Blockchain Game Market Visual Report: NFT Transactions (May Edition)

Hiroyuki Narita
Metaps Blockchain JP
6 min readMay 18, 2020

In order to easily view the latest blockchain game market data (secondary NFT trading) in one place, we’re continuing to regularly update our visual data report.

The data referenced is in accordance to the following conditions (referenced via miime, Etherscan and BigQuery):

- NFT transactions from OpenSea and in-game marketplaces
- Utilising ETH or WETH (excluding original tokens such as MANA)
- Transactions between the period of 06/01/18 to 04/30/20

Contents

  • Total Period (06/01/18–04/30/20)
    - Market Trend
  • Previous 3 Months (2/29/20–04/30/20)
    - Market Trend
    - Transaction Share by Title
    - Top 3 Title Transaction Volume / User Trend
    - Top 2 Items by Total Transaction Volume (April)
    - Market Share by Category
    - Trading Volume by User Type
    - Trading Volume by Trade Type

Total Period (06/01/18–04/30/20)

■ Market Trend(Monthly)

  • Trade Volume: April saw positive growth in both ETH and JPY denominated transactions, and the downward trend that had been continuing for several months saw a gradual upturn.
  • Transactions: In contrast to the total volume, the number of transactions was lower in April, following a similar pattern as in March.
  • MAU: Compared to March, April saw a slight decline in both users actively trading and the onboarding of new users, the latter of which in recent months had seen positive growth.

Previous 3 Months (02/29/20–04/30/20)

■ Market Trend(Weekly)

  • Trade Volume: Looking at the weekly trading volume, it can be seen that the market as a whole has declined in comparison to the last three months, which were relatively flat with some fluctuations.
  • Transactions: While the volume of transactions has remained stable, the number of transactions has fluctuated from week to week and has been on a downward trend since the significant increase in number of transactions seen in March.
  • WAU: As with the number of transactions, the number of active users increased near the beginning of April before beginning a gradual downward trend throughout the month. Looking at recent trends, it could be said that the number of transactions and the number of active users are linked, making them a good point of reference when examining the trends of market participants.

■ Transaction Share by Title

At the time of last month’s report, Gods Unchained was #1 in trading share, but this month’s report has seen it drop to #4. It can be said that the period from its November 2019 release until January this year was due to the game’s initial interest, as from February transactions returned to a normal volume.

Cryptovoxels — a title we have covered a number of times in previous reports — has seen a gradual increase in trading volume in recent months. In contrast to the rapid rise of God’s Unchained, Cryptovoxels is appearing to grow at a steady rate and is expected to continue to rise in popularity.

■ Top 3 Title Transaction Volume / User Trend

Cryptovoxels, after a sharp spike in February, has seen a consistently stable trading volume in the following months. Following this data, instead of being temporary it can be expected that this volume will continue to be stable into the near future.

SOMNIUM SPACE (PARCEL), which was featured in last month’s report as a promising new title, saw an increase in trading volume that placed it at the position of number 2. SOMNIUM SPACE and Cryptovoxels have significantly increased their market share, and with both titles from the craft (virtual space) genre, we can expect that similar non-game titles will begin to see an increase in trading volume.

■ Top 2 Items by Transaction Value

The top two items for April were from SOMNIUM SPACE (PARCEL) and My Crypto Heroes (MCH). However, due to the sharp increase in the price of ETH in April, in comparison to the cost of ETH for top items of previous months the ETH cost of each item appears to be significantly lower. Despite this, when looking at the JPY equivalent you can see that the trades were made for around the same amount as in March.

Once again, My Crypto Heroes (MCH) has found one of its NFTs in the top position this month, adding weight to the fact that the title has consistently maintained a high market share. It is expected that this trend will remain intact as the title continues to make its presence felt.

■ Market Share by Category

As in last month’s report, the top trading categories were trading card games (TCGs), battle, and crafts. Among them, TCGs have increased their share of the overall market by 10% in the face of sluggish growth in the volume and number of trades of Gods Unchained. Similarly, one category that saw an increase in trade share was the craft genre. This can be attributed to the high trading volume of Cryptovoxels and SOMNIUM SPACE (PARCEL), titles of which we have mentioned previously.

Since last month’s report, Brave Frontier Heroes (BFH) has also seen an increase in market share and is appearing to close in on My Crypto Heroes (MCH), who have previously held the dominant share of the battle category.

Titles that had been displaying steady growth up to now have shown signs of slowing down, while other titles have seen an increase in trading volume and are beginning to find themselves within the top ranks. Looking at both sides it can be said that there are still few titles that are continuing to maintain consistently stable trading volumes, however we will continue to monitor any unexpected changes into the future.

■ Trading Volume by User Type

Following previous reports, there has been no significant change in the percentage of users by user type and it can be said that there is also still no significant difference between the selling and buying sides.

One of the biggest changes from last month’s report was the share of the top 10 sellers, which increased by 8% in comparison. In particular, the top three users accounted for about 40% of the total, indicating the significance of their large-scale sales.

Currently, in a secondary market that is still comprised of a limited number of participating users, the impact that top users have on the market is significant. With this in mind, we will continue to follow the trends of these users in particular.

■ Trading Volume by Trade Type

Private trading, which had previously accounted for about 8% of all trading types, has gradually increased in volume since February, finally increasing to a 20% share.

This can be attributed to a decline in the volume of large titles that have been leading the market, such as Gods Unchained, which are unlikely to experience private sales, as well as the increased presence of Japanese titles (My Crypto Heroes (MCH), Brave Frontier Heroes (BFH), Cryptospells, etc.) that have seen a more significant adoption of private sales.

Nevertheless, the percentage of private titles is only 20%, and with a number of foreign titles growing in popularity, such as Cryptovoxels and SOMNIUM SPACE (PARCEL), it is still difficult to determine how this percentage may change. Following this, we will continue to monitor the number of market vs. private sales of individual titles in order to explore the contributing factors and trends.

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