Polygon has been on a steady ascent for some time, fervently onboarding, expanding, and innovating. One interesting statistic that is being shared around the Twittersphere recently is that Polygon NFTs have been surpassing Ethereum NFTs in a number of metrics on OpenSea in recent months.
Polygon has become a powerhouse ecosystem in Web3, involved in just about every application of blockchain technology currently in use. Two of the most successful integrations of blockchain into mainstream brands in 2022, Starbucks and Reddit, were both courtesy of Polygon. Also, from a gaming perspective, I’d like to grab an extract from the Token Gamer Blockchain Gaming Awards 2022 about the chain:
When it comes to gaming, you could be fooled into thinking Polygon is a little light on the ground if you check DappRadar’s top games, but they aren’t. There is a smorgasbord of high-quality games in development on Polygon, such as Project Elune, Metalcore, and Dr. Disrespect’s competitive FPS with his Midnight Society Studio. There is then of course other positives such as The Sandbox, Planet IX, and CEO of Polygon, Ryan Wyatt, who was Head of Gaming at YouTube.
If you’re looking for some more information, I’d suggest the below episode of the Mint One podcast too:
Polygon Overtakes Ethereum on OpenSea
Now, this is quite the headline and it has been doing the rounds on Twitter this week. Although many chains and marketplaces — including Atomic Hub — can eclipse some OpenSea statistics, it has been consistently one of the most popular marketplaces for Ethereum NFTs. At the beginning of NFT collections going viral, OpenSea was the place to go. So, what are these statistics being shared?
A Dune analytics dashboard for OpenSea measures a number of key indicators by chain, such as monthly volume and active traders over time. However, what has caught the eye of many is the comparison of chains by monthly NFTs sold, in particular. The above graphics aren’t particularly easy to read, but here are the numbers that matter:
Monthly NFTs Sold
Ethereum
December 2022: 994,009
January 2023: 1,132,681
Polygon
December 2022: 1,305,244
January 2023: 1,514,895
As it stands, Ethereum still has the edge on most other metrics. For example, monthly average traders for January 2023, Ethereum had 319,641 and Polygon had 224,719 and the chasm in trading volume is even more significant. (As an aside, the trading volume isn’t indicative of the state of play for NFT popularity as most blue chip collections are still on Ethereum. Bored Ape Yacht Club, for example, has had sales north of $1m in 2023 already.
This data feels a touch cherry-picked, given the data only pertains to one marketplace, OpenSea, and only for the past two full months, but that particular sword swings both ways. OpenSea has been a hub for Ethereum NFTs and although it has some fierce rivals, it’s surprising that the chain that made the platform successful could be overtaken, even on just NFTs sold per calendar month.
Almost 1 billion successful transactions were processed on the @0xPolygon blockchain last year⚡️
Check out this @DuneAnalytics dashboard reviewing Polygon in 2022📊
📍https://t.co/XOPURG8LH4 pic.twitter.com/D3uFQ1uf3b
— James (@JamesT0lan) February 5, 2023
Polygon is a chain we’re very much interested in — that’s why we partnered with them last year — but the reason for our interest is data-driven. Polygon has onboarded huge names, grown in all directions, and continued to push forward when many others hunkered down to survive the bear.
