As the crypto market continues to pummel down, blockchain-based gaming is out to dominate the world. Among all blockchain sectors, gaming is the only one that has given investors good revenue for the past few months. Is blockchain-based gaming the new digital craze after NFTs?
Video gaming has always been quite popular among young people. First, people used to buy physical CDs, then the games developed into apps for mobile phones, and now blockchain-based gaming dApps have taken over the world.
Unlike regular apps, blockchain gaming dApps give more monetary rewards through digital tokens. All games require users to connect to a crypto wallet and they can turn in-game rewards into cryptocurrencies that can be traded in the market.
According to DappRadar, the blockchain-based gaming dApps saw the most engagement amidst the bear crypto market since April. The dApps experienced an increase in daily unique active wallets and gaming transactions, indicating a new digital craze emerging in the world.
Venture capitalists lead gaming investment
Venture capitalists have been quicker than anyone to invest in blockchain-based gaming apps. Giant ventures like Animoca Brands and Andreessen Horowitz have poured billions of investments into various blockchain games. As a result, they are leading crypto investments among other venture capitalists.
DappRadar data shows that overall around $2.5 billion investment has been made in blockchain games in the first quarter of 2022. This is a huge figure for only three months compared to last year when venture capitalists made a $4 billion investment into blockchain gaming. Experts believe the investment for this year is most likely to increase by 150% from 2021.
Animoca Brands’ portfolio values $1.5 billion
Animoca Brands has made huge investments that make it one of the leading ventures in the world. According to its quarterly report for 2022, the company’s investment portfolio values around $1.5 billion over 340 companies.
Animoca Brands also reported that it acquired various gaming companies such as Grease Monkey Games, Darewise, Eden Games, Notre Game, and Be Media to expand the gaming industry and explore Web3 capabilities within it.
It also invested $450 million on Yuga Labs’ BAYC metaverse project, Otherside, which proved to be quite valuable as the collection was recorded to be the largest mint ever made. The venture also partnered with ApeDAO to launch ApeCoin in the market.
Other subsidiaries also made a big profit for the company. As of April 2022, Animoca Brands also holds digital assets reserves of $4.2 billion that are not reflected on its Balance Sheet.
All in all, Animoca Brands is highly involved with blockchain gaming which has helped them dominate the investment market. In an official statement, the chairman of Animoca Brands said “This considerable spread of companies and projects allows us to have a reasonably good view of the state of our industry and that’s why, despite current market concerns, we remain undeterred and positive about the future.”
He also highlighted the dominance of gaming that has “emerged as the main driver of broader blockchain adoption globally.” The chairman firmly believes that Web3 gaming and virtual worlds will bring billions of users soon.
Andreesen Horowitz launches Games Fund One
Andreesen Horowitz didn’t fall back on the investments and launched a program called Games Fund One. The venture capitalist announced it will invest $600M in various game studios that are working to develop the blockchain-based gaming ecosystems.
In a blog post, the company said, “With [Games Fund One], we will continue to add more functions and develop deeper networks that are tailored to the games ecosystem so we can help our portfolio companies with everything from building digital communities, to managing their virtual economies, to IP licensing best practices, to helping build their development teams.”
The venture also raised the largest-ever crypto venture fund of around $4.5 billion to empower the Web3 industry.
Future of blockchain gaming
Blockchain-based games are bound to become more valuable than the traditional gaming industry. According to recent reports, the traditional gaming industry is worth $300 billion, while blockchain gaming is expected to push the metaverse’s value to around $8 trillion.
Many games like Crazy Defense Heroes, Pegaxy, Arc8, and Aavegotchi have seen a 219% increase in gaming activity on the Polygon blockchain since the beginning of 2022.
Games have always been a popular industry for decades, with the blockchain features like play-to-earn and earn-to-stake on games, more and more individuals will be motivated to become part of the emerging Web3 gaming ecosystem.
As the chairman of Animoca Brands predicts, gaming and Web3 are most likely to attract billions of users in the coming years, despite the current bear market.
