The gaming space is quite popular with many players participating in the sector from all parts of the world. Today, blockchain-based games that enable players to earn cryptos as they play are rapidly paving the way for a new era of gaming.
The online gaming sector has been on the surge in the last several years and it has done so for a good reason. The global pandemic pushed an online revolution to the ever-growing mobile and internet penetration. In that context, more people kept spending more hours online.
It is not surprising that the sector is now big money, raking in more than $20 billion in revenue for 2021. With an estimated 1 billion online gamers today, experts project that the numbers will grow to surpass 1.3 billion active gamers by 2025. These numbers speak for themselves.
Gamers are always enthusiastic about their favorite games, with some of them spending hundreds of dollars to get an upgrade on their avatar and even access a coveted in-game item that can give them an advantage over their competition.
Blockchain-based play-to-earn (P2E) games are expected to change all the rules of the game by providing a level playing ground for everyone involved. They are expected to give the players ownership and a source of income, which will make the time they spend playing these games worthwhile.
Here are some of the top play-to-earn games that are dominating the current gaming industry.
Axie Infinity
This game is leading the way for the play-to-earn games due to its growing popularity that has seen a million gamers come on board to play this game every day. The massive success that Axie Infinity currently enjoys is majorly pushed by the fact that the players can earn real money as they participate in the game.
Axie Infinity is an Ethereum-based game that features a player vs environment (PvE) mode and a player vs player (PvP) mode. While playing in the PvE mode, players compete against a built-in environment or monsters in the game. On the other hand, the PvP move is the context where the players compete with each other in a metaverse-type scenario.
Players need to acquire ‘Axies’ that come in the form of monsters that are designed for the battle with hordes of many other small round monsters.
This game can be played on desktop or mobile devices. Its play-to-earn model is such that every monster and each other piece of gear that is used in the game comes in the form of a nonfungible token (NFT).
🔥 Origin Mystic [⭐] Axie #3511
Sold for 29.6 ETH($123065.26 USD)
Seller: Lunacian #79136
Buyer: Herman TinklerTx: https://t.co/48pBOv9Eh3#AxieInfinity #Play2Earn #Ronin #NFT $AXShttps://t.co/tLx9TFkEaF pic.twitter.com/iCSerOVTOa
— OuchieAxieBot (@OuchieAxieBot) October 22, 2021
The winners of these skirmishes go home with the spoils that were made available in the battle. These awards come in the form of cryptos known as Smooth Love Potions (SLPs). The main aim for the players is to create a collection of the most valuable and powerful Axies and the value is determined by Ether’s price.
In this case, the players can make money in the form of SLP tokens that are traded for fiat currencies. They can also sell their Axies after the value of these monsters appreciates due to won battles.
In November 2021, one Axie was sold for 300 ETH worth at least $1.2 million at the time in the wave of excitement that mostly captivated the gamers in Vietnam and the Philippines. The players in these regions took to the game seriously as a means of generating income amid a global pandemic.
Gods Unchained
By description, Gods Unchained is a free-to-play card battling game. In this case, the players get to sell and buy cards that range in rarity and value to defeat their enemies within the game.
Largely being a copy of Blizzard’s immensely popular “Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft,“ Gods Unchained comes with a crypto edge which gives the players of Blizzard’s game a familiar introduction to the blockchain and cryptocurrency worlds.
Tartessian Minotaur vs Caged Berserker – choose your player ⚔️
Which would you pick for your War deck? pic.twitter.com/690As3kYFx
— Gods Unchained (@GodsUnchained) October 21, 2021
God’s Unchained gameplay on its own is not based on blockchain. But, these cards are designed on the Ethereum blockchain, which enables and supports true ownership where the players can trade these cards they own on various secondary marketplaces.
The turn-based card battling game became very popular in 2019 with the player base nearly tripling briefly after Blizzard’s infamous Hong Kong fallout. At its highest level, one of the in-game cards sold for 137.8 Ether. That amount is currently worth over $500,000.
Currently, Gods Unchained continues to grow with the recent launch of an expansion set known as Trial of the Gods.
Plant vs Undead
The free-to-play tower defense game happens in a post-apocalyptic world that is overrun by zombie attackers. Players in the Plant vs Undead game have to strategically arrange the plants to prepare for an attack from an invading colony of zombies.
Notably, the play-to-earn model of this gam strives to capitalize on this aspect that has significant replay value. Just like the case of Axie Infinity’s growing popularity in Vietnam and the Philippines, Plant vs Undead has gained a lot of traction in Brazil and several other places where the P2E games stand to make a considerable difference in people’s income.
PVU is a proud winner of MVBIII Monthly Stars. This is a win for both the Dev team and the community. Thank you, everyone!#pvu #plantvsundead #nft $PVU pic.twitter.com/PCJ2ZjfzsH
— Plant vs Undead (@vs_nft) September 13, 2021
The players can get seeds to start playing. These seeds are bought on the platform’s marketplace with PVU tokens, which are the game’s native tokens. Another notable aspect that is driving attention to the PvP game is the fact that the players can earn and collect NFTs. So fat, NFTs have catalyzed a revolution in the video game sector by providing the players with total control over in-game assets.
With the Plant vs Undead, all the in-game assets can be traded or sold on the platform’s native marketplace.
Along With The Gods
Powered by the Polygon blockchain, Along With The Gods is a role-playing P2E game that rewards the players in cryptos and NFTs. The game rotates around powerful action heroes of five classes.
Every hero comes with unique traits, special capabilities, and skills that are to be used in different battles. Players are expected to create a team of heroes of their choice and strengthen the heroes while using various strategies to win battles.
— Along with the Gods: Knights of the Dawn (@AWTG_PlayDapp) October 6, 2021
All of the available in-game items are designed as NFTs on Polygon’s blockchain. This allows the opportunity for better transaction finality and at cheaper transaction costs.
Farmers World
It is now evident that farming games have grown majorly popular in recent years due to the simple gameplay strategies where all that is needed is for a player to plant, harvest, and upgrade crops or just enjoy building barns.
Farmers World is described as a P2E game that enables the players to choose from various tools to upgrade crops and even harvest them. Furthermore, while the farmers wait for their harvesting period, they might launch an assault on other farmers.
We purposely made a cheap tool for beginners to be farmers. Chances are still there for you, keep it up.https://t.co/PoDUi6l82c pic.twitter.com/rrKv1gCRcO
— FARMERS WORLD (@FarmersWorldNFT) August 30, 2021
The farmers can mine or mint GOLD, the native token in the game, and NFT-based in-game items within the game by just participating in the activities that are built into the game.
Farmers also get to protect their farms from any invading monsters and wild animals. From the mined GOLD tokens, farmers can develop their NFT-based farming tools to continue building their farms and cultivating crops.
This game has a membership aspect where the users have to buy membership packs that range from a price tag of $322 to $514. Membership enables the players to play and earn NFTs among several other in-game tokens.
What Next In The Gaming Sector?
P2E blockchain-based games are the way of the future. These games provide the players with increased control of the in-game assets that they relentlessly work for, and the opportunity to make some income from earning crypto and NFTs while playing the game.
As more firms in the gaming sector adopt blockchain technology, we will see the development of the games increase massively as well.
