CoinGecko’s recently published GameFi Report for 2023 provides a comprehensive overview of the crypto gaming market’s milestones over the past year. Contrary to the diminished buzz surrounding “play-to-earn” and certain other crypto games, the sector remains vibrant.
The report reveals that the top 20 games boast 685K daily active addresses. While a significant portion of this activity may be driven by bots, a substantial number of these addresses represent genuine players engaged in these games.
Notably, Alien World, Farmers World, and Splinterlands emerged as the leading Web3 games in 2023, maintaining an average of 197.8K, 101.3K, and 75.2K daily active addresses. However, these games have experienced a decline in active addresses throughout the year.
Sweat Economy has experienced an extraordinary surge in 2023, becoming the most active Web3 game in November, with an average of 116K daily active addresses, a significant rise from just 22K in January.
Regarding genres within Web3 gaming, farming and mining games have emerged as the frontrunners. As of November 30, these genres combined have captivated a substantial audience, drawing in 253K daily active addresses. Not far behind, card games have also shown significant popularity, attracting 178K daily active addresses. Additionally, Move-to-Earn games have made a notable impact, engaging 166K daily active addresses.
Conversely, Metaverse games have seen a decline in popularity, attracting only 44K active addresses, ranking as the seventh most active genre. Strategy and shooter games are also lagging behind, with the smallest player bases, drawing 13K and 6K daily active addresses respectively.
Interestingly, the top blockchains in web-3 gaming are not necessarily those with the highest market capitalization. In 2023, the top four gaming blockchains were Skale, Wax, Ronin, and Hive. Skale led the pack with over 230K daily active GameFi addresses, significantly outperforming Ethereum and Solana, which had only 21,342 and 13,356 daily active addresses respectively.
Additionally, it is important to note that these gaming blockchains were specifically built to cater to GameFi. Consequently, the proportion of related transactions on such blockchains is significantly higher than on other chains; more than 80% of all transactions on the top GameFi chains are related to gaming activities.
Currently, in the blockchain gaming space, all eyes are on the promising Web-3 AAA games that boast modern gameplay. These games, having raised significant funding in 2021, are expected to deliver their products in 2024. The growth and future prospects of the overall sector are highly contingent on the success of these games. If they manage to attract users and achieve success, it could lead to an influx of even more investments in the sector.
