Blockchain Gaming Skyrockets 2,000% in One Year, Axie Infinity in Downtrend - Report

On average, blockchain-powered games attracted 1.22m daily unique active wallets (UAWs) this past March, or 2,000% more than a year ago, per dapp (decentralized app) market data provider DappRadar.

However, a total of 1.17m UAWs connected daily to blockchain games on average during Q1, or 2% less than in the last quarter of 2021, according to their report today. 

The analysts also noted that Polygon (MATIC), an Ethereum (ETH) sidechain, keeps building momentum as a challenger to the leading gaming ecosystems of Wax (WAXP), Harmony (ONE), and BNB Chain. Game dapps on Polygon attracted 114,000 daily UAWs on average during Q1 and 173,000 during March, per DappRadar.

Meanwhile, one of the leading industry players, Sky Mavis, the firm behind the popular blockchain-based online video game Axie Infinity (AXS), is undergoing a challenging period after it recently suffered one of the biggest hacks in the sector’s history.

“While the hack forced Ronin’s native dapps to halt operations, the plunge in Axie’s blockchain activity was not wholly a result of the latest attack; in fact, it was already in decline. The game’s on-chain activity peaked in January when the game registered over 55,000 daily UAWs on average and has come down to almost 22,000 daily UAWs in March,” according to the analysis.

The number of the game’s UAWs started decreasing in mid-February as a result of the changes Sky Mavis implemented in the SLP rewards ratio. The company’s objective was to make Axie’s in-game currency sustainable in the long term, DappRadar said. 

“Still, Axie Infinity is among the top 10 most played games based on daily usage, and the game is still attracting over 1.5 million daily active users measuring off-chain data,” according to the report.

In either case, investors continue to inject billions into the blockchain gaming sector, eyeing major returns in the near future.

“Investments keep pouring into blockchain games as USD 2.5bn were raised in Q1; at this pace, 2022 investments will be 150% higher than last year,” DappRadar said.