P2E Moon Watch: The Gaming Week in Review (September 2 – September 9, 2022)

The play-to-earn market is splitting into several types of games. One is the classical type, which is now trying to reorganize and offer more value. Well-established older games still attract users and try to bring back tournaments and more substantial prize pools or rewards. At the same time, well-developed app-ready games are launching with a crypto component. The older model of selling assets first and waiting for the game for years has seen multiple setbacks. Other types of games include AAA-grade developments with only limited Web3 components, such as NFT ownership and an in-game swap service. Games still keep choosing to have a blockchain side, and the bear market has not seen a setback in building new projects. 

Top Events of the Week

• Axie Infinity Updates Marketplace, Holds Barcelona Meetup
• Crabada Brings New Rules to Battle Arena
• Genopets Adds Crafting Mechanics
• Step.App Builds Avalanche Subnet Ecosystem
• Sunflower Land: Goblin Wars Pick Up the Pace

Leading Games by Number of Users

The top 10 games reflect the rise of several new types of P2E sources. Axie Infinity still clings to the top 10 list, though down from its peak capacity. Most top games lost users in the past week, with Splinterlands expanding to reach the top spot. 

Alien Worlds

175.32K

126.03K

Game

Previous Week

Current

Splinterlands

136.57K

159.47K

Alien Worlds

175.32K

126.03K

Gameta

119.54K

118.76K

Farmers World

81.77K

91.37K

Upland

38.34K

36.00K

Solitaire Blitz

33.96K

30.71K

P2E Token Price Action

P2E tokens managed to gain slightly during the past week, as BTC and ETH recovered some of their recent losses. The gains were limited to 2-3% on a weekly basis.

Weekly Lagger: WEMIX, -1.45% to $2.06. WEMIX continues to carry highly complex games, but moves opposite to some of the more widely traded assets.

The market cap of all P2E tokens recovered slightly to $6.55B, reflecting the overall market condition of slight optimism.

Decentraland (MANA) +1.68 % to $0.80. MANA remains solidly under $1 with no signs of regaining the position. 

The Sandbox (SAND) +1.78% at $0.96, with a small change as there are still no news of Alpha Season 3.

Axie Infinity (AXS) +3.47% to $14.78. AXS rose as the Axie Barcelona Conference took off, with a big gaming final and $500K prize pool.

Gala Games (GALA) +1.78% to $0.051. GALA continues to move sideways, and recently phased out TOWN token payments on the flagship Town Star game.

Ethereum (ETH) broke above $1,700 again, ahead of the Merge event expected in the next few days. With BTC rising above $21,000 from a recent dip, the markets had a temporary breather. However, the bear market conditions may persist, putting emphasis on building quality games instead of risky GameFi proposals or high-priced NFT collections.