GameFi continues to shine as the market turns to “extreme greed” after the U.S. presidential election and Trump’s victory.
TL;DR
- Bitcoin breaks ATH, GameFi sector adds 25% in market cap
- Can Western Web3 games crack Asia?
- Animoca Brands raises millions for Mocaverse
- Projects migrating to Ronin
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Introduction
Bitcoin has once again broken its all-time high (ATH), tapping $93,000 and currently sitting at about $88,000 at the time of writing. GameFi continues to shine as the market turns to “extreme greed” after the U.S. presidential election and Trump’s victory.
Flashy new games like Off The Grid and Farcana that look good enough to be played on a console are attracting more institutional investors after the Play2Earn (P2E) model did not succeed due to unsustainable tokenomics. The focus is shifting more towards playing for fun than earning money.
Market Overview
The GameFi market cap continues its steady rise from about $17 billion to almost $22 billion over the last seven days.
Big picture though, looking at the one-year chart, we’re still a long way from reclaiming March 2024’s highs.
Source: CMC
On the upside, crypto is getting interested in gaming again.
According to DeFiLlama’s Narrative Tracker, GameFi was the fourth-best sector performer this week, even better than Bitcoin. With Bitcoin clearing $90K, it could be that clever investors are looking further along the curve to see where they can make the biggest Xs in the bull run with the most undervalued tokens. Gaming could well provide that when meme coin mania runs its course.
Immutable confirms this in their latest State of Web3 Gaming Report, out on Nov. 15.
According to the report, Telegram captured one in five new Web3 game launches in 2024, with publishers utilizing the messaging app for user acquisition. This trend could influence traditional mobile platforms’ approaches to Web3 gaming, as mobile gaming faces challenges from restrictive app store policies and regulatory uncertainties.
Top Coin Movements
This thesis is further supported if we look at the biggest gaming tokens out there. The GameFi market is booming with all but one coin in the top 20 solidly in profit last week.
Of course, almost all coins went up this week thanks to the Bitcoin post-election pump, but these are indeed some very solid gains across multiple chains.
Source: CMC
Top Gainers:
- FLOKI (FLOKI): +59.84%
- HamsterKombat (HMSTR): +51.71%
- Gala (GALA): +25.56%
- Notcoin (NOT): +23.26%
- Beam (BEAM): +20.70%
Top Decliners:
- WEMIX (WEMIX): -3.58%
Blockchain Gaming Activity This Week
The normies are coming, slowly then all at once, as Catizen brings 43 million people into the Web3 sharing economy.
- Elfin Metaverse grows with 15x their unique active wallets (UAW) this week as their Land Battle Pass went live.
- KGen soars with 220% while they take on big tech and play by their own rules.
- Apeiron rises 79% as their PvE mode introduces Godly-3.
- MetaWin surges by 15.85% with their MetaWin Millionaire going live.
- PlayEmber does well rising 14.8%, building the next generation of consumer crypto games.
- SERAPH: In The Darkness is up 3.51% as the world's first high-quality Web3 dark ARPG loot game.
Latest Blockchain Gaming News
$500M Q3 Investment Surge in Blockchain Gaming
The blockchain gaming sector is seeing a huge comeback with over $500 million invested in Q3 2024. This renewed interest is driven by institutional investors who now see blockchain gaming as a viable, long-term space, according to Farcana’s CEO Ilman Shazhaev.
It’s unlike earlier days, when the focus was mainly on "play-to-earn" models like Axie Infinity which struggled to stay relevant because their focus was on financial incentives rather than just playing for fun. These models were unsustainable.
Projects like Off The Grid by Gunzilla Games highlight how blockchain is reshaping the gaming experience, bringing AAA quality games that are fun to play with new financial models.
Animoca Brands Raises $10 Million for Mocaverse
Animoca Brands has raised an additional $10 million for its Mocaverse platform, building an open metaverse to drive Web3 adoption.
The funding round included investors such as CMCC Global and Hong Shan with a free-attaching warrant for the MOCA token at an implied fully diluted value (FDV) of almost $800 million.
Yat Siu, chairman of Animoca Brands said in a statement, “With Mocaverse and its Realm Network we are bringing the Web3 ethos of interoperability to life, driving decentralization and shared network effects across the broader Web3 ecosystem.
How can Western Web3 games attract Asian markets?
Western Web3 games are struggling to connect with Asian gamers who dominate the global gaming market with a unique approach for mobile-first, gacha-based games which feature random loot, in-game currency and high engagement, a Cointelegraph article reports.
According to gaming executive Sam Patton, a common phrase in Japan is “Yo-ge, kuso-ge,” meaning “Western games are sh*t.” To succeed in this region, Western studios need to embrace gacha mechanics. These elements persuade players to spend in-game currency to receive a random in-game item. They are popular in Asia where games like Honor of Kings and PUBG thrive and could help Western Web3 games resonate more with Asian players.
Crypto and Web3 adoption face regulatory hurdles in major markets like China and India. Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines show strong potential for Web3 gaming, especially when you can earn money.
Fableborne Moves From Avalanche to Ronin
Pixion Games will migrate its mobile game Fableborne from Avalanche to Ronin. This move is motivated by Ronin’s strong established gaming community, which is known as the “Ronin Effect.”
Games that join Ronin have rapid growth due to the network’s user engagement, driven by popular titles like Axie Infinity. Fableborne, an action RPG and base-building game saw over 100,000 players in its second beta season, averaging 18 hours of play per week.
With this move Fableborne will introduce crypto elements, converting in-game heroes and items into NFTs. As Season 3 approaches, Pixion Games plans to leverage Sky Mavis' expertise to improve its Web3 mechanics before its launch in 2025.
Pixion Games' CEO Kam Punia sees Ronin as an ideal platform to experiment and refine Fableborne’s Web3 elements.
Super Doginals on DogeCoin
Super Doginals is a new retro-style game bringing classic arcade vibes to Dogecoin (DOGE). It's free to play and entirely inscribed on the Dogecoin blockchain via the Doginals protocol.
Designed by the pseudonymous creator known as Pimax, Super Doginals supports web browsers, gamepads and touchscreens, allowing for multiplayer fun.
The Doginals protocol enables Pimax to implement updates and patches directly on the blockchain and permits other developers to potentially create their own variations of Super Doginals.
The game is also connected to the Mini Doge art project, which explores how blockchain technology can host interactive media and digital art assets.
What You Can Do Now
- Focus on quality over hype: look out for games that people play for fun rather than just to earn.
- Check for real utility and in-game integration: projects where tokens and NFTs have multiple use cases within the game such as staking, upgrades and crafting, tend to be more sustainable.
- Evaluate team experience and transparency: teams with a proven track record in gaming or blockchain are more likely to deliver.
- Assess community activity and growth: high player retention and active communities (Discord, Twitter, Reddit) show that a game can attract and keep players.
- Check out the games and studios that VCs are investing in to catch 2025’s gaming trends early.
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