In-game improvements are key to driving blockchain gaming adoption in 2023 | BGA

Gameplay improvements are key to driving blockchain game adoption in 2023, according to a report by the Blockchain Game Alliance. And a separate report from DappRadar found that companies in the sector raised $7.6 billion by 2022.

The Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) 2022 Member Survey and Report has found that blockchain game industry professionals predict that game improvements will be the single most important factor driving adoption in 2023, with web3 developers working to make blockchain games more fun and immersive .

After game improvements, the next two factors most commonly believed to drive the industry forward in the coming year are traditional game studios and existing game franchises moving into Web3, the report said.

Founded in 2018, the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) is an industry organization with over 500 members, including major games and studios, guilds, blockchain protocols, venture capital, service organizations and crypto exchanges.

Now in its second year, the BGA Member Survey and Report is a survey designed to assess the views of BGA members and blockchain gaming professionals on the state of the industry, as well as the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. BGA engaged Emfarsis to design and conduct the 22-question survey, covering topics such as careers, growth, adoption and key issues facing the industry. Findings from the survey are used to ensure that BGA’s planned activities are in line with the industry’s needs.

When it comes to the biggest positive impact on blockchain gaming in the past year, 21.3% of respondents pointed to the unprecedented levels of funding flowing into the sector – $7.6 billion reported by DappRadar.

The next two most positive influences were mainstream brands and celebrities adopting NFTs (16.4%) and traditional game studios launching their own NFT games (15.0%). When asked about the core benefits that blockchain brings to gaming, 68.9% indicated that ownership of digital assets remains the most important benefit the technology can provide with NFTs delivering digital property rights to players.

Following this, new player reward models (35.2%) and new revenue models (34.3%) were highlighted as the most innovative aspects of web3 applied to games.

“Looking back, 2022 was a year of growth – not only in terms of funding, titles and headlines, but also in terms of active participation,” Sebastian Borget, president of the BGA, said in a statement. “Even with an influx of new entrants into the space, the core benefits of blockchain for industry haven’t changed significantly since last year.”

He added: “Player ownership, new player rewards and new revenue models are still top three. On top of this, our industry is committed to improving the overall blockchain gaming experience, from better gameplay to ease of onboarding. This tells me that we put players first in our quest to revolutionize our industry through the use of blockchain and NFT.

In terms of industry challenges, over half (51%) of respondents agreed that player onboarding and accessibility remains the biggest issue in blockchain gaming, given the high learning requirements for new players unfamiliar with the use of cryptocurrencies and other blockchain applications. After this, poor gameplay was said to be the biggest problem (37.2%), as well as the problem of blockchain game concepts not being fully understood (28.5%).

At the company level, FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) was the biggest concern with 27.7% indicating that the onset of crypto winter had a negative impact on their business. Despite this, almost nine in ten (89.3%) said they believe they will still be working with blockchain games in a year’s time – a remarkable display of confidence in the industry, especially given that half of all respondents (49.9 %) had not even been in their current position for more than a year.

Major developments

The WAX ​​protocol remained the most popular blockchain for web3 games, attracting almost 350,000 daily UAW on average in 2022. Hive and BNB Chain came next with 235,000 UAW and 167,000 UAW respectively.

Polygon consolidated as a gaming chain after attracting 97,000 daily UAWs on average in 2022, up 340% from the previous year. Arc8 by GAMEE, Benji Bananas, Crazy Defense Heroes and Pegaxy were among the gaming apps that drove the growth.

ImmutableX generated $87 million in NFT trading volume, 250% higher than last year. Gods Unchained finished in the top 25 most traded collections across all blockchains.

Axie Infinity generated $325 million in NFT trading volume behind the launch of Axie Infinity: Origins and the first appearance of Lunacia in Axie Infinity Homeland.

Yuga Labs’ Otherside became the highest-grossing virtual world project after launching on April 30, surpassing Decentraland and The Sandbox. Otherside generated over $1 billion in trades.

Gala Games ended 2022 with 18 games in its portfolio, including two on Steam and one on the Epic Games Store.

Alien Worlds was the most played dapp in 2022 with almost 200,000 daily UAW on average and 4.8 billion on-chain transactions that included gaming, trading and DAO activity.

Splinterlands was the second most popular game based on wallet activity, consolidating its player base to 160,000 daily UAWs during the second half of the year. The Hive-based trading card game also achieved relevant roadmap milestones when the team launched Node Validation Licenses and dropped Runi NFT and Land Deeds.

STEPN kicked-started the move-to-earn paradigm behind a gamified reward model for physical activities. While STEPN’s growth stalled in Q4, dapps such as Genopets, Step App, Dotmoovs and Dustland are also following the trend.

The leading gaming and metaverse projects continued to build despite the crypto winter. Projects behind the leading metaverse game apps launched their alpha or beta phases, including Illuvium, The Sandbox, Big Time, Axie Infinity Homeland, The Fabled, Phantom Galaxies, Star Atlas, My Neighbor Alice, Treeverse, Mirandus and many more.

Industry data

The report said there are 1.13 million unique active wallets connected daily to gaming apps across 48 blockchains tracked in 2022, about 85% more than 2021.

On-chain gaming transactions reached 7.4 billion, up 37% from 2021 and 3,260% from 2020. About $2.54 billion was invested in blockchain infrastructure projects.

The trade volume from virtual worlds in 2022 was estimated at $1.45 billion, 136% higher than last year. And games account for almost 50% of all activity on the chain, according to Dapp Radar.

Among the respondents in the survey, 65% of the respondents are under 35 years of age. And 89% say they will still be working on blockchain games in a year. About 56% accept at least part of their salary in cryptocurrency. BGA grew from 300 members in 2021 to 500 in 2022.

Industry drivers

Some 36% predict that improvements in the game will be the biggest driver of adoption in 2023. The survey found a 67% decrease in respondents who consider games to serve as the main driver of the industry. By the end of 2021, play-to-earn was believed to be the industry’s most important driver.

And 21% cite funding as the biggest positive impact on the industry in 2022, followed by NFT adoption by mainstream brands and celebrities.

Challenges

About 30% cite crypto winter as having the most negative impact on the industry in 2022. Forty percent believe that one of the biggest misconceptions about blockchain gaming is that it is environmentally harmful.

About 37% of respondents believe there is still a misconception that blockchain games are not fun.