The blockchain gaming industry received $2.5 billion in investment in Q1 2022, as per a joint report by DappRadar and the Blockchain Gaming Alliance (BGA). In the document, the organizations suggests that 2022 will be a key year for this market.
Blockchain games are in hype
According to the report’s projections, the value captured in the first quarter is the beginning of a big movement. If the market reaches its full potential, investments in the games sector could end 2022 at US$ 10 billion.
This optimism is justified by the strong evolution of investments in the sector. In 2021, for example, only US$ 4 billion was raised during the whole year. That is, games captured 62.5% of 2021 investments in a single quarter.
The investment trend is also supported by the growing interest from users. The report measured this data based on the number of active unique wallets (UAW). That number reached 1.22 million in March, which represents 52% of all industry activity.
According to the report, there were only 61,000 active game wallets in the first quarter of 2021. As a result, activity in the games sector grew by a significant 2,000% in the comparison between periods.
Interest in the Metaverse cools
If blockchain games are in strong hype, Metaverse takes the opposite path. Once one of the strong trends in blockchain, the industry has seen significant drops.
Trading volume on Metaverse projects declined 12% to $430 million in Q1 2022. The drops have hit land prices on these platforms. Decentraland, for example, had a 40% devaluation in the average price of its land.
On the other hand, The Sandbox saw a 60% drop in trading volumes on its platform, while Decentraland lost 20% in volume. The lower the volume traded, the greater the perception that the trend has passed.
Finally, the report also examined the effects of the attack on Ronin, the bridge between Axie Infinity and ETH. Despite the high loss of US$ 625 million, activity in the Axie Infinity was already in decline since early 2022.
In January, there were over 55,000 unique active wallets on Axie, a number that had dropped to 20,000 by mid-March. Therefore, the drop was already in evidence almost two weeks before the attack on Ronin, discovered only on March 29.
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