Just came across some sobering numbers on web3 gaming that really puts things in perspective. Apparently over 90% of projects that launched during the whole web3 gaming boom have basically disappeared. We're talking about a space that saw $15 billion flow into it at the peak.

It's wild to think back to 2021-2022 when everyone was convinced gaming was going to be the killer app for blockchain. The narrative was everywhere - play-to-earn this, NFT rewards that, decentralized gaming infrastructure the other thing. Tons of capital rushed in, projects launched left and right, and the hype was genuinely massive.

But here's what actually happened: gamers never really showed up. Or more accurately, the people who showed up were mostly there for the financial speculation angle, not because they actually wanted to play good games. Once the token prices started collapsing, so did the player bases.

The fundamental problem was pretty simple in hindsight. Most web3 games were genuinely not fun. They were clunky, pay-to-win mechanics wrapped in blockchain technology, and the gameplay itself felt like an afterthought compared to the tokenomics. Real gamers have options - they've got incredible free-to-play titles, amazing indie games, AAA productions. Why would they choose something worse just because it's on-chain?

So now we're looking at the wreckage. Billions in capital essentially evaporated. A lot of that went to teams that either didn't know how to build games or didn't actually care about the gaming experience. The web3 gaming narrative collapsed almost as fast as it rose.

What's interesting though is that some teams are still quietly building in this space, and they're taking a completely different approach - focusing on actual gameplay first, blockchain integration second. Whether that ends up mattering remains to be seen, but at least they learned the lesson that hype and tokenomics alone don't create a sustainable gaming ecosystem.