2021 may be looked back upon as the defining year for blockchain gaming. The paradigm grew leaps and bounds over the past 12 months with concepts like play-to-earn taking centre stage in its rise to fame.
Blockchain games have been known to build on the groundwork laid down by traditional games with a decentralized twist. This allows them to combine gaming with asset ownership.
In fact, blockchain gaming’s innate ability to allow players to play and earn assets of real-world value has led many to believe that it is the future of gaming. We’ll explore this claim in detail with this blog.
What’s Blockchain Gaming?
Traditional games or AAA games as they’re popularly called, have a centralized way of functioning. An AAA game’s code can’t be replicated and the publisher sandboxes in-game assets.
The implication of this is simple - players can’t use in-game assets outside the game’s world. Blockchain games on the other hand are decentralized and allow players to earn digital assets that have value.
Digital assets in this case could mean cryptocurrencies that are native to the blockchain game or a commonly used third-party token like Dogecoin or Ethereum.
Many blockchain games also allow players to earn digital assets in the form of NFTs, which can be traded, exchanged, or stored in a crypto wallet while some even let players use the NFTs across multiple games.
These digital assets have a real-world value that adds an extra layer of incentive to play blockchain games. Furthermore, crypto games have clearly defined tokenomics along with immersive gameplay.
Features like these make blockchain games a force to be reckoned with, so much so that traditional publishers like Ubisoft and EA have expressed strong interest in entering the domain of blockchain gaming.
However popular a new paradigm may be, it can’t sustain itself purely on claims. In this regard, blockchain gaming has signalled seriousness with various crypto games being funded by well known VCs and investors.
Companies Funding Blockchain Gaming & Developers
Blockchain gaming may be a new concept but it has already garnered investments of more than $4 billion in 2021. In contrast, blockchain gaming only saw a little over $85 million in funding in 2020.
Traditional entities and avenues like Venture Capitalists (VCs) have contributed more than $4.5 billion in funding to blockchain gaming whereas ICOs and token sales have contributed $881 million.
Blockchain gaming has well and truly captured the imagination and funding of many. They’ve also encouraged crypto gamers to view blockchain gaming as a viable alternative to traditional games.
Blockchain Gaming Market Growth And Future Trends
You can’t end this blog without examining the future of blockchain gaming and the trends that may follow. Here, we’ll walk you through the three top trends that may emerge from the rise of blockchain gaming.
1. Market Share Growth
The gaming industry is pipped to grow by 50% to $268.8 billion by 2025. Furthermore, the blockchain industry is expected to grow to $67.4 billion by 2026.
Blockchain gaming sits at the intersection between these two industries, which may give it the unique advantage of growing tenfold over the coming years.
2. Integration With The Metaverse
The metaverse as a concept has gained a lot of popularity over the past few months. It’s a supposed virtual place where regular people can live their day to day lives using a digital avatar.
Certain blockchain games have already built their own version of the metaverse where people can indeed trade assets, own land, attend concerts, and more.
This makes blockchain gaming one of the frontrunners to be a crucial part of the metaverse. More importantly, it allows blockchain games to be more than just “fun”, but rather a viable way to earn money.
3. Potential Income Avenue
Play-to-earn or GameFi is a model that most blockchain games follow. The concept is simple - you play the game to complete a task for which you get paid in cryptocurrency or NFTs.
This has two implications. One, it allows crypto gamers to become creators and two, playing games can become a lucrative source of income, especially if the game’s token of NFTs have significant value.
Conclusion
The blockchain gaming industry is rapidly becoming one of the faces of Web 3.0 with the likes of Axie Infinity creating immersive experiences with the possibility of earning lucrative rewards as crypto and NFTs.
Only time will tell whether blockchain gaming can evolve and enable new paradigms regularly to garner more investments. But as it stands, major game publishers are interested in blockchain technology.
This may be good news for crypto game enthusiasts and developers because increased competition means the possibility of better tech, experiences, and functionality of games.
However, there are still several kinks to be ironed out before mass adoption becomes a real possibility for blockchain gaming - it is still a regulatory grey area that’s open to security concerns.
Top Blockchain Gaming Cryptocurrencies
Here’s a list of the top blockchain gaming cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Note: Facts & figures are true as of 29-12-2021. None of the information shared here is to be construed as investment advice. Exercise caution when investing in unregulated assets like cryptocurrency.
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