Loads occurred in GameFi final yr.
Whereas Axie Infinity and The Sandbox made essentially the most headlines, a number of initiatives unknown to most people acquired all of the gamers.
Whereas BNB and the Ethereum Basis grew to become essentially the most influential organizations within the blockchain trade, the BNB and Ethereum ecosystems hardly attracted the most effective or most lively video games.
Whilst dozens of common titles collapsed into the loss of life spiral and lots of failed to draw even a small variety of gamers, GameFi acquired extra funding from VCs than some other class within the blockchain trade.
It’s quite a bit to wrap one’s head round. How can we perceive 2022 to arrange ourselves for subsequent yr?
As an alternative of telling you what to suppose, we’ve put collectively essentially the most thrilling stats associated to the GameFi trade, so you may look into initiatives, chains and funds and draw conclusions from the info.
A Word about GameFi Metrics & Indicators
We use a handful of metrics and statistics to evaluate blockchain video games, particularly the variety of lively customers, the full variety of customers, the quantity quantity, and the variety of transactions.
Nonetheless, these metrics usually are not cohesive, which means a sport or chain that performs strongly from one indicator isn’t assured to steer in different indicators. For instance, over the yr, Axie Infinity had essentially the most quantity, Splinterlands had essentially the most lively customers, STEPN had the full customers, and DeFi Kingdoms had essentially the most transactions.
Nobody indicator reveals a blockchain sport is “profitable” or main the pack—every offers perception into a specific facet that, along with different indicators, might help analysts construct a holistic image.
7 Stats concerning the GameFi Trade
1. The whole market cap of all GameFi tokens reached its peak of $25 billion on April 1st.
This was $11B shy of the trade’s ATH of $36B in November 2021. Footprint Analytics combines the market cap of tokens used as governance tokens and in-game currencies for GameFi initiatives to trace this metric.
Reference: GameFi Token MarketCap （Token solely, excluding gaming NFT）
2. Builders launched 717 new blockchain video games in 2022
They launched about the identical quantity in 2021. In whole, there are 2,171 GameFi protocols with transactions on the blockchain (solely a small proportion of those are lively.)
Reference: Variety of GameFi Protocols by Chain
3. Solely 14.5% p.c of GameFi titles acquired greater than 1,000 customers
The overwhelming majority of video games fail to take off. Even out of the video games that managed to realize a large variety of gamers, only a few had been capable of maintain common, wholesome exercise and profitability for over a number of months.
Reference: GameFi Dashboard
4. GameFi quantity reached its 2022 peak on the week of January 2 – 8, with $916.5M flowing by way of protocols
Footprint Analytics defines quantity as cash that enters a protocol.
Reference: GameFi Quantity by Week
5.GameFi transactions reached their peak the week of July 17 – 23, with 184.5K transactions
As evident from this reality, the elevated quantity doesn’t essentially correlate with elevated exercise since transactions may have a bearish sentiment (i.e., promoting and outflows.)
Reference: GameFi Transactions by Week
6. The biggest month-to-month drop in quantity occurred from April to Could, when GameFi quantity declined by about 62%
What occurred round this time? Terra Luna collapsed within the first half of Could, wiping out an estimated $60B. The variety of transactions, nevertheless, elevated by 13.5% MoM, echoing the purpose beneath Stat #7.
Reference: GameFi Quantity by Month
7. The most important MoM improve in quantity was from July to August when quantity elevated by 28%
In Footprint’s August GameFi report, we proposed 3 potential explanations: anticipation for The Merge, the start of much less aggressive financial tightening by the Federal Reserve, and a useless cat bouncing on the best way to decrease lows.
Reference: GameFi Quantity by Month
7 Stats about Blockchain Video games
1. As of Dec. 25, there have been 62 lively GameFi initiatives and 1,478 inactive ones.
Reference: Lively/Inactive Video games
2. STEPN acquired extra whole customers than some other sport final yr, with 1.8M
STEPN made headlines final spring because it pioneered the Transfer-to-Earn mannequin. The cellular sport lets gamers earn tokens on their NFT sneakers as they stroll, jog or run.
Reference: GameFi Dashboard
3. Splinterlands and Alien Worlds had essentially the most time atop the leaderboard for lively customers, every staying there for six out of 12 months
Splinterlands had the best variety of lively customers in January, February, March, April, Could and September. Alien Worlds had the best variety of lively customers in June, July, August, October, November and December.
Reference: High 10 Video games Rating by Gamers
4. Farmers World was a stable third by way of lively customers, having the third-highest variety of lively customers for all 12 months of the yr
Farmers World is a farming NFT sport that’s the second hottest title on the WAX chain after Alien Worlds. Gamers develop farmland and might commerce in-game NFTs within the market.
Reference: High 10 Video games Rating by Gamers
5. Cryptokitties had the full customers out of all video games on Ethereum, with 112.6k whole customers
Regardless of being the most important ecosystem in crypto by market cap, Ethereum was not a serious participant within the GameFi trade in 2022, restricted by its congestion and gasoline charges.
Reference: GameFi Dashboard
6. The Sandbox had the most important injection of money in any given month, gaining roughly $504M in quantity in February
On the finish of January, The Sandbox introduced a partnership with Snoop Dogg and Warner Music. The token worth shot up 40% after the announcement.
Reference: High Quantity Video games in 2022
7. Out of all main titles, the sport with the most effective new person common retention charge on the peak of the market final January was MOBOX, which retained 56% of gamers one month after they joined
“Main title” is considerably subjective on this stat, nevertheless it refers to video games persistently within the top-10 all year long for quite a few customers.
Reference: High Weekly Retention GameFi Tasks in 2022
7 Stats about GameFi Chains
1. Wax was essentially the most lively chain for GameFi in 2022, with 351K lively customers and a Every day Lively Person Ratio of 57%
For reference, the following most lively was Hive, with 360K lively customers however a DAU ratio of 98%. Word that Splinterlands accounts for 99% of transactions and customers on Hive.
Reference: GameFi Customers Chain Comparability
2.Wax held the most important market share of players with 40.47% adopted by Hive with 20.86%
Wax is extra diversified than Hive. Alien Worlds accounts for about 66.99% of Wax’s customers, and Farmers World accounts for 19.67%. The rest is fragmented amongst a dozen or so titles.
Reference: Variety of GameFi Customers : Tree Map
3.Whereas 63 blockchain video games deployed on 2 or 3 chains in 2021, there have been 149 that selected to go multichain in 2022
GameFi initiatives are more and more going multi-chain to develop their person bases and mitigate threat. Some video games even launched their chains, like DeFi Kingdoms, which went from being solely on Concord to creating its AVAX-based DFK Chain.
Reference: Variety of GameFi Protocols Deployed on Multichain
4. By the variety of GameFi protocols, BNB was the chain of selection for builders, having 748 initiatives on it in whole by the top of the yr
BNB is thought for its low gasoline charges and ease of launching protocols, resulting in merchandise of various high quality on the chain.
Reference: GameFi Protocols by Chain
5. 87 new GameFi protocols had been launched in January, greater than in some other month, and most of those—57—had been launched on BNB
The quantity remains to be decrease than the variety of initiatives launched in November or December 2021. By January, the market had already entered its downturn.
Reference: 2022: Chains by variety of new initiatives
6. By the top of the yr, BNB Chain had the most important variety of lively initiatives at 226
Polygon is an L2 EVM chain that has proven fixed progress and powerful technical efficiency within the final yr. The sport with essentially the most customers on the chain is Benji Bananas.
Reference: Month-to-month Lively Video games by Chain
7. Solana went from having solely 2 GameFi protocols firstly of the yr to twenty by the top.
Notably, Solana has turn into the go-to chain for Transfer-to-Earn initiatives. The two largest GameFi protocols on the chain are STEPN and Walken—the 2 largest M2E initiatives.
Reference: Month-to-month Lively Video games by Chain
5 Stats about GameFi Funding & Fundraising
1. Epic Video games acquired the most important funding spherical, $2B from Sony and Kirkbi, to construct its metaverse challenge
Epic Video games is the studio behind Fortnite and the hypothesis is that it’s going to construct out a Lego-themed metaverse shortly.
Reference: GameFi Mission Financing quantity and Financing Occasions in 2022
2. Animoca Manufacturers raised $434M in two rounds and disbursed fundraising in 61 rounds, making it one of many largest recipients of funding and the most important investor in GameFi
Animoca Manufacturers, the corporate behind The Sandbox, has positioned itself a kingmaker within the GameFi house with investments in Axie Infinity, OpenSea and CryptoKitties. Its different main initiatives embody Phantom Galaxies and Benji Bananas.
Reference: Variety of GameFi Tasks by Investor
3. There have been solely 4 Sequence B rounds and two Sequence C rounds closed in 2022 in GameFi
That is anticipated for a nascent trade like GameFi.
Reference: GameFi Funding Checklist 2022
4. Gaming initiatives acquired 16% of blockchain trade investments, greater than some other type
It must be famous that metaverse initiatives, which frequently overlaps with GameFi, got here second with 7.79% of whole blockchain funding.
Reference: Funding-Variety of Funding by Class (2022)
5. Complete funding in gaming elevated by 84% from 2021 to 2022
Even whereas the GameFi class fared higher than others like DeFi and CeFi, 2022 was a tricky yr for all the blockchain house.
Reference: GameFi Funding Development
This piece is contributed by Footprint Analytics neighborhood in Dec. 2022
Information supply: Footprint Analytics – Stats concerning the GameFi trade in 2022
The Footprint Group is a spot the place information and crypto fanatics worldwide assist one another perceive and achieve insights about Web3, the metaverse, DeFi, GameFi, or some other space of the fledgling world of blockchain. Right here you’ll discover lively, numerous voices supporting one another and driving the neighborhood ahead.
