Web3 Gaming Sees a Solid Start to 2023

2023-03-08, 08:22

Many cryptocurrencies were bullish from the start of 2023 up to February.

On-chain activity for web3 gaming tokens has been increasing since January 2023.

Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Sewer Pass NFTs performed well during January and February 2023.

Sandbox, Decentraland and Otherside are some of the gaming platforms that performed well during January and February.

Introduction

There was great disillusionment in the crypto sector in 2022 as the bear market stretched for several months with no sign of abetting. However, the situation has turned differently since the beginning of 2023 as different cryptocurrencies have shown clear signs of recovery. Today, we shall discuss the recovery path the industry has already taken.

Growth in on-chain activity

There has been an increase in the on-chain activity for the crypto gaming sector, which shows signs of recovery for the sector. According to DappRadar, the blockchain gaming industry growth was 1.31% with a record high of 858,621 daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW), which accounts for 48% Dapp activity.

In January Alien Worlds had the greatest level of on-chain gaming activity, with 75% dominance. In addition, the sector had over 2.69 billion consumers from different virtual worlds. Despite 2022’s bear market the mobile gaming sector recorded around $103.5 billion in revenue during that year.

The Yuga Labs eco remains one of the key players in the web3 gaming sector as it registered significant gains in January and February 2023. Apart from Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, the performance of Sewer Pass was remarkable.

Yuga Lab’s Sewer Pass is a unique and innovative project that enables players to use their NFTs during the game and earn rewards for that. So far, its statistics have been impressive. For instance, it had a trading volume of $44.6 million involving 10,561 NFTs within a 13-day period that ended on 30 January 2023. The following graph summarizes Sewer Pass’s performance during that time.

Sewer Pass trading performance – DappRadar

As you observe on the above diagram, Sewer Pass recorded high NFT trading volumes between the period 18 and 24 January.

The performance of Sewer Pass is understandable as it is the key requirement for playing the popular Dookey Dash game. It has also marked Yuga Lab’s initiative to launch many NFT games.

Increased investment in Metaverse Gaming in Web3

One clear sign of growth of the web 3 playing platforms is the increase in investment that took place within January 2023. A total of $156 billion were invested in 10 gaming platforms during that period, with the biggest investment coming from Courtside Ventures which injected $100 million in gaming, wellness, sports and collectibles development programmes. Metaverse Tech is another gaming firm that invested a sizable amount during the same period.

Virtual worlds trading volume increased by 114%

Another sign of rising interest in metaverse games is the recent increase in trading volumes for the sector. The launch of several metaverse dApps has resulted in greater adoption of web3 games than before. For example, virtual worlds had $44.6 million in sales in January, about 114% increase from that of December 2022.

On the contrary, however, there was a 19% decrease in sales count in January as the following graph indicates.

Virtual world trading volumes and count - DappRadar

As you can see from The Graph, December 2022 had a higher sales count than January 2023. The performance of Sandbox, Decentraland and Otherside contributed to the growth in trading volume for the stated period. In January, for instance, Decentraland’s trading volume increased by 83%, Sandbox by 114% and Otherside by 107%.

Growth in Metaverse infrastructure

There was also a remarkable growth in web3 gaming platforms like TreasureDAO, a DeFi- NFT eco that exists on the Arbitrum blockchain. Notable among its products is a marketplace that uses the MAGIC token.

Significantly, TreasureDAO is a platform for developing and hosting metaverse, gaming and NFT projects. Its native token, Magic drives and sustains its entire eco, including the metaverse platforms.

TreasureDAO- Coincu

TreasureDAO has many contributors responsible for developing NFT projects in web3 gaming and metaverse economies. Currently, Treasure DAO has 9 web3 games and a community with over 100k members. Since its launch, about 8 months ago, TreasureDAO has had a trading volume of over $285 million.

Bridgeworld and Legions Genesis are some of the metaverse and gaming platforms that exist on the TreasureDAO. On top of that, it also has a marketplace that supports 10 NFT collections. Significantly, the Legions Genesis NFT collection has been trending, with some of its rarest NFTs fetching over 70 ETH each.

Conclusion

To sum up, there was an increase in the on-chain gaming activity, investment and trading volumes in January and February 2023. Decentraland, Sandbox, Otherside and TreasureDAO were some of the web3 gaming blockchains that performed well in January. Based on the current trajectory, their blockchain gaming industry is likely to attract more interest from investors.

Author: Mashell C., Gate.io Researcher

*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.

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