The Rise of Play-to-Earn Games

Did you know that in 2021, about 49% of blockchain usage came from games? According to data from Blockchain Gaming Alliance, about 1.4 million Unique Active Wallets are connected daily to blockchain games.

The revolution of play-to-earn games in the blockchain industry can be traced to Axie Infinity. Axie Infinity is a game created by Sky Mavis in 2018 and was launched on the Ethereum blockchain. With Axie Infinity spearheading, other play-to-earn games have come up, such as Alien Worlds, Splinterland, Bomb Crypto, Upland, DeFi Kingdoms, among others.


With the increasing attention in blockchain games comes the increased funding for Blockchain games. In the report by BGA, VCs funding for blockchain games jumped by 5,000% from $80 million in 2020 to $4 billion in 2021. In 2022, expectations are high for play-to-earn games even as the world is transitioning from traditional earning methods.

For many people within and outside the crypto scene, the concept of play-to-earn games is vague. While in some countries, people are turning to these games as their means of livelihood. This article will discuss what play-to-earn games are and break down some of the best.

What are Play-to-Earn Games?

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These are games in which the players earn items of real-world value. This gaming model is a formulation of the blockchain industry, and the in-game items are made as NFTs or cryptocurrency tokens.

Video games have evolved over different generations until navigating life simulations became games, a prominent example being The Sims. In these virtual realities, currencies existed; however, these currencies were of no value in the real world. With the advent of blockchain technology, there has been an evolution in the gaming industry. Blockchain games now allow for in-game items to be purchased as NFTs, while the currencies in the games' metaverses are actual cryptocurrencies.

While some of these games are free to start, others have monetary requirements. For example, to begin playing Axie Infinity, you need 3 AXS, which come at quite a cost. Unlike Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, Splinterlands, and Chainmonsters are some free play-to-earn games available. In these free P2E games, the players are not required to buy NFTs before playing. The players must score high points, win contests, and collect in-game items that they can trade as NFTs.

Problems of Play-to-Earn Games

One major problem associated with the P2E games is the economic model. Most of these games have a system where players who don't have the cash to buy game characters can borrow these characters, which are NFTs, from other players. The original owners of the NFT characters take a massive chunk of the tokens earned. This system causes the games to be more work, and less fun as the "investors" with zero interest in the game make huge profits while the original players are left with peanuts.

Another problem is token volatility. Due to the high selling pressure on the tokens from P2E games, these coins can quickly plunge. Many of the games do not have effective protective measures against economic manipulations from speculators. In a medium post, Theo Priestley, the founder of Metanomic, explained how speculators drive up in-game token values and cause the coins to fall through different tricks. AXS is one such coin that showed promise until it fell by more than 80% earlier this year.

Best Play-to-Earn Games

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This listing is not in any particular order. It is just a list of some of the best play-to-earn games that exist at the moment.

Axie Infinity

Being the first to launch, the game crafted a pathway for other blockchain games to exist. The game currently has about 2.8 million daily active players, and it is a pokemon-like game. Players purchase, raise and trade the in-game characters called Axies; these Axies can be sold as NFTs in exchange for digital currencies. Sky Mavis Studio initially established the game on the Ethereum blockchain. However, it was migrated to the Ronin sidechain, with AXS being the currency of the sidechain and SLP (Smooth Love Potion) serving as the game utility tokens.

Players have to purchase 3 Axies before they can compete on Axie Infinity. However, there is also a scholarship scheme where players can borrow Axies from other players and receive a small percentage of the earnings.

Alien Worlds

As of this writing, Statista rated Alien Worlds as the game with the most daily active players in 2022. The game, released in 2020, is a sci-fi fantasy metaverse game in which players have to go on journeys throughout the metaverse to explore and discover NFTs. Players can use either a WAX wallet or a Metamask wallet to store their tokens when playing the game. The metaverse's currency is Trillium, a governance token like RON in the Ronin sidechain.

Gods Unchained

It is a trading card game with free entry. This game ranks high for daily active players among play-to-earn games. In the game, players compete to win the best cards they sell in the NFT marketplace, Immutable X. The cards can also be sold for the in-game currency $GODS. Gods Unchained is one of the few P2E games where players win based on their skill rather than their earnings.

Decentraland

Decentraland is one of the world's foremost metaverses. It was launched in February 2020. The game's purpose is not to fulfill a task or win a contest. It is an adventure game where players purchase LANDS and carry out activities in virtual reality using MANA, the in-game currency. To win prizes in the game, you can participate in challenges and create artworks that other players can buy as NFTs.
The game can be likened to the life simulation game, The Sims.

Conclusion

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In the past, gaming was solely for entertainment purposes, as people would go to game arcades for a sense of relaxation. Over time, people began earning unofficially from games through contests and unofficial sales of in-game items. Today, people can convert their engagements to earnings on a particular gaming platform. This model slowly dictates how people relate to internet media, including social media platforms.



Author: Gate.io Observer: M. Olatunji
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