What ‘The Sandbox’ Reveals About Web3 Gaming Assets
Authored by Rochelle Kelly, Assistant Account Executive at Ditto and gaming enthusiast.
The highest value gaming crypto coins have a total market cap of $10.1 billion with a trading volume of around $2 billion, according to Coin Market Cap.
- ApeCoin (APE), the largest gaming token despite not releasing a game yet, has a market cap of about $1 billion.
- The second-largest token, Decentraland (MANA), sees less than 1,000 players a day despite its $1 billion valuation.
- Axie Infinity, the fourth-largest game token market cap, has struggled since its unsustainable tokenomics irrevocably harmed its community.
But who’s buying these in-game digital assets, which allow players to create, trade and own unique in-game items then monetize them? What determines their value?
Let’s analyze the top Web3 game for asset creation and ownership to get a better sense of the value of these digital items.
The Sandbox — a virtual world for creators
The Sandbox is a community-driven platform where creators can monetize voxel “ASSETS” and gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain. The Sandbox NFT Marketplace has thousands of assets with various themes and in-game uses.
- There are six NFT types: collections, avatar, entity, equipment, art and land/estate.
- There are 100 official collections ranging from Care Bears to Deadmau5, 28 avatar collections, 2,155 entities, 480 equipment NFTs, 43 in-game art assets and 716 land and estate assets.
- On OpenSea, The Sandbox has 22,128 owners holding a total supply of 164,165 tokens with 13 percent unique owners.
Celebs make metaverse land expensive too
- The principles that determine land value in The Sandbox are the same as real-world real estate, with location and size being the main factors. Structural design and/or function is what attracts users to plots.
- For example, areas held by celebrities and brands like Snoop Dogg’s Snoopverse are “premium” due to higher traffic potential.
- They’re areas for exclusive experiences, including games, concerts and meeting celebrities. During Snoopverse’s second public auction, five small lots auctioned for an average of 78,200 SAND, approximately $230,000.
Looking ahead
The value of digital assets follows similar rules to real-world goods valuations.
Rarity, demand, visual appeal and access to exclusive perks like parties with Snoop Dogg and his virtual neighbor Steve Aoki all play a part in determining the value of in-game digital assets.
The real test of The Sandbox and other digital-asset-focused Web3 games will be increasing user acquisition, executing engaging brand partnerships to drive value and providing creator tools to expand NFT marketplaces organically.
With household names such as Gucci, The Walking Dead series, Katy Perry, The Smurfs and others participating in the digital asset ecosystem, more people will want to create alongside them, bringing life and value to in-game digital assets.
Web3 gaming is experimental, but The Sandbox’s use of popular brands and celebrities demonstrates how blockchain-powered games can appeal to mass audiences. As more Web3 gaming partnerships happen, we’ll see how a concept — often met with skepticism — can bring real value, and fun, to players.
