During Q1 2021 there was 148% user growth for blockchain gaming compared with one year ago. According to the BGA Blockchain Game Report Q1 2021 by DappRadar there was an average of 73,512 active wallets per day. While they reported 29,563 wallets back in the first quarter of 2020.
The increase of wallets doesn’t only come from the availability of new games, but also thanks to the underlying technology. Big contributors to these numbers are for example Alien Worlds and Upland. Both these games run on very user-friendly blockchains where gas fees don’t really play a role. Polygon, another cheap to use blockchain solution, is also seeing quite some activity thanks to Aavegotchi.
On Ethereum we still have Axie Infinity, even though a part of their economy now moved to the Ronin sidechain. Despite enormous gas fees, the growth of blockchain gaming on Ethereum wallets almost doubled. DappRadar recorded an average of 2,398 wallets per day.
Over the past three months a variety of gaming projects moved to blockchain solutions that offer a cheaper user experience. Think about MegaCryptoPolis and F1 Delta Time coming to the Polygon blockchain. Or what about new projects like My Neighbor Alice coming to Binance Smart Chain.
According to the DappRadar report, Alien Worlds is now the most popular game in terms of daily active wallets. With the increase of wallets and the increased token value of individual projects, the amount of value in the blockchain games industry is also booming. They note a 651% increase in transaction volume to $1.1 million per day on average during the end of March.
Read the DappRadar Q1 2020 Blockchain Game Report
Providing perspective
While those growth numbers are really cool, we need to put things into perspective. The traditional games industry has approximately 2 billion gamers. On a daily basis 6 million gamers play Fortnite at any given moment. Therefore, in the grand scheme of things, these are small numbers.
However, in the report of DappRadar they talk about connected wallets. Not every game requires an active player to login all the time. When you play Alien Worlds, you automatically need to make transactions using your wallet. You stake NFTs to mine TLM tokens, and you need to claim your TLM tokens. However, once you have three Axies, there’s no need to do anything on-chain. All gameplay takes place off-chain, until you decide to claim your Small Love Potions.
Robert Hoogendoorn is a gamer and blockchain enthusiast. He got in touch with crypto in 2014, but the fire really lit in 2017. Professionally he’s a content optimization expert and worked for press agencies and video production companies, always with a focus on the video games & tech industry. He’s a content manager and creator at heart, working on Play to Earn. He’s also Head of Content for DappRadar.
