Original title: The State of Blockchain Gaming Now
By Footprint Analytics
Compiled by: TechFlow
There has been some discussion lately about whether blockchain gaming is dead, and there are good points on both sides. Let’s analyze it from a data perspective.
Active games
As of May, the Footprint platform tracks 3,153 games, 263 of which have more than 1,000 monthly active users (MAU), accounting for 8.2% of the total. If you raise the bar to 10,000 MAU, this number decreases significantly. It should be noted that these data only include on-chain users. Many games allow users to play without a wallet login while still containing Web3 elements. Currently, this part of the data is difficult to obtain and may affect the actual number of players.
Daily active users and transactions
In May, daily active users (DAU) of Web3 games increased by 9.6% to 3.3 million users, but transaction volume dropped significantly compared to April (down $390 million). The increase in DAU is a good sign, but this growth should also be accompanied by an increase in transaction volume. Transaction volume is an important indicator of whether the game is interesting enough to incentivize players to spend money. Users who play without contributing to the game are more inclined to value extraction rather than investment. The correlation between the average user's game time and transaction volume in May deserves further exploration.
Reasons for high new user growth but low transaction volume
The recent implementation of the "play and get airdrops" mechanism in games may be the main reason for this phenomenon. Although it works well in the short term, it may have a negative impact on the project in the long run. The practice of using incentives to attract user retention can help improve indicators, but without a solid game foundation, there may be a token sell-off after the airdrop, just like the single token economic model, which may lead to an unrecoverable death spiral.
Retention rate
Retention is one of the best metrics for measuring how fun a game is. In traditional Web2 games, the benchmarks for retention are: Day 1, 30-40%; Day 7, 20%; Day 30, 5-10%. In Web3, these retention benchmarks are harder to hit, but there are some games that excel at Day 7 retention. Here are some examples of games with over 50,000 daily active users:
@ApeironNFT: 86,987 DAU; 79.3% retention on day 7
@StarryNift: 73,146 DAU; 70.8% Day 7 Retention
@pixels_online: 900,569 DAU; 65.6% Day 7 retention
@AxieInfinity: 63,385 DAU; 42.1% retention on day 7
@NineChronicles: 83,360 DAU; 40% retention rate on day 7 (Note: Nine Chronicles has its own chain and is not indexed by Footprint)
Based on the retention data of the above games, it would be incorrect to think that Web3 games are dead. If other metrics are not taken into account, it can even be inferred that Web3 games perform better than traditional benchmarks in terms of retention.
Current issues limiting adoption
Speculation: The hype of potential profits obscures the true joy of the game.
User Experience/Interface: Currently, Web3 games have a lengthy registration process, and the interface is complex, difficult to use, and not aesthetically pleasing.
Time: Due to limited resources, games are often forced to be released before they are fully polished. Compared with traditional standards, the development time of Web3 games is longer, and many excellent Web3 games have not yet been released.
Conclusion
At this stage, it is both right and wrong to say that Web3 gaming is dead. Games are inherently short-lived, and this is particularly evident in Web3, as can be seen from the comparison of active and inactive games. Daily active users on Web3 recently reached an all-time high, but are these users the users the industry expects? Retention rates are high, but limited to a few games, and many games lack enough daily active users to truly measure this metric. Finally, many of the problems that existed in the early days of Web3 gaming are still visible, but these problems will be solved over time. In addition, mini-games like those on Telegram provide good examples of quickly and effectively onboarding new users into games. Blockchain does not need to revolutionize gaming, it just needs to improve it.
Web3 games are not dead, Web3 game construction is underway...