Here are the most popular NFT games of today
Top 5 NFT games. Source: pexels.com
Selling digital art is not the only way to utilise NFT technology. The gaming industry is experiencing a boom in NFT use, with related tokens growing over 10,000% over a year.
NFT games are using smart contracts and blockchain ledgers to record every transaction and authenticate unique digital collectibles. NFTs allow developers to create characters, avatars and items that players can use to improve their gaming experience.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based game world partially owned and operated by its players. Its popularity is now heated up by the Metaverse hype. The game enables players to collect, breed, raise, battle and trade creatures known as Axies. Each Axie is an NFT. These characters can have any combination of body parts and forms, making them unique and rare to various extents. They have different attributes and strengths and may enter team battles in the metaverse. The winning team earns experience points that are used to improve Axies’ stats or evolve their body parts. Axies can also be bred together. As a result, their owners get new and unique offspring, which can be either used in-game or sold on the Axie marketplace.
Since owning the game characters (Axies) is quite expensive, the platform has a popular practice called the scholarship system. Some players may approach users with access to Axies and make a deal to play on their behalf for a share of the profit. For the NFT owner, this model provides an opportunity to earn passive income. Scholars, in their turn, are making active income without additional investments. Player guilds, like YGG, Avocado Guild, and GuildFi, allow users to borrow Axie NFTs, with a revenue share system. They are said to have between 1,000 to 6,000 scholars.
The Axie Infinity NFT platform is fueling a digital economy based on crypto assets in those locations where banking services are hard to access and often expensive. Thus, people from regions like Southeast Asia or Latin America, specifically Brazil, the Philippines, Venezuela and Vietnam, are actively using Axie Infinity for money-earning. Regulators in the Philippines have even discussed taxing holders of Axie Infinity tokens.
Per rough estimations, Axie is making $1.5 billion in annual revenue, trading at a $3 billion market cap and at a $30 billion fully diluted market cap. In September 2021, the game made about $220.32 million, with revenue sliding by 40% from a record $342 million in August. Breeding fees accounted for nearly 90% of the income in September, while the rest was earned from marketplace fees.
The gaming consultancy firm Naavik suggests that the game may soon face a recession like any economic system. Since most scholars cash out their earnings as a daily wage, the tokens aren’t being used productively within the game to breed new pets. Thus, Axie will soon heavily depend on new players to join. At the same time, due to high membership fees, the daily number of new users is gradually decreasing. Nevertheless, Axie developers are currently in the process of building a larger universe that will create more ways to earn and spend tokens, and thus, generate more revenue from more than one source.
Sandbox
Sandbox is a blockchain-based virtual world where users can create, build, buy and sell digital assets in the form of a game. This game is still at its beta-testing stage with a full version to be launched in the near future. At the same time, its native token SAND is one of the fastest-growing crypto in 2021. The coin’s all-time high was $8.4 on Nov. 25. Before November, the SAND token was trading below $2. Today, the token is worth about $5.
The platform built on the Ethereum blockchain facilitates a creative “play-to-earn” model, where you can successfully combine the roles of a creator and gamer. Players can create digital voxel assets in the form of NFTs, upload them to the marketplace, and integrate them into games with Game Maker. They can also buy a piece of Sandbox’s metaverse LAND and populate it with games and assets, increasing its value. The SAND utility token is used to make transactions on the platform, as well as for staking and governance.
In November 2021, Sandbox NFT sales reportedly exceeded $3.8 million in 24 hours.
Later the same month, a tract of virtual land inside Sandbox was sold for $4.3 million, even though the game is yet to fully launch. So far, it is the most expensive metaverse property sale on record.
Decentraland
Decentraland is a decentralised virtual world where you can buy, build, and sell digital real estate, artworks, or NFTs, play games and have various virtual activities. In-game there are 90,601 individual parcels of land, each of which is represented by an NFT. Each LAND is 256 square metres (16×16 metres) in size and can be found at a steady coordinate in the virtual world determined in the NFT. Most of the metaverse is divided into different districts, which differ thematically and in size. With the help of the Builder tool, creators can fill the digital world of Decentraland with various 3D scenes, artworks, challenges, social games and apps. Users shall authorise and link their crypto-wallets to create their own avatars and explore the Decentraland world.
Another perk of the Decentraland metaverse is showcasing and monetising your own digital assets and creative works. This virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain has its own marketplace to buy and sell land, estates, avatar wearables, and other digital game assets. Decentraland is rife with NFT art exhibitions and galleries. If you are a collector or an NFT enthusiast, you can take part in live auctions at the galleries and purchase NFTs from a wide range of artists. This virtual game world is controlled via the DAO, which owns the most important smart contracts.
Decentraland’s metaverse has several games to play and earn. Ethermon, for instance, is a monster-catching role-playing, play-to-earn game. Here, you can buy Ethermon NFTs and battle with others. In WonderQuest, you can buy a collectible dragon egg NFT. Once hatched, you can use the dragon to interact in the virtual gaming world, which has many quests and musical performances. There’s also the Tominoya Casino, a virtual gambling house developed by Decentral Games, and the racing game Battle Racers. Video game legend Atari also owns an estate in the metaverse. Here you can enjoy many classic games created by the developer. Furthermore, developers can create games on their pieces of LAND by using Decentraland’s Software Development Kit.
The virtual world uses two tokens: MANA and LAND. MANA is an ERC-20 token that must be burned to acquire non-fungible ERC-721 LAND tokens. MANA tokens can also be used to make payments on the Decentraland marketplace.
Battle of Guardians
Battle of Guardians is a real-time multiplayer blockchain-based PvE and PvP fighting game. It is developed in the Unreal engine and built on the Solana network. Players need to enter constant one-on-one battles to defeat other players and earn more rewards. The game characters are extraordinary creatures called ‘guardians’ with immense strength and god-like abilities. Humans and demons are also part of the equation. Each of the character types has its own features and strengths. Thus, humans rely on intelligence, guardians on their physical strength, while demons have vast health pools.
The Tournament is the only game mode that involves extra payments. Each participant deposits a sum directly into the prize pool, and the winner takes it all. As the game is quite new on the market, its functionality is still limited. However, BoG’s creative team aims to develop a dedicated non-fungible token marketplace. Players will be able to trade with various NFT assets earned in-game and create a thriving economy.
Farmers World
Farmers World is the first farming game to function on the NFTs platform. It’s one of the fastest-growing DApps on the Wax blockchain. In August 2021, after the launch, the number of its user wallets grew over 86,000%, while making 1.4 million transactions in a month. As membership cards provide players additional gaming opportunities, the secondary market on Atomic Hub is already lively with gold membership cards traded around $50,000.
Players can choose suitable tools, explore various resources, buy land to build huge farms and enjoy other farming-related experiences (e.g. grow plants, chop wood, fish, and raise livestock and poultry). While players wait for their harvest, they can go to other farms and battle other players for resources. Therefore, players also have to stand guard and protect their own farms from intruders. These actions contribute to a play-to-earn model.
SEE ALSO:
Pay Space
Our editorial team delivers daily news and insights on the global payment industry, covering fintech innovations, worldwide payment methods, and modern payment options.
