GameFi coins and NFTs, the most speculative assets you can hold, have lost almost all of their value in 2022. But beyond token prices, new things are brewing in the blockchain games that will emerge in 2023. This annual report examines cross-chain data from the Blockchain industry to summarize the most important metrics and trends for 2022 at GameFi.
Important findings for GameFi coins
general market
- The market cap of GameFi tokens dropped from $27 billion at the beginning of the year to $3.3 billion at the end.
- The monthly volume of GameFi transactions fell sharply from $3.1 billion in January to $80 million in December, down 97%.
- However, the number of transactions in Blockchain games remained relatively stable, jumping from 130 million to 185 million within the band.
- BNB was the country that attracted the most new projects in total with 296.
- However, Polygon, Wax and Solana grew relatively more, doubling and tripling their project numbers compared to 2021.
Financing and investment
- GameFi funding increased 83% compared to 2021 and raised $5.4 billion compared to $2.9 billion
- Despite the bear market, famous studios either continued or started to enter GameFi.
- The biggest fundraising event took place in April, when Epic Games, the studio behind Fortnite, raised $2 billion for the metaverse project, led by Sony.
- Animoca solidified its most active leader position in GameFi, closing 61 rounds, more than double the next most active investor.
- Animoca also received the second highest amount of funding after Epic Games with $434 million.
GameFi coins users
- More users are not associated with more volume or more transactions on GameFi. This makes it difficult to build a holistic picture of on-chain activity.
- However, Wax had the highest average daily active users, followed by Hive and BNB.
- Depending on your perspective, this could indicate the strength of Alien Worlds and Splinterlands, or the prevalence of bots in those games.
- The most significant growth among the top 5 Blockchains by the number of active users was in Polygon with an increase of 381%.
An overview of GameFi
- GMT had the highest average volume among GameFi tokens with $541 million in 2022.
- Solana has become the blockchain of choice for Move-to-Earn projects with both STEPN and Walken.
- Among the top 5 games according to the average GameFi token volume, MANA experienced the most significant decrease with 55.6% compared to last year.
- Splinterlands and Alien Worlds were the most actively played games in 2022, with 383k and 228k average active users, respectively.
- None of the highly anticipated so-called AAA Blockchain games, eg. Illuvium and Phantom Galaxies were not released in 2022.
GameFi coins general market
cryptocoin.comAs you follow on, the overall market was brutal in 2022. Judging by the price of GameFi tokens or NFTs, the entire industry seemed to bleed and when it couldn’t get any worse, it was taken behind the booth and pulled out of its misery. But looking beyond the most superficial numbers, there were a few extremely optimistic signals in the industry despite the depreciation. While all pre-2022 development takes place on Ethereum, other ecosystems have attracted developers, creating more innovation.
GameFi token market cap drops 87%
The market cap, which reached $3.3 billion at the end of the year, from $27 billion at the beginning of the year, occurred as the price of all crypto altcoins fell amid tightening macroeconomic conditions. Perhaps as an optimistic indicator for the future, they were also some of the most inflated assets during the 2021 bubble. This shows that investors see blockchain games as a high-risk but incredibly high-growth opportunity.
Monthly volume of GameFi transactions dropped by 97%
The drop in monthly volume was perhaps the most shocking statistic of last year. This decline saw volume increase from $3.1 billion in January to $80 million in December. However, it is very important to note that this does not reflect overall activity. As the price of GameFi tokens fell, so did the amount of volume, calculated as the amount of value in USD exchanged within the protocols.
Number of transactions hovered between 130 million and 185 million
While the number of transactions has been volatile, it has remained relatively stable in contrast to the sharp decline tracked by the overall volume metric. This means GameFi retains most of its activity, even as returns dwindle. (Or possibly boots.)
BNB became the country that attracted the most new projects in total with 296
With its ease of development and cheap network fees, BNB has attracted many light games and smaller projects. Few of these games have been hits, and BNB has yet to appear in a game the size of The Sandbox, Illuvium, or Axie Infinity.
Polygon, Wax and Solana increased their project numbers by 2x or more
Polygon doubled the number of GameFi protocols from 153 to 306. Wax grew 158% from 53 to 137 games. Solana only played 2 games in 2021 but debuted with 19 new titles in 2022.
Financing GameFi coins in 2022
GameFi funding increased by 83% compared to 2021
$5.4 billion invested in the GameFi industry compared to $2.9 billion in 2021. In 2021, institutional investors were still baffled by the novelty of ‘Blockchain games’ as Axie Infinity, The Sandbox and Decentraland made the headlines. 2022 was the year when people realized that GameFi could become a truly disruptive force if massive amounts of VC cash were used to power traditional game studios and established Blockchain companies to build ambitious projects.
Big-name studios invest in GameFi
Some of the most notable examples are Sony, Epic Games, Ubisoft and Nintendo. Epic Games, the studio behind Fortnite, raised $2 billion, led by Sony, to create a metaverse. As of the beginning of 2023, the details are still unclear. But the plan includes LEGO. This was by far the most important fundraising milestone of the year.
Animoca becomes the most influential institution in Gamefi
The studio and investor solidified their position as the most active leader in GameFi, closing 61 rounds, which is more than double the next most active investor. It was also the second highest funded country after Epic Games with $434 million. Animoca is the company behind The Sandbox, Benji Bananas, Arc8 and Phantom Galaxies.
GameFi users in 2022
Wax had the highest average daily active users, followed by Hive and BNB. Throughout 2022, Splinterlands (Hive’s main title) and Alien Worlds (Wax’s) competed in terms of active users. Depending on your perspective, this could indicate the strength of Alien Worlds and Splinterlands, or the prevalence of bots in those games.
Among the top 5 Blockchains, Polygon had the most significant growth with a 381% increase in the number of active users. Polygon is an EVM L2 built to grow Ethereum. Although the project went back to 2017 and its token went live in MATIC 2019, the network had its debut year in 2022 and has demonstrated deployment performance in DeFi, NFTs and GameFi. The games with the most average monthly DAUs on Polygon in 2022 were Planet IX (70K) and Benji Bananas (25K).
Project overview
GMT had the highest average volume among GameFi coins at $541 million in 2022. STEPN was the last big hit of the bull market and was one of the only innovative games to hit the headlines by offering a mobile app-based ‘Move-to-Earn’ gameplay. However, a month after NFT asset shoes and tokens swelled skyward, the game entered a death spiral and prices plummeted. The game is still the second most played game on Solana.
Solana has become the blockchain of reference for Move-to-Earn projects as they go through tough times following the collapse of FTX. Alongside STEPN, Walken titled “Walk-to-Earn” was also built on Solana.
MANA experienced the most significant year-on-year decline of 55.6% among the top 5 GameFi tokens. This reflects the game’s loss of trust in Decentraland. Decentraland was one of the original 3 big GameFi and metaverse titles, alongside The Sandbox and Axie Infinity, widely known for the exorbitant prices of their in-game assets.
Splinterlands and Alien Worlds had 383K and 228K average active users, respectively. They were the most actively played games in 2022. As we mentioned earlier, both Splinterlands and Alien Worlds are card and text-based games with no 3D worlds, making them surprisingly primitive for market leaders.
None of the highly anticipated so-called AAA Blockchain games, eg. Illuvium and Phantom Galaxies were not released in 2022. As of early 2023, the Beta version of Illuvium is available, and the full version is expected to be available to the public in mid-2023.
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