Sakaba Game Report: Progress Check of Web3 Games

Nodra

Published in

SAKABA_xyz

7 min readAug 3, 2023

Has the inaugural year of Web3 games already passed? Signs of market penetration for Web3 games

“Every year they say this year (or next year) is the inaugural year of Web3 games!”

“Web3 games are not popular at all.”

“No one will play Web3 games if they are not interesting or profitable.”

Do you often hear such things? Is this really the case?

Certainly, I believe that Web3 games are developing and there are many challenges. However, on the other hand, a lot of games have been released and various challenges have been made in the last few years. I believe that there are not a few achievements that could be the starting point for the mass adoption of Web3 games.

This time, I would like to share with you the breath of market penetration of Web3 games by checking the progress of several game projects.

We will talk in the following order.

1.Introduction and progress of each game

2.Insights from research

3.Summary

Please stay with me till the end!

1. Introduction and progress of each game

🎮 Axie Infinity＆Ronin Network

📝Game Introduction

It is one of the most famous Web3 games. It’s a game where you collect and battle cute yet fearsome monsters called Axies. Axies are made up of six parts such as eyes, ears, and mouth, and various skill cards are assigned to each part. You prepare three Axies and fight battles with a set of cards for three Axies. You can also freely enjoy user-to-user trading by breeding and crafting runes and charms to equip Axies and turning them into NFTs.

Axie Infinity Origins

In addition, they are developing the Ronin chain as an Ethereum sidechain. Various ecosystems are being built on Ronin, such as marketplace deployment, game development by third-party game studios, and third-party game development using Axie’s NFT and IP.

🏆Achievements

🎮Axie Infinity

・Open beta started in August 2018 (Operational period: about 5 years)

・Axie Infinity: Homeland initial alpha started in December 2022

・Partnership with eSports team Cloud9 finalized in December 2022

・Over 1M downloads of the latest version, Axie Infinity: Origins

・Total NFT trading volume: $4.27B

・NFT trading value: $42.00K / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading item count: 4.08K items / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading average price: $10.29 / item (average over the last 30 days)

⛓Ronin Network

・ Ronin Network Mainnet Launch in February 2021 (Operating period: About 2 and a half years)

・ Release of official beta version of third-party game DoLL, which utilizes Axie’s IP and NFT, through App.axie in December 2022

・ Start of closed β of The Machines Arena, a game on Ronin by a third-party studio, in March 2023, listed on the Epic Games Store

・ Release of Battle Bears Heroes, a game on Ronin by a third-party studio, in some regions in May 2023

Axie Homeland

Axie DoLL

The Machines Arena

Battle Bears Heroes

🎮 GODS UNCHAINED

📝Game Introduction

A digital trading card game. You own cards as NFTs and can freely trade them between users. It is said to be a competitive, strategic, and balanced card game that combines the strengths of Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone.

GODS UNCHAINED

🏆Achievements

・Open beta started in July 2019 (Operational period: about 4 years)

・2022 Annual Performance

- After introducing new rules concerning multi-accounts and bots, 298K new players joined

- 37.8M games played (an increase of 162% compared to 2021)

- 11.8M hours of gameplay (an increase of 144% compared to 2021)

・Closed alpha test for mobile version conducted in February 2023

・Listed on Epic Games Store in June 2023 as part of the market expansion strategy

・Total NFT trading volume: $230.09M

・NFT trading value: $651.33K / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading item count: 9.61K items / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading average price: $72.72 / item (average over the last 30 days)

🎮 Sorare

📝Game Introduction

A digital trading card game using real sports players. The performance of real matches is reflected in the game score, making it a new style of entertainment. The cards are NFTs. Collect freely and create your own dream team, competing scores with other players. It supports Football, NBA, MLB.

Sorare

🏆Achievements

・ Game released in March 2019 (Operational period: about 4.5 years)

・User count: Over 3.7M people across 180 countries

・Partnership with over 300 organizations including Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, ・Serie A, MLS, NBA, NBPA, MLB, MLBPA, etc.

・Total NFT trading volume: $669.63M

・NFT trading value: $391.29K / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading item count: 11.55K items / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading average price: $33.88 / item (average over the last 30 days)

🎮 Cross The Ages

📝Game Introduction

Cross The Ages is a free-to-play mobile trading card game based on the ongoing series of seven free novels that blend fantasy and sci-fi. In addition to NFT cards, physical cards linked to NFTs are offered as an option, making this game unique. Future plans in the roadmap include introducing metaverse elements.

Cross The Ages

🏆Achievements

・Official release in March 2023; achieved the top download count on the App Store for 4 consecutive weeks in May

・Total NFT trading volume: $6.44M

・NFT trading value: $33.33K / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading item count: 741.20 items / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading average price: $44.97 / item (average over the last 30 days)

🎮 ev.io

📝Game Introduction

Ev.io is a lightweight FPS that runs in the browser and is tailored for eSports. The game is known for its ninja-like actions and it is also compatible with mobile (also runs in the browser). The game already has ads installed in the game space, and the distribution of advertising revenue to users is already functioning as part of the ecosystem, which is quite intriguing.

ev.io

🏆Achievements

・Beta version released in January 2021 (Operational period: about 2.5 years)

・Total user count: Over 400K people

・On YouTube, there are scattered instances of content introducing it as a game without any mention of blockchain.

🎮 EGGRYPTO

📝Game Introduction

EGGRYPTO is a Web3 game designed with the concept of an easy-to-play NFT game on smartphones. You organize your nurtured monsters and try to capture quests and PvP in a semi-automatic battle while aiming to obtain a rare NFT monster called a “Raremon”, which is quite rare. Pay attention to the beautiful and original monster designs and music.

EGGRYPTO

🏆Achievements

・Official service began in April 2020 (Operational period: about 3 years)

・Total of 1.5M downloads

・Total trading volume for Raremon NFT: 412ETH (total of ETH on Opensea and the Polygon chain)

・On YouTube, there are scattered instances of content introducing it as a game without any mention of blockchain.

🎮 NFL Rivals

📝Game Introduction

NFL Rivals is a football game in partnership with the NFL. As a commander, you collect real players as cards, organize teams, and enjoy football by issuing run and pass instructions. Football matches can be casually enjoyed on smartphones. Some player cards are NFTs.

NFL Rivals

🏆Achievements

・Early access began in April 2023, with over 1M downloads achieved in about one month

・Total NFT trading volume: $714.05K

・NFT trading value: $7.67K / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading item count: 400.70 items / day (average over the last 30 days)

・NFT trading average price: $19.14 / item (average over the last 30 days)

2. Insights from the Investigation

💡Strength of Card Games and Sports:

The author notices that many games with card elements were prominent in their findings, highlighting the compatibility between NFTs and trading card games. There’s also acknowledgment of the success of games in partnership with real sports, reflecting the enduring appeal of sports content.

💡NFT Transaction Amount Formula:

A valuable metric for understanding the economy of Web3 games might be the formula NFT total transaction value = transaction unit price × number of transactions. Rather than only looking at the total transaction amount, this formula helps in recognizing the vitality of a game’s economy, favoring smaller transaction prices with a higher number of transactions. This could lead to mass adoption of NFTs.

Examples of games that have made rankings on DappRadar include Axie Infinity(33rd), GODS UNCHAINED(5th), and Cross The Ages(53rd). The ranking reflects the preference for lower transaction prices with higher transaction numbers.

GODS UNCHAINED is #5 in the ranking, showing a noticeably higher number of transactions compared to the surrounding projects. (as of August 1, 2023)

The trend is promising for Web3 games, aiming to foster free user-to-user transactions using NFTs.

Play to Own, Play to Mint Trend:

Recently, more games are allowing players to earn NFTs through gameplay, facilitating enjoyment through user-to-user trading. There is hope that this model will drive significant total transaction amounts through numerous low-cost transactions.

3. Conclusion

The author presents an arbitrary selection of memorable games, focusing on positive numbers and events. They acknowledge that these games do not cover a comprehensive analysis and might look small compared to existing game market achievements.

However, the number of people enjoying these games and the money involved is not insignificant. Considering the intense competition and numerous games released every day, these figures are not bad.

The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of neither overestimating nor underestimating these numbers. They advocate for continued support and praise for the ongoing challenges of these games post-release, hoping that the Web3 gaming scene will grow more exciting and engaging. The author also provides various reference URLs related to the subject matter.