The Blockchain Game Alliance and DappRadar’s quarterly report on the state of blockchain gaming ought to be a staple read for anyone interested in the space. As always, there are myriad talking points, but three areas stood out.
Firstly, please read DappRadar and BGA’s report — it’s excellent, insightful, and can keep you in the know.
1. $1.3 Billion Raised in Q3 by Blockchain Games and Metaverse Projects
I have written on blockchain gaming and metaverse investment nearly every month for over a year because it continues to be of note. In the bearest of bear markets, blockchain gaming has stood resolute, and reports continuously highlight how well it is doing. This isn’t even simply doing well when contrasted with the fiery dumpsters around it.
From mid-April 2022 to mid-May 2022, $3 billion was invested in blockchain games. That’s $1 billion less than the total invested in 2021, and don’t get me started on the growth over 2020 (it was estimated at $80 million invested in blockchain games).
Although investment did slow in Q3, the report shows that we still saw $1.3 billion raised for blockchain games and metaverse projects. Even in the harshest of conditions, money is flowing thick and fast toward the sector of crypto with what many would argue (and I would be one of them) as showing the most potential.
2. Gods Unchained Establishing Dominance
Ah yes, Gods Unchained, allow me to stretch so that I can pat myself on the back, as usual. We predicted Gods Unchained’s success back in 2018 — a drum I bang every chance I get — and it’s gratifying to be proved right. However, Gods Unchained is really pushing past the expectations of damn-near anyone.
In September, Gods Unchained broke into the top 5 NFT collections by trading volume with over $18 million in sales for game assets. This is an incredible feat and hopefully prophetic of what’s to come with the NFT trading volume rankings. That is, games will usurp art collections.
3. WAX Still Sitting Pretty and Other UAW Curiosities
The above image shows protocols by Unique Active Wallets (UAWs) and there are some standout statistics there, for me at least. Before I get to WAX, I want to highlight a few other interesting findings.
- Firstly, Hive has (perhaps, had) a far larger representation in the space that I gave it credit for. This is likely due in part to Splinterlands’ success which is on Hive and WAX, as DappRadar charts show little else of note from Hive, and Splinterlands’ downturn in users correlates with the 42% drop.
- Secondly, Binance Smart Chain is remarkably stable (only a 2% reduction in UAWs over Q2) given the state of the markets, which ironically may have been courtesy of turbulence. That is, a sizable shrinking in UAWs was offset by the huge spike of Gameta, acquiring over 1.3 million UAWs in 30 days.
- Thirdly, Solana is showing explosive growth, but it’s difficult to see where that’s coming from and the report doesn’t make it clear. Gameta was originally on Solana and that would go a way to explaining the 269% spike, but the report suggests Gameta has already ported over to BNB.
There is then, of course, WAX. “WAX, one of the dominant gaming protocols, had a 15% decline to 338K from Q2 to Q3, but still accounted for 36.20% of all gaming activity.” There are a lot of question marks around UAWs as a metric (and how it’s measured), which is getting a dedicated article out of me, but with all things being equal, WAX is still sitting pretty at the top with over a third of all gaming activity.
