DappRadar: Blockchain Gaming Activity Hardly Impacted by FTX Crypto Blast

Kaunas, Lithuania | December 01, 2022 12:02 PM Eastern Standard Time

 DappRadar, the global dapp store, said today in a report the blockchain gaming sector showed strong resilience throughout the month of November, despite negative pressure on the wider crypto industry that resulted from the collapse of the once-popular FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

Blockchain games brought almost half of the blockchain activity

DappRadar's latest Blockchain Games Report shows that blockchain gaming activity largely managed to brush off the events at FTX. The number of daily unique active wallets (UAW) averaged 800,875 in November, down slightly from just over 900,000 UAWs in the previous two months. All told, blockchain games accounted for a healthy 46% of all blockchain activity, ensuring it remains the biggest segment in the overall crypto space, ahead of decentralized finance.

The most popular blockchain for gaming was, once again, Wax, which actually saw an increase in daily activity with an average of 344,284 daily UAWs in November, up more than 4% from October. BNB Chain was the second-most popular gaming protocol in October with an average of 171,269 dUAW but took a big hit in November and that number decreased by 35%. Taking BNB Chain’s spot as the second-most popular gaming protocol in November was Hive, which also declined from the previous month by 8%, but maintained an average of 156,369 dUAW this month.

There were a number of blockchains that suffered as a result of the fallout from the FTX collapse, though. In particular, gaming on the Solana blockchain - which was closely linked to FTX - appears to have taken a big hit.In November, it saw its gaming activity fall by a stunning 89.42% to just 2,326 daily UAWs, the lowest number it has registered thus far.

Top-ranking games pick up speed while metaverses show take a hit in sale

Most of the games ranking in the top ten in terms of users put in a strong showing throughout the month. For instance, the Wax-based Alien Worlds managed to grow its user base by an impressive 25% to emerge as the most-played game of all, with 212,000 dUAWs. Splinterlands came in at number two with 169,000 dUAWs, up 5% from the previous month,

November was a busy month for metaverse gamers too, with The Sandbox completing one of its most hyped events thus far, Alpha Season 3, with more than 353,000 unique users across 98 brand-generated experiences. While The Sandbox saw its NFT trading volume fall by around 33% last month to just over $1 million, it ended the month by announcing another big land sale.

The upcoming sale promises to be a big event, with The Sandbox poised to auction off 1,967 LANDs, including 50 estates, 695 regular LANDs, 134 premium LANDs and 19 one-of-one LANDs. Both standard and premium LAND sales will be allocated via a blind ballot system. The sales actually kicked off on Nov. 24 and will continue until early in the New Year, so don't be surprised to see a significant uptick in The Sandbox's trading volume next month.

Another popular metaverse, Decentraland, also witnessed a decline in November, with trading volume down 54% and sales down more than 23%.

The decline in metaverse land sales is almost certainly a consequence of the goings on at FTX, which helped to accelerate a decline in land trading volume that began in July. It'll be interesting to see if the new LAND sale at The Sandbox can help to arrest the slide or not.

Despite the decline in metaverse sales, the health of the blockchain gaming space looks positive overall, especially if the amount of cash being thrown at it from investors is anything to go by. The report notes that blockchain games and metaverse projects raised a combined $534 million in new funding throughout November. The highlight of the month was Web3 games publisher Fenix Games, which raised a hefty $150 million in the month to acquire, invest and distribute its portfolio of blockchain games.

About DappRadar

Founded in 2018, DappRadar is the The World's Dapp Store: a global decentralized applications (dapps) store, which makes it easy for its base of more than 1 million users per month to track, analyze, and discover dapp activity via its online platform. The platform currently hosts more than 12,000 dapps across 49 protocols and offers a plethora of consumer-friendly tools, including comprehensive NFT valuation, portfolio management, and daily industry-leading, actionable insight.

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Founded in 2018, DappRadar is the The World's Dapp Store: a global decentralized applications (dapps) store, which makes it easy for its base of more than 1 million users per month to track, analyze, and discover dapp activity via its online platform. The platform currently hosts 9,000 dapps from across 30+ protocols and offers a plethora of consumer-friendly tools, including comprehensive NFT valuation, portfolio management, and daily industry-leading, actionable insight.

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Dan Edelstein

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