Play-to-Earn NFT games are among the class of Decentralized Apps (Dapps) gaining traction and attention in 2022. As we slowly emerge from the bear market, crypto projects with the opportunity for users to earn passive income will continue to be at the forefront of popularity providing a double benefit for users who collect coins associated with these Dapps.
The play-to-earn game Alien World is free to get started, and has consistently been near or at the top of the Metaverse games rankings for 2021 and 2022 (list below). The game offers multiple earning opportunities: mining NFT’s, joining missions and planetary DAO’s, buying land and spacecraft, and using the NFT’s in-game to earn even more NFT’s and the games native token Trilium (TLM). Furthermore, you can stake some tokens to the DAOs and missions, lease your spaceship…the Alien Worlds metaverse continuously grows and evolves – we look forward to seeing what new opportunities are coming. Read on below for a list of the top 11 most popular dApps in March 2022:
A blockchain-based decentralized application is also known as a dApp. Decentralized exchanges, blockchain-based games, NFT marketplaces, finance dashboards, and others can fit within this category. Some of the most popular dApp platforms include Ethereum, BNB chain, Solana, and more. Based on 30-day users’ activity, we analyze the 11 most popular decentralized applications for March 2022, ordered from lowest to highest.
#11 Magic Eden (SOLANA) – 220.07k
Launched in September 2021, Magic Eden is the leading Solana-based NFT Marketplace. It includes hundreds of collections, a Magic Decentralized Autonomous Organization, a Launchpad platform for NFTs, and more.
Magic Eden is the most popular dApp on Solana, followed by Raydium and MeanFi. The NFT platform features a 24-hour trading volume of over $4.2 million with a total trading volume of over $653 million, speaking to the sheer scale of its ecosystem.
Magic Eden describes itself as a community-centric company, working hard to respond to the community’s needs and adapting its platform to stay ahead of the constantly changing crypto market.
Magic Eden features over 10 million unique monthly visitors with around 4k collections. Magic Eden can be accessed via the browser and includes an iOS and Android app.
#10 Trader Joe (AVALANCHE) – 220.76k
Launched in June 2021, Trader Joe is the leading decentralized cryptocurrency exchange for the Avalanche network. It’s also the most popular dApp on Avalanche, followed by Pangolin Exchange.
In addition to a swap function, Trader Joe features a finance dashboard that includes Yield Farming, Staking, and Lending protocols. What’s more, is Trader Joe also provides an option to leverage trade on its exchange. Users can connect to the exchange via a browser-based Web3 wallet like MetaMask and explore its ecosystem.
Another cool feature about the exchange is its Launches platform, which enables users to participate in the launch of protocols to acquire newly issued tokens, unlocking your allocation by spending rJOE and depositing AVAX.
If you’re looking to hop on board with newly launched projects, we highly recommend checking out Trader Joe’s Launches platform on their website.
#9 Katana (RONIN) – 288.58k
Launched in November 2021, Katana is a decentralized exchange built explicitly for Axie Infinity, one of the most popular Metaverse NFT-based crypto games where users collect cute monsters called Axies and can earn rewards by playing the game.
Axie Infinity was one of the pioneers in blockchain-based play-to-earn gaming that enables its players to earn a living wage by playing the game. Axie Infinity gained so much traction that the team decided to launch its blockchain (RONIN) and a DEX (Katana) to accommodate Axie’s large number of players.
Katana enables users to trade several assets, including RON, WETH, AXS, SLP, and USDC. AXS and SLP are the native assets for the Axie Infinity game, USDC is a stablecoin, WETH is simply the wrapped version of ETH for DeFi purposes, and RON is RONIN’s blockchain native asset.
Users can connect to the exchange by installing the Ronin Wallet, a Web3 wallet that can be installed as an extension for your chrome browser.
At the time of writing, Katana features over $283 million in liquidity, a 24-hour trading volume of $13.18 million with the highest-trading assets, including WETH and RON.
#8 Upland (EOS) – 293.2k
Launched in May 2019, Upland is a blockchain-based Metaverse game built on the EOS network. Upland is designed to enable players a new way to earn and generate value in the game.
The game involves users trading virtual properties based on real-world addresses. Uplandme, a global organization with headquarters in Silicon Valley, operates the game.
At the time of writing, Upland is the most popular dApp on EOS, followed by AtomicAssets.
Users must purchase a property to start playing. Each property will earn UPX tokens at a rate of 14.7% annually, which players can collect every three hours.
After players purchase several properties, they can place them in collections and earn even more bonuses and earnings. Suppose you’re interested in getting your foot in the door with Metaverse real estate. In that case, we highly recommend checking out Upland as the properties are much more affordable than buying plots of LAND in Decentraland or The Sandbox.
#7 Bomb Crypto (BNB) – 299.08k
Launched in October 2021, Bomb Crypto is an NFT-based play-to-earn game built with the Unity game engine. The game revolves around players managing their hero NFTs and slaying monsters/bosses for rewards. To start playing, users must purchase a Bomb Hero NFT, costing roughly $50.
Bomb Crypto is one of the most popular games built on the BNB chain, and the second-most popular dApp on BNB, following PancakeSwap.
Bomb Crypto also features its token, BCOIN, currently valued at $0.42. Its market cap is $4.5 million with a 24-hour trading volume of $5.1 million. You can purchase BCOIN on PancakeSwap.
As one of the most popular games on the BNB chain, we highly recommend checking out Bomb Crypto if you’re looking to get started with NFT gaming. The relatively affordable entry price of $50 makes this project highly underrated.
#6 Axie Marketplace (ETH, RONIN) – 376.87k
Released in March 2018, the Axie Marketplace is a place where users can trade their Axie NFTs as part of the Axie Infinity ecosystem.
We mentioned Axie Infinity earlier in this list when talking about Katana. While Katana enables users to trade the underlying assets relating to Axie Infinity, the marketplace allows users to sell the actual Axies themselves.
The Axie Infinity marketplace features thousands of Axie NFTs. In the past 24-hours alone, over 24k Axies have been sold, speaking to the sheer scale of the ecosystem that is Axie Infinity.
In addition to Axies, users can also purchase Land, Items, and Bundles on the marketplace. While some Axies cost upwards of $1000, there are quite a few affordable Axies costing under $30. Axie Infinity is the leading Metaverse-based game, and we highly recommend checking out their marketplace to get a sense of the economy.
#5 OpenSea (ETH, POLYGON) – 412.32k
Launched in December 2017, OpenSea is the most popular NFT marketplace built initially on Ethereum and later integrated with Polygon to reduce the cost of transaction fees users have to pay.
OpenSea is the pioneer in NFT marketplaces and was the first platform to go “mainstream,” setting the stage for other platforms to follow.
OpenSea is one of the most active NFT marketplaces featuring some of the highest-valued collections like the Bored Ape, CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and more.
There are hundreds of NFTs sold every hour, and we highly recommend taking a look at OpenSea if you’re in the market for an NFT. Keep in mind that unless you have funds on the Polygon chain, you will have to pay significant transaction fees to interact with the platform in any meaningful way.
#4 AtomicAssets (WAX, EOS) – 468.78k
Launched in July 2020, AtomicAssets, aka AtomicHub, is the top NFT marketplace on the WAX and EOS blockchains. It includes over 140 million NFTs with thousands of collections.
AtomicHub is known to have NFTs that feature utility in various NFT-based and Metaverse games such as Farmers World, Alien Worlds, Blockchain Brawlers, and more.
The best part about AtomicHub is how user-friendly it is. First, users aren’t required to install any extensions on their browsers since they can access the marketplace via WAX’s cloud wallet, which can be linked with your Gmail account. In addition, since AtomicHub is built on the WAX blockchain, users don’t have to deal with exorbitant transaction fees.
Last but not least, AtomicHub features extremely affordable NFTs, with many costing under $1! If you’re looking to get your first NFT, you must check out AtomicHub.
#3 Alien Worlds (WAX, BNB) – 501.26k
Launched in April 2021, Alien Worlds is the second-most popular Metaverse game built on the WAX blockchain. It’s our personal favorite on this list.
The gameplay revolves around users mining Trilium, the native asset on the platform. Trilium can be obtained by mining it via NFT tools purchased on AtomicHub or staking your Trilium on the BNB chain to earn rewards after the staking period.
Alien Worlds features over 500k users over the past 30 days, showing the sheer scale of its ecosystem and community.
Alien Worlds is a must-watch in March 2022. The team continues to add features to the game, and it’s one of the most affordable games you can start playing. In addition, users aren’t required to invest anything to start playing the game and mining Trilium.
#2 Splinterlands (HIVE, WAX) – 592.57k
Launched in March 2021, Splinterlands is a collectible trading card game built on the Hive and WAX blockchains.
The gameplay is similar to traditional trading card games like Hearthstone. The main difference is that Splinterlands is blockchain-based, meaning in-game assets are tokenized and provide full ownership for players.
Splinterlands offers an excellent feature that lets players rent cards in the game if they aren’t looking to invest a significant amount in starting playing. This offers new players a chance to test out the game and see if they want to invest in it.
Splinterlands also features its native utility asset SPS. SPS can be purchased on Gate.io, PancakeSwap, MEXC, LBank, and more. Its market cap is $58 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of $856k
#1 PancakeSwap (BNB) – 2.98M
Launched in September 2020, PancakeSwap is the most-popular dApp on the market by a large order of magnitude. It’s a fork of the original DEX, Uniswap, but since it’s built on the BNB chain, this means much lower fees for traders.
The lower fees are a significant reason why PancakeSwap caught so much traction and features such a massive user base. Most newly-launched cryptocurrencies first start trading on PancakeSwap as anyone can list their token on the exchange, provide liquidity, and create a market.
PancakeSwap also has a native token called CAKE that users can purchase if they want to bet on the future of the exchange. CAKE is also rewarded to users who provide liquidity to the exchange and various tokens.
At writing, CAKE is trading at $5.43 with a market cap of $1.5 billion. Its 24-hour trading volume is $170 million, with a circulating supply of 276.6 million tokens.
