Written by: Stacy Muur. Translated by: Vernacular Blockchain
Web3 Gaming has lagged the rest of the crypto-altcoin space, losing 33% of its market capitalization since the start of 2024, while the altcoin market is down 14%. Despite this, Web3 Gaming remains a strong player, accounting for 30% of all dApp activity and 2.1 million daily active wallets. Let’s dive into the key insights from the latest Delphi study on Web3 games. This article highlights key points from Delphi's Mid-Year Game Review report.
Key Highlights
Web3 gaming funding peaked between February and March, with monthly investments ranging from $60 million to $100 million, totaling $673 million in 2024. However, this only represents 41.35% of transaction volume in Q1 2022.
More than 50 games are launching in 2024, with games like Xai , Pixels and Notcoin seeing significant gains.
Xai raised $40 million in 3 months. Pixels peaked at $4.8 billion in FDV and 1 million DAU within 3 weeks of launch. Notcoin attracted 35 million users and reached a market capitalization of $1 billion without external funding.
Portal's FDV fell from $4 billion to $280 million, and Overworld Incarnas lost 75% of its value. Mavia and Pixelmon also fell by more than 60% after TGE.
Shooters remain the leading game genre in Web3, with Off the Grid standing out thanks to $110 million in funding and partnerships with Sony and Microsoft.
Among MMORPGs, the most anticipated is MapleStory Universe, which has raised $100 million.
Pirate Nation is a fully on-chain game that has been growing over the past 6 weeks with 100,000 active players and $1 million in revenue.
Mobile games such as Lords of Destiny and Dragonfire have grown rapidly, attracting hundreds of thousands of users. Dragonfire has been downloaded over 3.5 million times.
Ronin and the TON ecosystem lead the way to Web3 gaming. Ronin benefits from the success of Axie Infinity, while TON offers seamless integration with Telegram and access to 900 million users. The success of Notcoin and Hamster Kombat further confirms this.
Web3 Games to Watch
1) Off the Grid [Shooting Category]
Description: Off The Grid is a cyberpunk-themed battle royale game produced by Gunzilla Games.
Public chain: Avalanche
Investment amount: US$101 million
Off the Grid has attracted over $110 million in funding, has a team of over 380 people, and set a new industry standard by partnering with Sony and Microsoft to publish the game on PlayStation and Xbox.
2) MapleStory Universe [Massively multiplayer online role-playing game]
Description: MapleStory Universe expands Nexon's famous MapleStory IP into an ecosystem of virtual worlds and hosts a variety of applications based on the beloved game series.
Public chain: MapleStory subnet, powered by Avalanche
Investment amount: US$100 million
In 2023, MapleStory Universe received over $100 million in funding from Nexon. MapleStory Online has attracted over 100 million lifetime players and remains a major player in the MMORPG space. From July 24 to August 2, NEXPACE invited more than 1,000 players to participate in the MapleStory N Pioneer Test. The peak number of concurrent players reached 714, and 92% of participants returned multiple times during the test period. The team reported a retention rate of 79.97% after seven days.
3) EVE Frontier [massively multiplayer online role-playing game]
Description: EVE Frontier is a single-fragment survival game set in a dark, dystopian space where humanity struggles to survive and rebuild a shattered world. In March 2023, CCP announced that it had raised $40 million for the development of the game.
Investment amount: US$40 million
Leveraging proven IP will bring significant advantages in terms of user acquisition, allowing them to target the loyal fan base of MapleStory and Star Wars: Star Wars .
4) MetaCene [massively multiplayer online role-playing game]
Description: MetaCene is making a blockchain-based MMORPG set in a surreal post-apocalyptic world. Players utilize various NFTs to redefine civilization. The game aims to create an accessible Web3 experience focused on player-centric entertainment, governance, and AIGC-driven creation.
Public chain: Rangers, but Apostles NFT collectibles are on Ethereum
UAW (30 days): 38.32k
UAW ATH: 57.06k (March 25, 2024)
MetaCene was founded by game experts with more than 20 years of industry experience from companies such as Shanda Games, Blizzard, and Perfect World. In the past 30 days, the number of its UAW members has grown significantly, from 898 to 371,000, an increase of 4031.4%.
5) Avalon Avalon [Massively multiplayer online role-playing game]
Description: Avalon is the world's first multi-chain, truly open-world MMORPG, built using Unreal Engine and integrating multiple blockchains. The game is set in a fantasy medieval kingdom, and players use their NFTs to explore the world while competing for cryptocurrency and rare NFT rewards. The game's setting is inspired by the legend of King Arthur and the alternative history of the Templars.
Public chain: ImmutableX, Base
MetaCene and Avalon are both led by industry veterans who played a key role in shaping EverQuest and Legends II, two games that defined the MMORPG genre.
6) Big Time [Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game]
Description: Big Time is a multiplayer action RPG for PC that combines fast-paced combat with an open game economy. Players actively generate and exchange game items. The game seamlessly integrates Web3 elements, ensuring they don't get in the way of the entertainment experience, thus appealing to a wider audience.
Public chain: Ethereum
Big Time has reinvigorated the Web3 gaming landscape after the bear market, generating over $100 million in revenue since preseason and positioning itself as a strong Web3-native competitor.
7) Pirate Nation [Full-chain game]
Description: Pirate Nation is an innovative game developed by Proof of Play, a studio that combines gaming with blockchain technology. Players collect pirates and send them on adventures to collect crafting materials, treasure, and pirate gold. Through many adventures, pirates accumulate experience and level up.
Public chain: Ethereum, Apex chain
Pirate Nation achieved a staggering 2,400% growth in just three months. This growth, along with an impressive $1 million in in-game revenue over the past six weeks, underscores its strong position in the FOCG space. Designed to support the Pirate Nation ecosystem, Apex Chain is one of the most active chains, processing over 2.5 million transactions per day. It ranks second only to Base among EVM Layer 2 solutions in terms of transaction volume over the past month.
8) Infinigods [Mobile Game Studio]
Projects: Infinimerge, Immortal Siege, King of Destiny
Description: Infinigods is a Web3 game studio focused on providing cross-platform experiences for the web and mobile devices. Infinigods is committed to building an ecosystem of casual games that connect games through its unique collection of NFTs and intellectual property, all inspired by ancient mythology.
Chain: Ethereum
Lords of Destiny is a Web3 luck-based battle game developed by Infinigods that has been quietly growing its user base, with nearly 1 million downloads and over 250,000 monthly active users (MAUs).
9) More games worth watching include:
Capsule Heroes - Free PvP fighting game.
Matr1x – Entertainment platform involving Web3, AI and eSports with 24K unique wallets last month.
Fableborne - Isometric multiplayer game, 77K downloads.
Treeverse - an MMORPG being developed by the Endless Clouds team.
World of Dypians (WoD) — a multiplayer online role-playing game that currently has the highest number of 700K 30-day unique active wallets on DappRadar.
summary
Delphi said there are currently no clear signs that gaming will gain traction in the fourth quarter in the current market, where meme coins and the Solana ecosystem are outperforming most other Web3 areas. Additionally, a large number of issuances are expected over the next six months, which may increase competition and further disperse liquidity.
However, they hope that games such as Off The Grid, Maple Story Universe and Fableborne will have a positive impact on sentiment in the Web3 and Web2 markets. This type of content should still be considered the best Trojans in the cryptocurrency space, and they believe there are reasons to be optimistic in the short to medium term.
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Statement: The article only represents the author's personal views and opinions, and does not represent the objective views and positions of the blockchain. All contents and opinions are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investors should make their own decisions and transactions, and the author and Blockchain Client will not be held responsible for any direct or indirect losses caused by investors' transactions.
"Full blooming, taking stock of Web3 games worthy of attention from 2024 to now" This article was first published on "Block Guest".
