Among the many uses in which the blockchain has gained prominence over the past decade, one of the most interesting and fastest growing is certainly that related to the gaming industry.
This is particularly the case since the explosion of NFT and decentralized finance (DeFi), which provided a way to earn money playing your favorite video game.
The gambling market in the world, how it changed after the advent of blockchain
In terms of income, the gaming industry is bigger in the world than the film and television industries combined.
Gambling Market was valued at USD 198.40 Billion in 2021 and is projected to reach a value of USD 339.95 Billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 8.94% from 2022 to 2027.
The total number of players would be cross the fateful 3 billion mark last year. The Asia-Pacific market is leading the way, mainly due to the high popularity of mobile games.
The case of Axie Infinity, record figures
Just look at the exponential success achieved in just a few months by one of the most popular blockchain games currently on the market, Axie Infinitethe game developed by the Vietnamese company Mavis in 2017, which has now millions of fans worldwide.
It is an NFT-based online game that is centered around farming and battle between online players, who earn native tokens by performing certain in-game actions.
According to the latest available data, the blockchain gaming market was already worth $3 billion in 2021.
It is expected to reach $39.5 billion by 2025. Over 1.6 million gamers worldwide are trying out a blockchain game, like the hugely popular Axie Infinity.
According to a report by DappRadar, in January 2022 there were 398 active blockchain games, up 92% over the previous year.
Also according to data from the report, the number of wallets transacting for gambling-related products increased to 1.4 million. The report also mentions that venture capitalists invested $4 billion in blockchain-based games in 2021, up from $80 million a year earlier.
In short, a real boom which slowed down a bit at the start of 2022 due to the large crypto market crash.
The main difference between regular games and blockchain games is that while the former are controlled by a third-party authority, the latter are, on the other hand, decentralized.
Thanks to NFTs and crypto, the concept of play-to-earn was born, which precisely allows the player to earn tokens or credits just by playing or perform actions with other players.
The great novelty of play-to-earn games
With the advent of blockchain games, players can monetize their time, skills and effort spent playing games. This is a real revolution compared to the concept of video games which suppose that in one way or another the player pays to download or even simply to play.
In blockchain-based games, players can earn rewards such as cryptocurrencies, weapons, avatars, skins, coins, etc.
And they become full owners of these resources. These resources have value beyond the scope of the games, and players can earn money for their gaming skills. Some players have already made these games a substantial source of income.
And that’s why video game giants are jumping on this important niche, such as Ubisoft, which launched its NFT gaming platform, UbisoftQuartzin December.
Microsoft acquired Activision in a $68 billion contract specifically to jump into the promising world of NFT and metaverse games.
At the end of 2021, the company had declared that it was ready to implement blockchain on its Xbox game console.
According to recent research, around 61.4% of leading game developers believe that blockchain will be the a real revolution for future gamesand most of them say they have already studied its implementation on their video games.
