Author: Stacy Muur Source: substack Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance
Delphi's latest research report conducted an in-depth analysis of Web3 games and came to the following key conclusions:
Web3 games lag behind: Compared with other cryptocurrencies, the market value of Web3 games has fallen by 33% since the beginning of 2024, while other cryptocurrencies have only fallen by 14%.
Still dominant: Despite this, Web3 games remain an active area, accounting for 30% of all dApp activity and having 2.1 million daily active wallets.
Despite the challenges, Web3 games still have great potential. As technology continues to develop and user experience improves, Web3 games are expected to become an important driving force in the cryptocurrency field.
Web3 game funding peaked between February and March, with monthly investments ranging from $60m to $100m, totaling $673m in 2024. However, this only accounted for 41.35% of Q1 2022 volume.
In 2024, over 50 games launched, with games like Xai, Pixels, and Notcoin seeing significant growth.
Xai raised $40m in 3 months. Pixels peaked at $4.8B FDV and 1M DAU within 3 weeks of launch. Notcoin attracted 35M users and reached a $1B market cap without external funding. Portal’s FDV fell from $4B to $280M, and Overworld Incarnas lost 75% of its value. Mavia and Pixelmon also fell by over 60% after their TGE. Shooters remain the leading genre in Web3, with Off the Grid standing out with a $110M funding round and partnerships with Sony and Microsoft.
Among MMORPGs, the most anticipated is MapleStory Universe, which raised $100 million.
Pirate Kingdom, a fully on-chain game, has grown to 100,000 active players and $1 million in revenue in the past 6 weeks.
Lord of Fate and Dragon's Blaze are growing rapidly and attracting hundreds of thousands of users. Dragon's Blaze has been downloaded more than 3.5 million times.
Ronin and the TON Ecosystem Lead Web3 Gaming. Ronin benefits from the success of Axie Infinity, while TON offers seamless integration with Telegram and access to 900 million users. This is further reinforced by the success of Notcoin and Hamster Kombat.
This article highlights key points from Delphi's "Mid-Year Gaming Review" report.
Below, I've highlighted some recent games worth watching, most of which are not yet tracked on DappRadar.
Description:Off The Grid is a cyberpunk-themed battle royale game made by Gunzilla Games.
Chain: Avalanche
Investment amount: US$101 million
Overview: Off the Grid attracted more than US$110 million in funding, has a team of more than 380 people, and cooperated with Sony and Microsoft to release games on PlayStation and Xbox, setting a new industry standard.
Description: MapleStory Universe expands Nexon's renowned MapleStory IP into a virtual world ecosystem and hosts a variety of applications based on this beloved game series.
Chain:MapleStory Subnet, powered by Avalanche
Investment:$100 million
Introduction:In 2023, MapleStory Universe received more than $100 million in funding from Nexon. MapleStory Online has attracted more than 100 million lifetime players and remains a significant player in the MMORPG space.
From July 24 to August 2, NEXPACE invited more than 1,000 players to participate in the MapleStory N Vanguard test. The peak number of concurrent online players reached 714, and 92% of participants returned multiple times during the test. The team reported a retention rate of 79.97% after seven days.
Description:EVE Frontier is a single-fragment survival game set in a dark, dystopian space, where humanity struggles to survive and rebuild a shattered world. In March 2023, CCP announced that it had raised $40 million for the game's development.
Investment Amount:$40 million
Abstract: Leveraging a proven IP will provide a significant advantage in user acquisition, allowing them to target the loyal fan base of MapleStory and Eve Online.
Description: MetaCene is making a blockchain-based MMORPG set in a surreal post-apocalyptic world. Players redefine civilization using a variety of NFTs. The game aims to create an accessible Web3 experience, focusing on player-centric entertainment, governance, and AIGC-driven creation.
Chain: Rangers, but Apostles NFT Collectibles on Ethereum
UAW (30 days): 38.32k
UAW ATH: 57.06k (Mar 25, 2024)
Introduction: MetaCene was founded by game experts with more than 20 years of industry experience from Shanda Games, Blizzard, Perfect World and other companies.
In the past 30 days, its UAW number has increased significantly, from 898 to 371,000, an increase of 4,031.4%.
Description:Avalon is the world's first multi-chain, true open-world MMORPG, built with Unreal Engine 5 and integrating multiple blockchains. Set in a fantasy medieval kingdom, players use their NFTs to explore the world while competing for cryptocurrency and rare NFT rewards. The game setting is inspired by the legend of King Arthur and the alternative history of the Knights Templar.
Chain: ImmutableX, Base
About: MetaCene and Avalon are both led by industry veterans who played key roles in shaping EverQuest and Legend II, two games that defined the MMORPG genre.
Name: Big Time
Description:Big Time is a multiplayer action RPG for PC that combines fast-paced combat with an open in-game economy. Players actively generate and exchange game items. The game seamlessly integrates Web3 elements, ensuring they do not hinder the entertainment experience, thus appealing to a wider audience.
Chain:Ethereum
Brief Introduction:Big Time has revitalized the Web3 gaming landscape after the bear market, generating over $100 million in revenue since preseason and positioning itself as a strong Web3 native competitor.
Description: "Pirate Kingdom" is a game created by Proof of An innovative game developed by Pirate Nation, a studio that combines gaming with blockchain technology. Players collect pirates and send them on adventures to collect crafting materials, treasure, and pirate gold. Through multiple adventures, the pirates accumulate experience and level up.
Chain: Ethereum, Apex Chain
Introduction: Pirate Nation has achieved an astonishing 2,400% growth in just three months. This growth, along with an impressive $1 million in in-game revenue in the past six weeks, highlights its strong position in the FOCG space.
Apex Chain, designed to support the Pirate Nation ecosystem, is one of the most active chains, processing more than 2.5 million transactions per day. It is second only to Base among EVM Layer 2 solutions in terms of transaction volume in the past month.
Projects:Infinimerge, Immortal Siege, King of Destiny
Description:Infinigods is a Web3 game studio focused on delivering cross-platform experiences for web and mobile. Infinigods is committed to building an ecosystem of casual games that connect games to each other through its unique collection of NFTs and intellectual property, all inspired by ancient mythology.
Chain:Ethereum
Brief Introduction:King of Destiny is a Web3 luck-based battle game from Infinigods that has been quietly growing its user base, approaching 1 million downloads and over 250,000 monthly active users (MAUs).
Capsule Heroes——Free PvP fighting game.
Matr1x — An entertainment platform covering Web3, AI, and esports with 24K unique wallets last month.
Fableborne — An isometric multiplayer game with 77K downloads.
Treeverse — An MMORPG being developed by the Endless Clouds team.
World of Dypians (WoD) — A multiplayer online role-playing game that currently has 700K 30-day unique active wallets on DappRadar, the highest number.
Delphi said there is no clear sign that in the current market (where Meme coins and the Solana ecosystem outperformed most other Web3 sectors), and games will be favored in the fourth quarter. In addition, a large number of launches are expected in the next six months, which may increase competition and further disperse liquidity.
However, they hope that games such as Off The Grid, Maple Story Universe, and Fableborne can have a positive impact on sentiment in Web3 and Web2 markets. Such content should still be considered the best Trojan Horse in the cryptocurrency space, and they believe there is reason to be optimistic in the short to medium term.
Recommended readings tonight: 1. The super cycle is coming. BTC and cryptocurrencies will be the release valve for fiat currencies; 2. Messari: A quick overview of the main competitors in the stablecoin market; 3. The native selling pressure of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana;
JinseFinanceRecommended reading this evening: 1. A comprehensive review of the progress of major zkEVM projects in 2023; 2. Outlier Ventures: Challenges and opportunities in the encryption industry in 2024; 3. Varian: Two stories of cryptocurrency—speculation and decentralization;
JinseFinance
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NulltxNellNell“I am all for hope and am a big believer in quantum computing as a potentially disruptive technology,” said Sankar Das Sarma, but quantum computers are nowhere near being close to cracking crypto.
Cointelegraph