Crypto games have become more and more of a household name in 2022. The global gaming industry generated a turnover of more than $175 million last year. In previous years, it were mainly well-known game developers such as EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo and Blizzard that were good for most of the turnover in this billion-dollar industry, cryptofamily.world.
This year, however, we see a tremendous shift, thanks to the increase in popularity of blockchain technology in games. For example, there are professional gamers who earn money by playing so-called crypto play-to-earn games such as Axie Infinity (AXS), in some cases earning up to $2000 per hour.
This increasing popularity and crypto adoption has caused many gaming tokens to skyrocket in value. A well-known example of this is The Sandbox (SAND). In November last year, the games/token attracted a lot of attention and saw an increase of about 800%.
Since then, the price has fallen, after just about the entire crypto world had to deal with a major crash earlier this year. However, it looks like the play-to-earn gaming trend is far from over just yet. Play-to-earn (P2E) seems to be the way forward and blockchain and crypto technologies lend themselves well to this.
Did you miss the boat with The Sandbox and Axie Infinity? Not a problem at all. There are still plenty of interesting blockchain gaming projects to keep an eye on. We will highlight the most popular blockchain play-to-earn games nowadays below.
JEDSTAR
JEDSTAR (JED) is one of the newcomers in the blockchain gaming industry. Just like The Sandbox, JEDSTAR saw a price increase of about 800% in November, while the price has fallen recently in the meantime.
JED is the first native token in the JEDSTAR ecosystem. A second token, KRED, is launched as well. KRED is used as in-game currency for over 100 games, for which JEDSTAR has partnered with other game developers and studios. The ambitious project also looks beyond just developing games and NFT marketplaces in the near future.
Decentraland
Decentraland (MANA) is a cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Gamers can, among other things, buy and sell 3D objects in-game. MANA is Decentraland’s cryptocurrency that can be used to purchase virtual plots of land called LAND. The token is also used to trade the aforementioned 3D objects, cryptofamily.world.
Potential partnerships with Atari Token (ATRI) and Decentral Games (DG) could add a full-fledged casino to the network’s online metaverse in the (near) future. Meta, previously known as Facebook, has recently invested over $3m in virtual plots of land in Decentraland, indicating that they might choose this particular blockchain game to expand their metaverse.
GALA Games
GALA Games (GALA). GALA Games is another example of a popular crypto game that runs on the Ethereum network. GALA Games was founded in 2019 by Eric Schiermeyer, co-founder of mobile gaming company Zynga. His mission and vision? Creating crypto games that people actually want to play.
The platform currently has about 1.3 million active users and can be compared to the Steam Gaming Marketplace. Users who own NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have a say in current games and can vote for new games and features to be added to the platform. The GALA token can be used to purchase NFTs, as well as in-game items.
Star Atlas
Star Atlas (ATLAS) is a metaverse or blockchain game that uses the entire galaxy instead of a single planet or virtual world. In this game, you can explore different planets with your in-game character and own space ship. You can start your own faction or join an existing one to group up with your friends or complete strangers and discover the vast galaxy of the game together.
Star Atlas uses the Solana-based ATLAS as its native token. The Solana network is just as safe and secure as the Ethereum blockchain, but users pay fewer gas fees to conduct transactions. You can buy these ATLAS tokens at cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers to use them to buy in-game items, resources, and materials. It is also possible to play the game without buying any ATLAS tokens and just earn them as you play. However, we do have to mention here that this can take quite a while, cryptofamily.world.
Star Atlas is one of the few galaxy-themed play-to-earn games available at the moment and could be one of the projects of which the tokens will soon soar in value. For this reason, we definitely recommend checking this play-to-earn game out.
Otherside
Otherside is a recently released metaverse game by Yuga Labs, the company behind the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. Although the game is still in closed beta phase, you can already invest in virtual plots of land called Other Deeds with Ape Coin, the native token of the Otherside blockchain project.
Yuga Labs wants to develop a full-fledged MMORPG or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, where players can interact with each other, embark on epic quests, defeat monsters, and earn cryptocurrencies whilst doing so.
At the moment, Ape Coin is the third largest metaverse cryptocurrency and even though you’re not planning on playing the game, it might be interesting to invest in the tokens before the game releases to be able to sell them with a profit later on.
5 Crypto Games You Shouldn’t Miss Out On – Bottom Line
If you want to play the most recent and possibly most rewarding play-to-earn games, we highly recommend checking out the metaverses and blockchain games mentioned in this article. Perhaps you too could make a living by playing online video games, just like famous Twitch streamers and Youtubers!
