on GameFi are Ronin, Harmony, and BSC, and the transaction volume is contributed by Axie Infinity, DeFi Kingdoms, Tiny World, and Mobox.
Daily transaction volume distribution of public chain games, source: Footprint
Just as the DeFi wave has made Ethereum a new financial narrative after Bitcoin, chain games will also affect the development of the public chain structure.
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WAX
Number of blockchain games: 88
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WAX claims to be the first metaverse blockchain for games and NFTs. This chain is based on the transformation of EOS, so it has a large degree of overlap with chain games on EOS, such as Prospectors and Wombat Dungeon Master. But at the same time, the DAPP on WAX is relatively small, not our common chain games or collectible NFT.
Chain Game Projects on WAX
WAX stated that it will provide brands with everything they need to launch NFT, including games, exchanges, markets, etc. Therefore, the WAX ecosystem has also built a series of infrastructure around NFT. For example, Atomic Hub is a market dedicated to trading collectible NFTs and blockchain game props, and its daily transaction volume even exceeds that of Alien Worlds.
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Hive
Number of chain games: 11
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Hive is a fork of Steem. The number of blockchain games, daily transaction volume, and financing in the ecosystem as a whole are average. However, the daily active users rank second among the 31 public chains counted by Beep News. Footprint shows that its user base is mainly contributed by Splinterlands.
Splinterlands style
Splinterlands is a card game. According to the player's information, Splinterlands has a low threshold for participation and can be played by registering an email address. However, the game is more complex and is not a short-term game. In addition, the game has high image quality and smooth experience, and has accumulated a large number of overseas loyal players in 3 years.
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BNB Chain
Number of chain games: 507
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The biggest feature of BNB Chain is that it has many ecological applications and perfect infrastructure. The number of BNB Chain chain games included in DappRadar reached 507. This makes the popular chain games on BNB Chain the most abundant among all public chains.
Among them, the ones with the fastest growing active users recently include: Par War Online, Arc8 by GAMEE, Bomb Crypto, Crazy Defense Heroes, and MOBOX. Other projects widely mentioned by users include: Tiny World, Secondlive, Squid NFT World, Star Sharks, X World Games, My Neighbor Alice, etc.
The reason why the BNB Chain chain game ecology can develop relatively mature is because of the Exchange background, sufficient user base, and enough time for public chain construction.
On the other hand, because the ecology itself values chain games and NFT construction, it has given strong capital support. BNB Chain has launched a USD 1 billion ecological fund to invest in three tracks, including GameFi.
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Polygon
Number of chain games: 129
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As the fastest growing Ethereum Layer 2, Polygon also has a complete infrastructure. According to the information of the guests who participated in the Bitalk event, thanks to the interoperability advantages of Ethereum, Polygon is the first choice for deployment by many chain game projects.
Polygon also pays attention to the ecological construction of NFT, Metaverse, and blockchain games. It launched Polygon Studios in July 2021. Among them, Gaming Studio helps developers create and operate chain games, and NFT Studio helps brands launch digital collections and markets. At present, Polygon Studios has frequent cooperation news with major brands and IPs.
Polygon chain game ecology, as of August 2021
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Thundercore
Number of chain games: 8
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EOS
Number of blockchain games: 67
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After two rounds of bull and bear, although EOS has declined, its ecology still maintains a certain scale. There are 67 EOS chain games included in DappRadar. Among them, the user data of Upland is in an absolute leading position in the chain game ecology, with more than 45,000 daily active users on April 13.
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Immutable X
Number of chain games: 5
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Immutable X is the first NFT Layer2 on Ethereum. There is a strong lineup of investors, including Tencent, Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, etc.
The team has a reputation for developing the famous blockchain game Gods Unchained. However, the entire ecology seems to be the only game that has performed well, and other applications are far behind Gods Unchained in terms of user volume and transaction volume. In addition to blockchain games, there are also a large number of collectible (NFT) projects in the Immutable X ecosystem.
Gods Unchained style
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Harmony
Number of chain games: 7
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Harmony's vision is to expand the Web3 infrastructure of DeFi and NFT, improve TPS mainly through random state sharding, and encourage the development of DAO through 300 million US dollars of open funds.
At present, the Harmony ecosystem is dominated by DeFi applications. DappRadar has included 7 Harmony chain games, of which DeFi Kingdoms is the most popular. However, as we all know, although DeFi Kingdoms is a chain game, it has strong DeFi attributes. The game incorporates elements such as pledge, farming, and DEX.
According to Footprint data, on April 13, Harmony had more than 22,000 daily active users and a transaction volume of more than $86 million, mainly contributed by DeFi Kingdoms. Similar to Immutable X, DeFi Kingdoms has obvious head effects in the Harmony chain game ecosystem, and other games have little sense of presence.
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Ronin
Number of chain games: 1
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Ronin is a dedicated chain for the chain game Axie Infinity. In May 2021, after Axie Infinity migrated from Ethereum to Ronin, game data ushered in a big explosion, and active users and transaction volume increased rapidly. Ronin, together with Flow, Immutable X, etc., has become the pioneer of chain games to make their own public chain/second layer.
Source: Guosheng Securities
At present, Ronin is still a relatively closed small ecology. DappRadar shows that there are only 3 applications on the chain, namely the chain game Axie Infinity, the market Axie Marketplace, and DEX Katana. The entire ecology is built around Axie Infinity. However, although the number of applications is small, the daily transaction volume is in the order of 100,000 to 10 million US dollars.
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DEP
Number of chain games: 1
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DEP is a chain created by Digital Entertainment Asset Pte. Ltd. (DEA). DEA is good at developing original IP, and some popular Japanese creators have joined its comics, animations, and game works. At present, DEP focuses on P2E chain games and NFT. The game has a distinct Japanese manga style.
The style of DEP chain games is obvious
DappRadar included PlayMining, a game in the DEP ecosystem. This game ecology has low barriers to entry. Players can play by registering an email address. Players can get DEAP rewards while playing the game for fun.
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Avalanche
Number of chain games: 16
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Chain games are not the core ecology of Avalanche. Among the 191 applications displayed on the official website, chain games only account for about 5%. However, its GameFi data still ranks in the middle of all public chains. On April 13, the DAU was close to 8,000, and the transaction volume exceeded 210,000 US dollars.
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Vulcan Forged
Number of chain games: 5
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Ethereum
Number of chain games: 551
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Although there are many chain games on Ethereum, due to the limitation of TPS, the number of users and transaction volume data of chain game DAPP cannot be compared with the public chain mentioned above.
Currently, the blockchain game with the highest DAU on Ethereum is Mirandus. This is a role-playing game developed by Gala Games. The game has a high-quality graphic style and an open storyline. Players can freely choose character tasks.
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Flow
Number of chain games: 5
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Flow is a public chain launched by Dapper Labs. Dapper Labs already has two successful products - CryptoKitties and NBA TopShot. Especially NBA TopShot has released the IP potential of NBA stars and the purchasing power of sports fans. Affected by this, the DAPPs in the Flow ecosystem are also mainly inclined towards sports, NFT, and brands.
Although NBA TopShot contributes more than 20,000 users and millions of dollars in transactions every day, this project belongs to the collectible card application. The chain games on Flow are generally inferior to the NFT ecology represented by NBA TopShot. The number of Flow chain games included in DappRadar is 5, of which The Football Club has a daily activity of about 600, and a daily transaction volume ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.
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Solana
Number of chain games: 6
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The situation of Solana is similar to that of Flow. There are many DeFi and collectible items in the ecology, but the number of chain games is small. There are 3 officially promoted chain games, namely Star Atlas, Aurory, and Panzerdogs. However, Footprint data shows that the transaction volume of chain games is currently mainly contributed by SolaJump.
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Gala Games
Number of chain games: 10
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Gala Games chain game style
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Enjin
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Enjin is an old player on the game track, and has supported the establishment of guilds in World of Warcraft, Odaily Wars, League of Legends, etc. The ERC-1155 it proposed in 2018 was accepted by Ethereum as the official token standard, and ERC-1155 has also become the most widely used NFT standard after ERC-721.
Enjin, as an ecology focusing on NFT and chain games, has created the NFT proprietary chain Efinity, which is used to trade and collect NFT trading markets, as well as the multiverse of games. However, the popularity of Enjin has not been high in recent years. According to the information on the official website, there are many massively multiplayer online, battle, and role-playing games in the Enjin ecosystem, which are highly competitive.
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Klaytn
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Klaytn is a public chain launched by the Korean Internet giant Kakao Group, focusing on Metaverse, blockchain games, and creator economy. The DAPPs in the ecology are mainly social, blockchain games, and DeFi. According to Crunchbase data, Klaytn’s total funding has reached $90 million. Ecology has relatively strong capital support.
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Game public chain data
In addition to the public chains mentioned above, other public chains and games with outstanding user volume and transaction volume data include StarCrazy on IoTeX, Tezotopia on Tezos, CryptoBlades on Heco, Waves Ducks on Waves, etc.
Overall, the chain game market is mainly divided by WAX, Hive, BNB Chain, Polygon, Thundercore, EOS, Immutable X, Harmony, Ronin, DEP, and Avalanche.
The GameFi data of some public chains is supported by a single game. Other public chains are showing a flourishing situation, because they provide a solid user fund base for chain games, and they are also actively deploying chain games and NFT ecology.
Chain games with better user and transaction data often have some commonalities:
For example, Splinterlands, Playmining, and Upland all support users to register directly with their email addresses, and they can play without a wallet, which greatly reduces the entry barrier for users.
Axie Infinity, Splinterlands, Playmining, and Crabada have obvious P2E mechanisms. The higher APR of DeFi Kingdom also has the same effect.
Thundercore GameFi's eco-puzzle games have a distinct style, which has attracted a large number of users who are addicted to simple games.
Splinterlands, Gods Unchained, Playming, and the unlaunched Illuvium are famous for their high-quality graphics, allowing players to get a better experience.
At the same time, almost all game public chains are emphasizing high performance on the chain. TPS is a basic requirement for games with high-frequency interactive scenes. This is why Ethereum is gradually losing its dominance in blockchain games.
Looking forward to the future, we are increasingly mentioning 3A masterpieces and metaverse visions in blockchain games. This may become the next stage in the development of blockchain games.
Just like DeFi, NFT, and Web3 have exploded one after another, chain games should also be an inevitable track.
Note: This article is not intended as investment advice
Note: This article is not intended as investment advice
