Exciting things are happening in the world of play-to-earn gaming. Splinterlands is no longer the top game by monthly active users, and Axie Infinity is still outside the top 15. Competition has become pretty fierce in this segment, although there are some alarming statistics.
Alien Worlds On WAX Blockchain is Metaverses Top Play-to-Earn Game of 2022
It is always good to see another play-to-earn game claim the top after another project has been on top for a while. Axie Infinity used to be the king of the castle until Splinterlands permanently dethroned it. However, a new shift has occurred, as Alien Worlds currently takes the top spot for monthly active users.
It is good to see the game attract nearly 1 million active users per month. That may seem small compared to traditional games, but it is a healthy sign for such a young industry. One has to consider there are far fewer crypto users than gamers, and accessing blockchain games still takes a fair bit of work. It is far from popping a disc into a console or grabbing the files through Steam or Epic Games.
The current user base for Alien Worlds is nearly twice as large as that of Splinterlands. Upland, in third place, has roughly 275,000 MAU. Besides Splinterlands, the other two games have noted a strong increase in user base. Fourth-ranked Farmers World welcomed nearly 32% new players, and Sunflower Land attracted 38.7%. Farming games appear to be the hot trend as they are relatively easy to get into.
One may wonder what has happened to Axie Infinity in these rankings. It used to be a top game and is not even in the top 15 these days. Interest in that game has waned for a while now and shows no signs of rebounding. With under 72,000 MAU – and another monthly decrease of 26% – it seems Axie Infinity will slowly disappear into obscurity unless something changes.
DeFi Kingdoms And Aavegotchi Struggle Badly
Other previously established play-to-earn games have a similar uphill battle to contend with. Aavegotchi, a very popular project on the Polygon network, has a 45.47% user decline this month. Although over 36,700 people still play it monthly, it appears that game needs an injection of fun things to do. That is often easier said than done, though.
A similar sentiment affects DeFi Kingdoms, a popular GameFi project that used to be the talk of the town. Despite generating nearly as much monthly volume as Axie Infinity, the game lost almost 60% of its users in a month. Nevertheless, it still remains more active than Axie Infinity, although both projects are on a slippery slope.
The play-to-earn gaming industry finds itself in a rather interesting position. The top titles reside on blockchains like WAX, Hive, EOS, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Thundercore. Besides Crazy Defense Heroes, no game in the top 15 runs on the Ethereum blockchain. A fascinating trend that showcases builders are looking for efficiency and low costs, two aspects Ethereum isn’t good at in its current form.
By JP Buntinx
