GameFi Tokens Outshine With Sharp Recovery

GameFi tokens are continuing to rally, with many of the sector’s leading projects posting double-digit gains for several consecutive weeks.

Data from CoinGecko shows that half of the ten largest GameFi projects gained more than 10% in the past week, with Immutable (IMX) rallying 35%, Illuvium (ILV) gaining 27%, and The Sandbox (SAND) jumping 12% over the past seven days.

ILV and IMX also spiked more than 100% in the past four weeks, while The Sandbox is up 52%. Axie Infinity tokens also enjoyed impressive gains, with AXS rallying 43% and SLP surging 70% since mid-October.

Archived data shows that the GameFi sector’s market cap grew 23% to $11.5B since Oct. 30.

GameFi tokens were among the digital assets hardest hit by the recent bear market, with four of the five largest web3 gaming projects still trading at a more than 95% discount compared to their all-time highs despite their recent momentum.

Web3 gaming bounces back

On Nov. 13, Game7, a collective of web3 gaming developers and researchers, published a report that found GameFi projects represented an outsized share of web3 fundraising this year, taking in $1.5B during the first half of 2023. Game7 examined 1,900 blockchain games,1,000 funding rounds, and 170 blockchain ecosystems.

The report noted the sector’s increasing migration over to Ethereum scaling solutions, with Polygon, Immutable, and Arbitrum enjoying an influx of new titles. However, 75% of newly released titles launched on Layer 1.

“The Polygon ecosystem hosts most Web3 games today, followed by BNB and the Ethereum Mainnet,” Game7 said. “Immutable has emerged as the most popular L2 gaming ecosystem, followed by Arbitrum.”

Despite the growing number of web3 gaming titles, the report noted that just 5% of projects are fully hosted on-chain. Instead, 85% of games support on-chain assets such as NFTs and fungible tokens.

Most blockchain games are free-to-play with a 69% share of the market, while 26% are token-gated — meaning users must hold a specific NFT to play the game.

Despite the sector’s recent turnaround, Game7 found that AA or AAA-rated web3 games are still few and far between, with 94% of web3 games comprising “indie-level and midsize projects.”