Blockchain technology has taken video games to a new level: players can now not only spend their leisure time gaming, but also earn money while doing so. With the development of decentralised technologies, GameFi projects based on real tokenomics have emerged, and all in-game items within them become digital assets that can be sold for cryptocurrency. Let us look at what blockchain games are, what makes them special, and which games you need to play in order to earn money.
What are blockchain games
Blockchain games are video games that include elements powered by blockchain technology. In other words, a blockchain game is a type of decentralised application (DApp) in the DeFi financial sector. But interest in them became so high that a separate field, GameFi, was created for decentralised games.
Players can own NFTs, which can be sold on special marketplaces, or earn money by taking part in tournaments or other gaming events. The latter are known as Play-to-Earn (P2E), which means ‘play to earn’. NFTs, like other tokens, can be stored, received and transferred in a crypto wallet such as Trustee.
Free-to-play blockchain games are one way to start earning without an initial deposit, but they are not the only option. Users can also earn crypto without investment through airdrops, faucets, bounty campaigns, referral programs, and other beginner-friendly methods.
How users make money from blockchain games
You can earn income in several ways by playing popular blockchain games: from yield farming and staking to selling in-game items and characters. Let us list the main ways of earning money from decentralised games.
Selling NFTs
Every character or item in a game can act as a non-fungible token (ERC-721 or BEP-721). You can buy a basic character, develop it, and then sell it on a marketplace and make a profit. The higher the character’s level, the greater its value, and therefore the higher its price will be.
Yield farming and staking
Some decentralised platforms allow users not only to own NFT tokens, but also to stake them and earn additional income. For example, users of the Biswap DEX on Binance Smart Chain can stake virtual robots and receive profits in several tokens at once.
For each swap, users can receive boost points for ‘levelling up’ their robots. The higher the robot’s level, the more income it generates. Boost points are awarded for every swap on Biswap — from 10% to 90% of the commission amount, depending on the user’s settings.
Winning by taking part in competitions
Some P2E games hold tournaments among gamers, and by taking part in them you can receive tokens if the player makes it onto the winners’ list. This is a difficult method that most often requires not only a great deal of free time, but also significant investment, without which making it onto the winners’ list is very difficult.
Airdrops
Crypto enthusiasts know that some projects run special airdrops for holders, such as Strong Holder Offering (SHO) in MakerDAO. NFT holders can also receive free tokens for holding their NFTs.
Play-to-Earn games can reward users with tokens, NFTs, or stablecoin proceeds after selling in-game assets. Once these earnings are transferred to a wallet, a crypto card can make them easier to use outside the game economy — for online shopping, subscriptions, or everyday payments.
Advantages and pitfalls of blockchain games
GameFi ‘took off’ in 2021, and the tokens of some projects grew more than a hundredfold in just a few months. A vivid example is the Axie Infinity (AXS) token, which rose from $0.50 to $160 in less than a year.
But before investing in blockchain games, you need to assess not only the advantages, but also the risks that may arise.
Advantages
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Huge earning potential. Not only can you generate income, but you may even make an entire fortune. An NFT token that you buy now may be worth millions of dollars in the future. For example, CryptoPunk #3100 from the collection of the same name, which was distributed free of charge to anyone interested in 2017, was sold at auction for $7.58 million.
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An alternative source of income. Not everyone manages to turn crypto games into their main source of income, but game enthusiasts can earn additional profit from them. Perhaps after some time it will become your main source of income.
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It contributes to blockchain development. Decentralised games benefit not only players and developers, but also the entire DeFi ecosystem, drawing a great deal of attention to it and demonstrating its strengths.
Pitfalls
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You need to understand the new digital art. You cannot simply buy a collectible item and wait for its price to rise. You must be able to follow market trends and understand why an asset may be valuable. Some works of art that are highly valued now may be worth nothing in the future. The collage ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ was sold for a record $69.3 million on the OpenSea marketplace.
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Complexity and a high entry threshold. In reality, beginners have little chance of taking the top places. Tournament winners are most often experienced players and streamers who understand the game mechanics well and can afford to invest large sums in games. You will need weeks, months, or perhaps even years to displace strong players.
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Risks. No one knows whether the hype around blockchain games will continue in 2024 and whether the gaming industry will continue developing at the same pace as it is now, or begin to fade as early as tomorrow, as happened with the ICO boom in 2017. Although growth in the gaming industry and metaverses is expected, everything will depend on demand. Therefore, the gaming assets you own may make you rich or deprive you of capital. In addition, new projects appear regularly, and it is hard to keep track of them: strong competitors may displace computer games that are currently at the peak of popularity.
Ranking of blockchain games with earnings and cash withdrawal
The best blockchain games can be tracked with the help of specialised services such as DApp Radar — one of the largest monitoring services for decentralised applications. You can filter DApps by categories and blockchain networks.
We have compiled a top list of blockchain games in which users can earn cryptocurrency.
Farmers World
One of the best blockchain games to earn money. Although Farmers World launched only this year, it quickly became one of the leading new blockchain games by number of gamers thanks to its uniqueness: it is the first NFT game in which you need to develop a farm and receive rewards for doing so. More than 150,000 players around the world have joined Farmers World.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is considered one of the best blockchain games in the style of Pokémon. Its popularity came not only from exciting gameplay, but also from the integration of the Ronin solution for scaling the Ethereum network, which makes it possible to reduce fees and increase transaction speed.
Players collect and breed creatures resembling Pokémon and represented as NFT tokens, which can be sold on the marketplace. For every victory in battle or successfully completed mission, players receive a reward in SLP ERC-20 tokens.
Alien Worlds
This is a DeFi metaverse in which players can use NFT items for various purposes and earn money. The popularity of Alien Worlds was so high that in July 2021, 1 million wallets were registered in a single month. The game operates on two blockchains — WAX and Binance Smart Chain. Players receive rewards in native TLM tokens, which can also be used for voting in a DAO.
Sprinterlands
The game ranks first by number of active users, exceeding 300,000. Sprinterlands is a free Play-to-Earn collectible MMORPG similar to the well-known Gods Unchained. Notably, the game has been released on the same WAX blockchain.
The Sandbox
Another of the best blockchain games with NFTs and an open world (metaverse), created in the style of the popular Minecraft game on the Ethereum blockchain. Gamers create and trade virtual items in Sandbox for SAND tokens, and also earn LAND tokens. Users can even create their own games for other participants.
Star Atlas
A space-themed strategy game on the Solana blockchain, created on the innovative Unreal Five engine. Users’ spacecraft collide with one another in the open space of the Star Atlas universe and enter into battle in order to win and receive rewards. The Star Atlas project team conducted one of the most successful IEOs on the FTX exchange: after listing, the price of the STAR and POLIS tokens jumped 150 times compared with the token sale price, which attracted a great deal of attention from users.
Blockchain games without investment
Many games require considerable investment in order to start earning. But some of them allow you to begin for free. Here is a top list of blockchain games to earn money without investment:
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Gods Unchained — a card-based role-playing game on the WAX blockchain. Each user receives a starter pack of cards with which they can take part in battles to earn valuable rewards for victories. But the first cards are not stored on the blockchain: to create duplicates that can be sold, you first need to win duels and earn them.
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Sprinterlands — a similar game in which the basic pack of cards can be obtained free of charge.
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Chainmonsters — a free-to-play MMORPG inspired by Pokémon, like Axie Infinity, which you can also start playing without investment.
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The Sandbox — investment will help you progress faster and earn more in the game, but you can also start without it.
Blockchain games on your phone
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Blocks Brawler — a popular game released on the MOBOX blockchain platform in the BSC network. It can be played both via the iOS and Android app and on desktop devices. Users level up their character, fight other players and complete challenges. The best gamers in the weekly ranking receive rewards in MBOX tokens.
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Pagan Gods — a Russian-language card-based blockchain game in the WAX ecosystem, created by Ino Worlds.
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CoinHunt World — a game for iOS and Android reminiscent of the once-popular Pokémon Go app. The aim for players is to collect keys hidden on a virtual map while moving around in the real world. Once the required number of keys has been collected, it becomes possible to open vaults in order to receive a reward in BTC or ETH. But only after you answer the single question correctly.
Future prospects for blockchain games
The daily trading volume of GameFi projects exceeds $55 million, according to DApp Radar, whereas just six months ago it barely exceeded $20 million. This indicates growing demand and rising interest in blockchain games. Companies such as Coinbase and Patron assess the prospects for blockchain-based video games positively. Moreover, Patron has raised $90 million to invest in crypto games, while Mythical Games has raised $75 million for their development.
But all of them were surpassed by Forte, which managed to raise $725 million for the creation and development of GameFi infrastructure. These figures already say a great deal about the possible prospects for blockchain games. But in the end, market trends decide everything: while they remain upward in the long term, companies will continue to be interested in developing the blockchain gaming sector.
