DappRadar: Blockchain Gaming Is Leading the growth of Web3, DappRadar's New Q3 Gaming report reveals

Kaunas, Lithuania | October 13, 2022 12:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time

 DappRadar, the global app store for decentralized applications, and the Blockchain Game Alliance, have revealed in its latest gaming report that gaming activity is driving Web3 with close to half of all blockchain activity in Q3.

Summary

The number of unique active wallets in the blockchain gaming industry increased by 8% (912K) month-over-month, ensuring its share of Web3 remains over 48% in Q3. Gameta was the most used dapp in September, with over 1.33 million unique wallets. Move-to-earn projects are gaining popularity, with Sweat Economy minting a record-breaking 10,000 NFTs on Near Protocol for example.

Blankos Block Party and Star Atlas, online NFT games, became the first Web3 titles to be released on the Epic Games Store. With over $18 million in sales in September, the digital collectible card game Gods Unchained climbed into the top five collections by NFT trading volume. While September’s blockchain gaming and metaverse investments were the lowest all year, with only $156 million raised, gaming continues to lead Web3.

In Q3, Alien Worlds became once again the most played blockchain game with 190,770 average daily UAWs, an increase of 14% from Q2. Splinterlands, is the second most played blockchain game this quarter with 159,522 average daily UAW, a 47% decrease from Q2. Gameta, the web3 gaming platform, became the most used dapp in September with over 1.83M users. Its daily unique active wallets increased by 109% in September, reaching 69K, and 253% from Q2. Benji Bananas also increased its daily UAWs in September by 2468%. Play-to-earn dapp Axie Infinity saw a 86% decline in Q3 in the number of daily UAWs compared to Q2.

Has interest in virtual worlds bottomed out?

Metaverse projects experienced a sharp decline in Q3 as trading volume fell by 91.61% from Q2 to $74 million, and sales decreased by 37.54%. Despite backing from the likes of Snoop Dog Otherdeed for Otherside, which represents 73.98% of the total metaverse trading volume in Q3, only made $54 million in sales, a decrease of 92.70% from Q2.

Netvrk Land also saw an impressive increase of 54.16% ($173K) from the previous month but is still down 62.34% from Q2, the lowest trading volume ever recorded. NFT Worlds in this quarter decreased by 80.62%, reaching $3.6 million, also the lowest amount of trading volume ever recorded. This fall is driven by the Minecraft ban on NFTs, back in July.“Hype for these types of projects hasn’t completely decreased, but might be near the bottom,” the report suggested.

Move-to-Earn: The next big blockchain gaming trend?

Move-to-earn dapps are increasingly popular, led by STEP which in September celebrated its first anniversary, with over three million accumulated monthly users and over 735,000 shoes minted. However in Q3 the monthly active user numbers decreased by 67%, reaching 482K.

The debut of Sweat Economy on NEAR with the largest NFT airdrop in the protocol's history on September 13 saw the release of its new SWEAT token to 13.5 million token holders. After SWEAT's record-breaking sale on DAO Maker, the Sweat Wallet app became the most downloaded finance app in 51 countries. Since its launch, the app has had more than 1.3 million active users and over 1.5 million transactions.

Will Vulcan Forged bring in the next wave of web3 users?

Vulcan Forged secured $8 million in funding led by SkyBridge Capital, an investment firm founded by former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. The investment is intended to accelerate the expansion of "Metascapes" , a play-to-earn immersive metaverse game that enables players to construct their own territory in the metaverse and save that data through NFTs.

A seismic shift from Web2 to Web3?

A primary goal of Web3 is to share ownership and resources with its users, a feature absent from Web2. This explains why blockchain games are so popular, and why large gaming firms are shifting their focus from Web2 to Web3.

On September 10, Atari X, announced the launch of Atari Sunnyvale, a massive social and gaming experience in The Sandbox featuring environments based on classic Atari games.

A few days later, Guild of Guardians (GOG), a mobile squad-based action role-playing game, announced a multi-year agreement with eight of the world's largest and most prestigious professional esports organizations. According to Forbes, five of GOG's partner companies are in the top 10 most valuable esports teams in 2022.

On September 15, Blankos Block Party, an NFT-powered online creation game, became the first Web3 title published on the popular PC gaming marketplace. Star Atlas, a Solana NFT game, followed by releasing a playable demo on Epic Games Store on September 29.

Gaming investment shows growth continues

Even though the investments in blockchain-based games and Metaverse projects declined in Q3 ($1.3 billion) compared to Q2, a decrease of 48% from the second quarter, the capital raised by this segment has almost doubled last year's total. "September’s investments were the lowest all year, only $156 million was raised by blockchain games and Metaverse-related projects. However, this month showed us that the industry never ceases to build," the report concluded.

Closing thoughts

The report found that given the crypto gaming sector is still at an early stage, “a large number of games and studios are expected to see quick expansion and a subsequent decline in the near future. The many similarities between the origins of free-to-play and blockchain gaming, however, imply that early entrants in the sector need close observation, because of the potential market growth dynamics.” In short, while the Web3 gaming industry is still at an early stage in its development, by the same token there is significant room for expansion. “Blockchain gaming's future is bright, and it is on track to become the frontrunner for Web3,” the report concluded.

About DappRadar

Founded in 2018, DappRadar is the The World's Dapp Store: a global decentralized applications (dapps) store, which makes it easy for its base of more than one million users per month to track, analyze, and discover dapp activity via its online platform. The platform currently hosts more than 12,000 dapps from across 50 blockchains and offers a plethora of consumer-friendly tools, including comprehensive NFT valuation, portfolio management, and daily industry-leading, actionable insight.

As well as the starting point for dapp discovery DappRadar acts as a distribution channel for dapp developers that are looking to reach new consumers. With the DAO launched in late 2021 members of the community can vote on new proposals. The aim is to make DappRadar a decentralized organization where the community has as much say in decisions as the CEO.
 

Founded in 2018, DappRadar is the The World's Dapp Store: a global decentralized applications (dapps) store, which makes it easy for its base of more than 1 million users per month to track, analyze, and discover dapp activity via its online platform. The platform currently hosts 9,000 dapps from across 30+ protocols and offers a plethora of consumer-friendly tools, including comprehensive NFT valuation, portfolio management, and daily industry-leading, actionable insight.

Contact Details

Dan Edelstein

[email protected]