The rising trend of NFT games throughout the year caused many new projects to be born and multiplied the revenues of the existing ones. In this context, we have listed the most popular and highest-paid NFT games of 2021 by using DappRadar data.
Blockchain games came up frequently with new systems, designs, and game mechanics all year long. Considering that the play-to-earn and NFT game ecosystem is a very new genre compared to others, we can say that the best NFT games have reached unprecedented earnings in a short time. NFT and blockchain games do not only make money for their developers but also their players.
Top 5 NFT games
Axie Infinity
One of the first names that come to mind when the words blockchain and game are used side-by-side will undoubtedly be Axie Infinity. Axie Infinity is a game with a Pokémon-like theme where you play by fighting your cute monsters (Axies).Launched in 2018, Axie Infinity has never fallen from the uptrend since day one. Continuing this upward trend in 2021, Axie Infinity became one of the games with the highest number of unique active wallets (UAW). Also, AXS is one of the top-earning coins, gaining nearly 200x value.
The number of users of Axie Infinity increased throughout 2021, exceeding 100 thousand daily users. When off-chain users are calculated, the number of activities in Axie Infinity is thought to approach 2.5 million. On the other hand, Axie Infinity is the game with the most significant transaction volume in the industry. In the third quarter of 2021, the NFT industry generated total revenue of $10.7 billion. About 20% ($2 billion) of this volume belongs to NFT games. Axie Infinity alone accounts for 90% of this $2 billion. Axie Infinity was the single highest-grossing NFT game with over $3.8 billion by all-time trading volume.
Splinterlands
Splinterlands is a card game where players strategize their NFT cards to beat other players in PvP (player versus player) battles. Splinterlands, one of the most popular NFT games, has shined with the launch of the SPS coin released in July 2021. SPS is both a cryptocurrency and players with SPS have partnership rights on the game. With the rise in the value of SPS, Splinterlands is becoming one of the best and most profitable NFT games.
Since the launch of SPS, the number of players has skyrocketed by 1406%, while the number of transactions increased by 448% to reach 1.65 million in the third quarter. While the game’s growth is related to the SPS coin, the team behind the game has done a tremendous job of continuous improvement and development to avoid duplication. The “Chaos Legion” event, which again changed the game’s strategy and introduced a new coin earning system, also significantly impacted this growth.
Alien Worlds
Alien Worlds is a game with rich content with themes such as exploration, management, war. Players enter into a competition by managing their own organizations in the game. There are also missions in the game, and you earn rewards due to these missions. In Alien Worlds, you can get TLM coins by consuming game content, collecting and selling in-game accessories, and make money with various mechanics. The game allowed new players to mine, offering them TLM coins. This rapidly increased the number of new players in Alien Worlds. The TLM coin market, which has been revived with the number of players, has made Alien Worlds one of the most profitable games.
Alien Worlds has the distinction of being the third most-played NFT game with more than 100,000 UAW holders daily since the second quarter. Alien Worlds, a GameFi platform, doubled the number of users by reaching a total of 235,000 UAW over the game and platform when we came to the last quarter of the year.
Farmers World
Farmer World is a reasonably new NFT game compared to the others. Launched in July 2021, Farmers World is on the Wax blockchain. Farmers World, a farming game as its name suggests, has added various tools necessary for farming to its game mechanics by NFT’ing it.
It reached 18,000 UAWs per day in a short period after its launch in August 2021, and this uptrend is still ongoing while 2021 is not over yet.
MOBOX: NFT Farmer
MOBOX: NFT Farmer, one of the games on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), managed to become one of the best NFT games of this year. Some crashes and problems on BSC had a bad effect on the games using the system. MOBOX: NFT Farmer managed to stand out and be included in the DappRadar report despite these problems.
MOBOX, which managed to keep the players with the KEYs system, attracts more than 24,000 UAWs daily despite the problems mentioned above. On the other hand, MOBOX KEY continues to be one of the true representatives of the GameFi (Decentralized game economy) system with the rights it gives to its owners.
Most Profitable Game Coins
There are many game coins linked to various infrastructures in blockchain games. The number of coins increases with the number of games. These cryptocurrencies gain a tremendous amount of value in a short time. The most profitable NFT games and the five coins that earned the most value throughout 2021 are as follows:
- Gala Games’ GALA coin has risen nearly 310x in one year
- Axie Infinity’s AXS coin has risen nearly 200x in one year.
- Sandbox’s SAND coin has risen nearly 140x in one year.
- Somnium Space’s CUBE coin has risen nearly 48x in one year.
- Decentraland’s MANA coin has risen nearly 46x in one year.
Each project mentioned here has taken firm steps throughout the year and has attracted many players. The continuation of the upward trend in NFT and blockchain games may cause our understanding of games to be reshaped in the future. This business model, which benefits both the player and the developer, attracts great attention and is becoming more widespread day by day. As investments continue to flow from cryptocurrency giants to NFT and blockchain games, developers seek their market position.
