According to a survey by the Blockchain Game Alliance, 42% of respondents believe that player reward models are the biggest advantage in attracting new users. However, as the GameFi industry evolves, blockchain games will face multiple challenges in 2025.
Tobin Kuo, CEO of Seraph, stated in an interview with Cointelegraph that maintaining player engagement, adopting new technologies, and building a sustainable in-game economy are obstacles that GameFi must overcome to remain competitive.
Tobin pointed out that over 60% of players quit Web3 games within 30 days. He believes that the lack of long-term incentives and poor game mechanics are the main reasons why Web3 games struggle to sustain development. He told Cointelegraph:
“With the accelerated development of the attention economy, projects must prioritize player-centric design, focusing on immersive storytelling, skill-based rewards, and game mechanics that go beyond the ‘profit-first’ model, rather than relying on trends to attract attention.”
In 2025, developing better blockchain games will also require the integration of emerging technologies such as generative AI to enhance player experience. Tobin pointed out that GameFi projects that fail to adopt new technologies in a timely manner often see player retention rates drop by 30% to 40%.
According to the survey of the Web3 gaming industry, these issues are considered the biggest challenges facing the GameFi sector in 2024. Source: Blockchain Game Alliance
Building a sustainable in-game economy
Tobin emphasized: “An unstable in-game economy is the main reason for project bankruptcies.” He believes that building a sustainable token model for Web3 games that controls inflation and is based on data-driven player rewards is key to maintaining player retention.
He further explained: “Dynamic loot distribution, staking-based rewards, and economic strategies that achieve player control through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) may become best practices for GameFi development.”
For example, Hamster Kombat, a clicker game, made headlines in July, reaching over 300 million users in less than five months. However, after experiencing what is considered the largest token airdrop in cryptocurrency history, the game's active user count plummeted by 86%. By November, the number of players had dropped to only 41 million, a significant decline compared to the summer peak of 300 million.
2024 Status of the Blockchain Gaming Industry
The Blockchain Game Alliance recently released the (2024 Industry Status Report), surveying 623 professionals in the Web3 gaming industry.
The report shows that about 53% of respondents believe that poor user experiences and complex user interfaces are the biggest challenges hindering new players from entering Web3 games.
Industry insiders outlined the main issues facing the GameFi sector. Source: Blockchain Game Alliance
An earlier report by the BGA pointed out that 10% of users gave up on entering Web3 games due to the complexity of setting up cryptocurrency wallets.
At the Blockchain Futurist Conference held in August, Anomaly Games CEO Long Do stated that abstracting blockchain functionalities so that players interact with the blockchain unconsciously is key to driving adoption.
Furthermore, the BGA's 2024 report also indicated that 33% of respondents believe that poor gaming experiences are one of the top three challenges currently facing the industry.
According to results from an earlier OnePoll survey in 2024, among over 2,000 adults, most surveyed players lack understanding of blockchain games.
The survey showed that 52% of respondents did not know what blockchain games are, while another 32% stated that they had heard of blockchain games but had never played them.
Conclusion
As the GameFi industry rapidly evolves, changes in player demand and market competition prompt developers to continuously innovate and optimize. In 2025, maintaining player engagement, introducing new technologies, and establishing sustainable economic models will be key to determining the success or failure of GameFi projects.