Rumors of the death of Blockchain Gaming are greatly exaggerated; Research finds that players are generally positive about the benefits of play and earn games and the integration of crypto-assets into the game

ZEBEDEE survey reveals that 67% of players would be more likely to play free games if offered opportunities to earn cryptocurrencies as rewards

HOBOKEN, NJ, 14 December 2022 /PRNewswire/ — ZEBEDEE, the leading Fintech and next-generation payment processor for the gaming industry, today announced the results of a study that surveyed over 1,000 US respondents who play at least one hour of video games per week to gauge their feelings towards blockchain technologies, NFTs and cryptocurrencies are being integrated into video games.

Blockchain / NFT gaming companies have raised more than $3B in investment in the first three quarters of 2022, but the space has often faced negative sentiment. The 2022 ZEBEDEE Blockchain Gaming Survey was conducted to shed light on the general perception that gamers have towards new blockchain gaming technologies such as NFTs and Play-and-Earn Bitcoin games, as well as to better understand their awareness of and feelings towards cryptocurrency in general.

Despite a perceived negative sentiment regarding blockchain integration with games, the survey found that the majority of US gamers are supportive or neutral about web3 technologies that allow in-game assets to be transferred for exchange or sale with other players. It also clearly showed that not all cryptocurrencies are perceived equally, with more established assets in particular Bitcoinshows significantly higher appeal than newer tokens and NFTs.

Findings include:

• The majority of players (67%) would be more likely to play free games if they provided opportunities to earn cryptocurrencies as a reward.
• 45% of respondents believe that having the ability to easily sell or trade video game characters and items with other players would be beneficial compared to 23% who believe it could negatively impact their experience. 32% said they currently have no opinion on the subject.
• Players are five times more interested in earning Bitcoin (27%) than NFTs (5%). This indicates that the gaming industry is making a mistake by focusing primarily on NFT rewards.
• Only 10% of respondents have a negative view of the integration of web3 technology into games (19% feel it is driven by business interests).
• Although the majority of US gamers do not own any cryptocurrencies (55%), Bitcoin is the dominant one cryptocurrency choice among players who do (25%), followed by Ethereum (18%) and Dogecoin (14%);
• The majority of players (64%) have never played Play-and-Earn games with financial rewards, indicating great potential for future growth for this type of game.
• 38% of US gamers say they know nothing about cryptocurrencies, NFTs and blockchain technologies used in gaming.

The survey also found that players who play more often tend to be more aware of web3 technologies and cryptocurrencies, and are more likely to own cryptocurrencies. The survey reveals that 60% of gamers who play 15 hours or more per week keep some crypto assets compared to 56% of those who play 10-14 hours per week, 46% of those who play 5-9 hours per week, and 32% of those who play less than 4 hours per week.

This statistic stands in stark contrast to the popular belief that gamers are largely anti-crypto.

“What struck us most from the survey’s findings was that there is clearly a misconception about players and their opposition to crypto integration, which most players actually have a positive-to-neutral opinion about crypto in-game rewards. Furthermore, despite most of the industry’s attention being focused on NFTs, we found that Bitcoin stands out as the most popular decentralized resource among players compared to other cryptocurrencies, including NFTs,” said Ben Cousens, Chief Strategy Officer at ZEBEDEE. “However, the majority of players have yet to encounter Play-and-Earn games with real financial rewards. The findings suggest that players are generally more open to seeing these technologies integrated into games, giving the industry an opportunity to educate, engage and attract new players to the Play-and-Earn ecosystem.”

The ZEBEDEE Blockchain Gaming Survey was conducted in late September 2022 and included responses from 1,041 US residents who engage in regular gaming activities. To learn more about ZEBEDEE and Play-and-Earn games, visit zebedee.io.

About ZEBEDEE:

ZEBEDEE is the leading FinTech and next-generation payment processor for the gaming industry, backed by global VCs and game studios including Initial Capital, Lakestar, Kingsway Capital, The Raine Group and Square Enix. The sophisticated tools enable developers to create real video game economies for players and communities. ZEBEDEE blurs the lines between real and virtual worlds by powering instant global payments of any size for any game, website or application through Bitcoin Lightning network. Learn more about ZEBEDEE and the benefits it brings to both developers and players at zebedee.io.

Press contact:

SEBEDEE: Jure Grahek, (928) 248-2810, [email protected]

Visuals are available here.

View original content to download multimedia:

SOURCE ZEBEDE