There’s no denying the fact that the last few months have been extremely rough on the crypto market, thanks, in large part, to the financial panic that has been induced into the global economy by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. In this regard, over the last 90-day stretch, the total market capitalization of the digital asset sector has slipped from $2.5 trillion to around $1.8 trillion, representing a drop of over 38%.
The blockchain-gaming market — collectively referred to as ‘GameFi’ — too has not been able to steer clear of this turmoil, with statistical data showcasing that the daily use of blockchain-based videogames has been on the decline at a steady rate of about -13% all through February.
That being said, the industry has still been able to attract, on average, a whopping 1.1 Unique Active Wallets (UAW) over the above stated time window, representing 49% of the blockchain sector’s total usage.
Defying the bear market? A closer look at the numbers…
Even though many blockchain games and metaverse projects have been influenced by macro trends surrounding the crypto economy, various gaming tokens such as SAND, MANA, GALA, etc have been able to accrue handsome gains recently. SAND, for example, has seen its value drop by over 60% since hitting its all-time high but is still trading at a 200+% profit.
Price of GameFi tokens vs BTC
Furthermore, many non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing virtual plots of land across different metaverse projects have seen their values soar recently. Infact, over the last month or so, a select group of virtual world projects — exhibiting a high degree of innovation and digital utility — have seemingly defied the bear market.
One such example is NFT Worlds, a blockchain gaming ecosystem consisting of 10,000 plots of lands represented as NFTs, with each of these plots being customizable, so as to harness unique in-game experiences. From a pricing standpoint, during the month of February, the base value of these NFTs surged by 250%, scaling up to a price point of 12+ ETH each. Not only that, when compared with January, demand for these tokens grew by a whopping 100% while registering monthly sales of approx. $50 million (the highest volume for any other virtual world dapp).
Other virtual worlds that have seen their values increase quite substantially recently include Webbland, Ethereum Towers, with the latter seeing its demand increase by a staggering 1,024% since the start of the year while generating around $1 million in trades.
Capital has continued to pour into GameFi
Another indicator that suggests GameFi’s sustained bullish outlook is the amount of capital that has entered this space. Just last month, investors poured in $722 million into various blockchain gaming/infrastructure projects. Back in January this metric stood at $1 billion. To put things into perspective, if this financial momentum is sustained for the foreseeable future, 2021’s total GameFi investment haul of $4 billion will be eclipsed within the next quarter (three months) alone.
In this regard, Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands and Korean entertainment firm Cube entertainment have become two of the most important players operating within this market today, primarily by entering into a strategic market partnership meant to help with the development of various blockchain-gaming projects.
Lastly, it is also worth mentioning that Sequoia Capital recently led a $450 million investment in Polygon so as to revamp its existing public gaming opportunities. To this point, within the last year, Polygon has established itself as the fourth most popular blockchain in terms of overall gaming activity.
Established titles continue to rule to roost
Most established GameFi titles have continued to consolidate their customer bases in recent months. For example, Splinterlands currently holds the distinction of being the most played blockchain game in the world, with the dApp attracting a little over 500,000 UAWs during February. Similarly, Axie Infinity, Upland, Wax’s Alien Worlds and Farmer Worlds continue to remain in the top 10 of the world’s most played GameFi titles for the sixth month running.
Therefore looking ahead, it will be interesting to see how this landscape continues to evolve and grow, especially as major titles continue to dominate the market with a seemingly iron fist.
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