In 2021, players of the monster fighting NFT game Axie Infinity traded nearly $3.5 billion worth of NFTs, according to a recent report from NonFungible. This accounts for almost two-thirds of all NFT transactions in the entire blockchain gaming industry in 2021. In second and third place are sports highlights marketplace NBA Top Shot ($827 million) and community gaming platform Loot ($242 million).
Developed by Vietnamese video game developer Sky Mavis in 2018, the game features creatures called "Axies" that players can collect and use to complete daily quests, duel with other players, and more. Each Axie is an NFT minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Players use Axie to complete tasks to get Smooth Love Potions (SLP), which can be sold on cryptocurrency exchanges for cash, thereby generating income for players. Overall, Axie Infinity accounted for 19% of an estimated $17 billion in total NFT transactions last year.
Axie Infinity's popularity skyrocketed last November, especially among players in the developing world, who can potentially make more money playing Axie Infinity than working minimum-wage jobs. However, players have complained to developers that their earnings have dropped as SLP prices have dropped 67.5% over the past year.
Part of the price drop is due to rising token inflation as more and more players join and play the game. As of this writing, there are nearly 2.7 million monthly Axie players, up from just 1 million last March. But since July 2021, the circulating supply of SLP has increased from 541.7 million to 5.13 billion.
Sponsored Business Content
Overall, blockchain gaming enthusiasts bought and sold $5.18 billion worth of NFTs last year, spread across 20,986,532 sales. In addition, there are a total of 112 blockchain games and 1.88 million active wallets. According to NonFungible's analysis, these figures account for 2.18% of the global gaming market in 2021.
Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.