Cryptocurrencies related to the metaverse and gaming have been on a tear this year. What started as an undiscovered sector in the industry has now served as an extremely good investment opportunity by pulling in capital from all around. Let’s take a look at the relatively new gaming model behind blockchain games and discover some sought-after games.
State of the Gaming Sector
The gaming market is a highly lucrative, profit-churning industry that has advanced incrementally over the past decade of technological advancement. The number of participants have been ever-increasing and have no bounds when it comes to age, gender or geographical location. It is estimated that there will be 3 billion gamers worldwide by 2023 alone.
Total global revenue of gaming also shows no sign of slowing down, with 159 billion in revenue for 2020 and an estimated 200 billion for 2023.
Types of Gaming Models
Gaming models have continuously evolved over time, but they can be broadly categorised into Free-to-Play (F2P), Pay-to-Play and lastly, the more recent Play-to-Earn model.
Pay to Play: The pay to play model is an online type of gaming that involves gamers paying for a particular game to gain access to it. This type of model has been the most dominant in traditional gaming, and has lasted for a long time. However, these types of games tend not to be inclusive to all aspiring gamers as they have a monetary pre-requirement that may not be available to many individuals. Popular games in this model include Grand Theft Auto and Forza.
Free to Play: These are games that are free to purchase and can be played without any cost to the gamers. Nowadays, we see this model being extremely popular in the mobile gaming industry. This model was brought about as an alternative to the traditional pay-to-play model and has seen the most success over the past few years. Successful examples include Fortnite, PUBG, Counterstrike and Apex Legends.
Play to Earn: Play to earn is the newest type of gaming model that embraces the open economy concept and financially incentivises the players that add value to the particular gaming ecosystem. The model combined with blockchain technology takes gaming to the next level of adoption.
Now think about this — if you were one of the 3 billion gamers in the world, which type of model would you most likely be involved in? Would you play a game for just the fun of it, or get paid for playing the game and have fun along the way? The answer should be clear by now as to which model money will be flow into over the next decade.
Popular & Upcoming Play to Earn Games
- Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity has been the definition of play to earn since the beginning of the year and truly has been the game that put this model on the map. The game revolves around pets called Axie’s which players use to battle, raise and trade. Each of these Axie’s are NFT’s that are unique. The gamers can battle their Axies in battles and win Small Love Potions (SLP’s) along the way. These SLP’s could then be exchanged for fiat or be used for breeding more pets.
AXS, the governance token of Axie Infinity, is up a staggering 28,831.7% over the past year. Click here to trade AXS on BitYard.
- Illuvium
Illuvium is an upcoming decentralised role-playing game that is built on Immutable — a layer 2 scaling solution focused on NFT’s. The game is based on hunting and capturing deity like creatures called illuvial. Although the game is still unreleased, the native token ILV has been dropped for staking.
ILV, the native token, is up 2,140% since its release at the beginning of the year. Click here to trade ILV on BitYard.
- Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained is a play to earn trading card game that gives players ownership of their collections. Players are able to collect rare cards, build decks and sell the cards to other players to receive the native token GODS, which can be exchanged for fiat.
- Vulcan Forged
Vulcan Forged is a one-stop-shop where gamers can access popular easy-to play-games and an NFT marketplace to buy and sell assets. The platform has a variety of different games that can be played according to individuals liking. The whole ecosystem is run with its own settlement and utility token, PYR.
- My Neighbor Alice
My Neighbor Alice is an upcoming multiplayer game where individuals can buy land, embark on new adventures, collect items and meet new friends. Alice is the native currency of the game and allows token holders to be part of the game by purchasing assets. Users are also able to earn Alice tokens by competing in different games.
Click here to trade Alice on BitYard.
It must be mentioned that the best part of these play-to-earn tokens is that you don’t necessarily have to play these games to gain value. Instead, you are able to purchase or trade the governance tokens to participate in this upcoming sector. The opportunity for growth in this model is also huge since the developers of these games are mainly crypto native. Many traditional gaming giants have only just started to notice play to earn and have already shown interest in this model.
