Delphi Digital Web3 Gaming Report: Overall Funding Declines, but Activity Remains Strong (Including Notable New Projects to Watch)

Web3 games remain a strong participant, accounting for 30% of all dApp activity, with a daily active wallet count of 2.1 million.

Author: Stacy Muur

Translation: DeepTechFlow

Since the beginning of 2024, the performance of Web3 games has not been as strong as other areas of cryptocurrency alternative tokens, with a 33% decrease in market capitalization, while the alternative token market only decreased by 14%.

Nevertheless, Web3 games remain a strong participant, accounting for 30% of all decentralized application (dApp) activity, with a daily active wallet count of 2.1 million.

Let's delve into the key insights on Web3 games from the latest Delphi research.

Key Points

Funding for Web3 games peaked between February and March, with monthly investment ranging between $60-100 million, reaching a total funding of $673 million in 2024. However, this only accounted for 41.35% of the total funding in the first quarter of 2022.
Over 50 games were launched in 2024, including notable profitable projects such as Xai, Pixels, and Notcoin.
Xai raised $40 million within 3 months. Pixels achieved a Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) of $4.8 billion and 1 million daily active users (DAU) within 3 weeks of launch. Notcoin attracted 35 million users, reached a market value of $1 billion, and had no external funding.
Portal's FDV dropped from $4 billion to $280 million, and Overworld Incarnas suffered a 75% loss in value. Mavia and Pixelmon also experienced value collapses of over 60% post Token Generation Event (TGE).
Shooter games continue to dominate in Web3, with Off the Grid standing out due to raising $110 million and collaborating with Sony and Microsoft.
In MMORPG, the most anticipated game is MapleStory Universe, with a funding amount of $100 million.
Pirate Nation is a fully on-chain game experiencing rapid growth, with 100,000 active players and $1 million in revenue over the past 6 weeks.
Mobile games like King of Destiny and Matr1x Fire are growing rapidly, attracting tens of thousands of users. Matr1x Fire has already surpassed 3.5 million downloads.
The ecosystems of Ronin and TON are leading in Web3 games. Ronin benefits from the success of Axie Infinity, while TON provides seamless integration with Telegram, reaching 900 million Telegram users. The success of Notcoin and Hamster Kombat further validates this.

This summary outlines the key points from Delphi's "Mid-Year Gaming Review" report. Read the full report here.

Web3 Gaming Focus: Summary

Here are some recent games worth paying attention to, most of which have not been tracked on DappRadar. For statistics on the most popular games, check out this dashboard.

Source: DappRadar

Off the Grid [Shooter]

Description: Off the Grid is a cyberpunk-themed royale combat game created by Gunzilla Games.

Chain: Avalanche

Investment: $101 million

Fact: Off the Grid attracted over $110 million in funding and has a team of over 380 people. The game has partnered with Sony and Microsoft, setting new standards in the industry with releases on PlayStation and Xbox.

MapleStory Universe [MMORPG]

Description: MapleStory Universe expands Nexon's popular "MapleStory" IP into a virtual world ecosystem, hosting various applications based on this beloved series.

Chain: Subnet supported by Avalanche

Investment: $100 million

Fact: In 2023, MapleStory Universe secured over $100 million in funding from Nexon. "MapleStory Online" has accumulated over 100 million players and remains a significant player in the MMORPG field.

From July 24th to August 2nd, NEXPACE invited over 1,000 players to participate in the MapleStory N Pioneer Test. The peak online player count reached 714, with 92% of participants returning multiple times during the test. The team reported a retention rate of 79.97% seven days after the test.

EVE Frontier [MMORPG]

Description: EVE Frontier is a single-server survival game set in a dark, dystopian space where humans strive to survive and rebuild a shattered world. In March 2023, CCP announced that they had raised $40 million for the game's development.

Investment: $40 million

Fact: Leveraging established intellectual property will provide significant advantages for users, allowing them to target the loyal fan bases of "MapleStory" and Eve Online.

MetaCene [MMORPG]

Description: MetaCene is developing a blockchain-based MMORPG set in a surreal post-apocalyptic world. Players use various NFTs to redefine civilization. The game aims to create an accessible Web3 experience, focusing on player-centric entertainment, governance, and AIGC-driven creation.

Chain: Rangers, but Apostle NFT collection is on the Ethereum chain

User Activity (UAW) (30 days): 38,320

Historical Peak User Activity: 57,060 (March 25, 2024)

Fact: MetaCene was founded by gaming experts with over 20 years of industry experience from companies such as Shanda Games, Blizzard, and Perfect World.

In the past 30 days, its user activity has grown from 898 to 37.1k, a growth rate of +4,031.4%.

Avalon [MMORPG]

Description: Avalon is the world's first multi-chain, truly open-world MMORPG, built using Unreal Engine 5 and integrating multiple blockchains. The game is set in a fantasy medieval kingdom, where players use their NFTs to explore the world and compete for cryptocurrency and rare NFT rewards. The game draws inspiration from the Arthurian legend and alternate historical knightly orders.

Chain: ImmutableX, Base

Fact: Both MetaCene and Avalon are led by industry veterans who played key roles in shaping the MMORPG genre with games like "EverQuest" and "Lineage II."

Big Time [MMORPG]

Name: Big Time

Description: Big Time is a PC-based multiplayer action role-playing game (RPG) that combines fast-paced combat with an open game economy. Players actively generate and exchange in-game items. The game seamlessly integrates Web3 elements, ensuring that these elements do not impact the entertainment experience, attracting a wider audience.

Chain: Ethereum

Fact: Big Time has revitalized the Web3 gaming market post-bear market, generating over $100 million in revenue since the pre-sale and positioning itself as a strong Web3 native competitor.

Pirate Nation [Fully On-Chain Game]

Description: Pirate Nation is an innovative game developed by Proof of Play, combining the game with blockchain technology. Players collect pirates and send them on adventures to gather crafting materials, treasures, and pirate coins. Pirates gain experience and level up through multiple adventures.

Chain: Ethereum, Apex Chain

Fact: Pirate Nation experienced an astounding 2,400% growth in just three months. This surge, coupled with an impressive $1 million game revenue in the past six weeks, demonstrates its strong position in the FOCG (Fully On-Chain Game) field.

Apex Chain aims to support the Pirate Nation ecosystem and is one of the most active chains, processing over 2.5 million transactions daily. This places it as the second-highest in transaction volume in the past month, following Base, ranking second among EVM Layer 2 solutions.

Infinigods [Mobile Game Studio]

Projects: Infinimerge, Immortal Siege, King of Destiny

Description: Infinigods is a Web3 game studio focused on providing cross-platform experiences for web and mobile platforms. Infinigods aims to build a casual gaming ecosystem, interconnecting all content through its unique NFT collections and intellectual property inspired by ancient mythology.

Chain: Ethereum

Fact: Infinigods' Web3 lucky battle game King of Destiny is quietly expanding its user base, nearing 1 million downloads, with monthly active users (MAU) exceeding 250,000.

More Games Worth Watching:

Capsule Heroes – Free PvP boxing game.
Matr1x – An entertainment platform that combines Web3, artificial intelligence (AI), and esports, with over 24,000 unique wallets in the past month.
Fableborne – An isometric multiplayer online game with 77,000 downloads.
Treeverse – A large-scale MMORPG developed by the Endless Clouds team.
The World of Dypians (WoD) – A multiplayer online role-playing game currently with 700,000 30-day unique active wallets on DappRadar, ranking the highest.

Source: DappRadar

According to Delphi, there are currently no clear signs in the market that games will be favored in the fourth quarter, despite meme coins and the Solana ecosystem surpassing most other Web3 domains. Additionally, the expected product launches in the next six months will increase competition and may further diversify liquidity.

However, they are hopeful that games such as Off The Grid, Maple Story Universe, and Fableborne will have a positive impact on the sentiment of the Web3 and Web2 markets. Such content should still be seen as the best Trojan horse for cryptocurrencies, a potential means of propagation, and they believe there are optimistic reasons in the short to medium term.

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