It has been quite a challenging few months for the blockchain gaming. Between some of the historic hacks that resulted in massive losses and dwindling interest in the games, things have now cooled off from the peak of this gaming euphoria. With all that said, that near-term picture does not represent the entire story. Thus, it is advisable to zoom out a little bit.
A new report from DappRadar and the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) has zoomed out and discovered that the blockchain gaming industry has grown by a whopping 2,000% in the past year. Despite the many setbacks, the blockchain gaming field is still growing strong.
Blockchain Gaming Still Attracts Many Users And Investors
It is crucial to note that many external factors have affected all industries of the crypto space in recent months. Many threats of anti-crypto legislation, hacks and scams, the Ukrainian war, and a general dip in the performance of crypto have all resulted in a challenging start to 2022.
Nonetheless, as the DappRadar x BGA report discovered, there is a lot of evidence that points to a stability level in blockchain gaming. One thing is clear, the gaming dapps account for 52% of all blockchain activity based on the report.
The daily average of Unique Active Wallets (UAW) that link to these blockchain gaming dapps in Q1 2022 was 1.17 million. On one side, that was a 2% drop from Q4 2021. On the flip side, the March daily average was more than 1.22 million UAW. That means blockchain gaming is already showing some signs of recovery.
Another critical factor is that the blockchain games managed to raise $2.5 billion in Q1 2022. In case fundraising was to continue at this incredible rate, blockchain gaming investments will be around 150% higher than in the past year. Notably, it indicates that the investors are still showing lots of faith in the future of blockchain gaming.
Maybe the most notable instance of this is the $450 million that Yuga Labs raised, mainly to grow its upcoming gaming metaverse called Otherside. Since the sector has recorded 2000% within a year, it is quite easy to see the reason why investors remain highly confident.
Axie Infinity is one of the largest names in blockchain gaming. It makes the top 10 after a brutal few months.
Sky Mavis Still Active Even After Major Hack
Without any doubt, the largest and most recent development in the blockchain gaming world was the Ronin network hack. But, the report also touches on the fallout from all that.
As many people already know, the network powering the largest blockchain game, Axie Infinity, was hacked and more than $600 million was stolen. It recently came to the light that a North Korean hacking group was behind that massive attack.
At the time, Axie Infinity was already sliding before the hack. This report states that the blockchain technology gaming pioneer’s daily UAW stood at around 22,000 in March 2022. That was significantly low compared to the January peaks of 55,000. In general, the report attributes this plunge that began in mid-February to the changes that Axie creators Sky Mavis made to ensure that the game’s in-game currency, SLP, remained stable.
Interestingly, Axie Infinity and Sky Mavis have already started recovering from the attack. The firm has already promised to return all of the users’ funds out of its own coffers. Despite all these many hiccups, Axie Infinity is still among the top 10 most played blockchain games by daily usage. Taking into consideration the popularity of this game, and its backing by Animoca Brands, it appears likely that Axie will bounce back greatly in the coming months.
In the end, the DappRadar x BGA report suggests that blockchain gaming is a young industry that shows general signs of growth. The growth may not be without some shortcomings. With all things taken into consideration, mostly when noting the massive interest in gaming metaverses, it appears safe to say that the outlook for blockchain gaming in 2022 is quite positive up to today.
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