The COVID-19 lockdowns caused everyone to spend most of their time indoors, accelerating several industries’ development as people came up with new needs to be met. One of these industries was the gaming industry, as people needed to be entertained during all the free time they now had.
This can be seen in the spending statistics that show that in 2020, people spent $2.1 billion more than in 2019. Many of them spent their time playing all sorts of conventional games, such as Call of Duty, Minecraft, and Pokémon. This trend continued during 2021, as several researchers confirmed how even private investments in the videogame industry increased by more than three times during the year.
This fact opened the door to something fantastic. Another revolutionary technology was being developed as we were locked up in our houses. This technology is blockchain-based gaming, which works through NFT markets and cryptocurrencies, allowing players to earn real-life money by playing their favorite games.
Although this is a new concept for many, using crypto assets in gaming shows signs of success. We only have to look at Axie Infinity, which has become one of the most successful crypto games in the market, but you can also visit bet999.io for many fantastic crypto-based games.
Now that we know this concept works, many startups have started to develop their own games, turning the crypto gaming market into a highly competitive one. Therefore, to determine whether it is worth participating in these games or not, you must know how they work and their benefits.
What Is Crypto Gaming?
Regular games work in a straightforward and centralized way. You can gain experience and objects, but they are only meant to be used within the game. The blockchain technology allows us to decentralize gaming and use all the awards and items we earn in other gaming or gambling projects. This is because when we play blockchain-based games, we earn cryptocurrency, which is real money we can use to buy things in our daily life.
Moreover, if you’re not a gaming fan, you can go to a crypto casino and gamble in play-to-earn games, such as the Milky Way casino game. There are hundreds of ways to have fun and earn money with this new technology. You can even play what many people call “the blockchain-based Pokémon,” Axie Infinity, a battle game in which you have to level up your Axies and battle against other players to earn the game’s native cryptocurrency tokens.
Who Plays These Games?
Statista is the company that’s in charge of tracking the number of gamers using blockchain-based games. Its statistics show that the top three games are Alien Worlds, Axie Infinity, and Splinterlands, which share a monthly user base of over 2,000,000 people.
Although there’s not much research yet on who is using these games, the obvious answer is that gamers who used to play regular games have discovered this new opportunity to earn money with their current skills. Moreover, most users are between the ages of 21 and 38, meaning that millennials who grew up with video games and saw the rise of cryptocurrencies in real time are taking advantage of these new crypto-based games.
If we take a closer look at the demographics of crypto-gaming, Asia-pacific has the most crypto-gamers in the world. However, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa come close behind. Surprisingly, this study shows North America has the fewest crypto players in the world.
Still, compared to the regular gaming market, we notice similar results, with Asia-pacific leading the list of the top five gaming markets in terms of revenue.
Sergey Kopov is the CEO and creator of one of the most popular game production studios, 0xGames, and he agrees that millions of gamers all over the world would be highly interested in earning money through crypto assets, which was impossible to do before crypto-based games came into the picture.
However, this doesn’t only attract gamers. Yes, they will probably be the initial users, but everyone who wants to make money may try to play these games and become masters at them.
Another very interesting aspect to keep in mind is how COVID-19 has affected the world’s economy. If we look closely at the Philippines, we notice how the nation’s economy was severely damaged because of the pandemic, which has caused hundreds of people to turn to crypto gaming as a new source of income.
All of this is displayed in a fascinating documentary showing how Filipinos relied on Axie Infinity to earn money, proving that these sites work for Filipinos and anyone in the world. This documentary also showed the broad spectrum of people playing these games, from married couples to mothers, cab drivers, and college students. Anyone can benefit from crypto-based games.
Best Crypto Games
We already went through how popular Axie Infinity is, but it is also crucial to point out that most of its popularity comes from the Asian market. This is because a Vietnamese artist called Trung Nguyen created it. The Ethereum-based game rapidly earned more than $150,000,000 by 2021, and it continues to earn more money to this day.
But Axie Infinity isn’t the most popular crypto game in the world. Alien Worlds has nearly twice as many players, making it the most popular crypto game. It was created by Saro McKenna, an Oxford University MA graduate with a broad background in finance.
Finally, Splinterland is the last game we will talk about. It is the world’s third-most-played crypto game and is entirely based on cards that you can buy, trade, and level up. This game was created by Matthew Rosen, who has been creating video games since he was 10 years old.
Bottom Line
It may seem odd to switch from regular video games that you’ve been playing your entire life to crypto-based games that not many people understand how they work. Still, the benefits of playing these games are highly noticeable, so there’s no harm in trying them. Perhaps you’ll become the next crypto gaming master!
