2024 April, the Web3 gaming industry experienced a price correction, but the number of active users reached a historic high.

Author: Footprint Analytics

Translated by: Plain Blockchain

In April 2024, after setting a record in March, the Web3 gaming industry saw significant changes. Bitcoin experienced a 10.4% decline from its all-time high at the end of the month, dropping from $71,229 on April 1 to $63,839 on April 30. Similarly, the market value of blockchain gaming tokens dropped by 30.5%. However, the number of daily active users (wallets) reached a historic high of 3 million, highlighting increased user engagement amidst broader market challenges.

The data in this report is from Footprint's GameFi research report. This intuitive and user-friendly dashboard will be updated in real-time, providing the key statistical data and indicators needed to understand the Web3 gaming industry.

1. Monthly Market Review

In April 2024, after Bitcoin set a new all-time high of $73,068 in March, it experienced a correction, dropping by 10.4% from $71,229 on April 1 to $63,839 on April 30. Similarly, Ethereum started to decline from $3,643 at the beginning of the month and closed at $3,215 on April 30, a decrease of 11.7%.

Bitcoin (BTC) price and Ethereum (ETH) price

Overall, the industry trend in April remained positive. The Bitcoin halving event on April 20 reduced the network's issuance speed, and a bipartisan bill on stablecoin regulation was introduced by U.S. senators, indicating a potentially clearer regulatory environment. Additionally, in this month, former Binance (BN) CEO Zhao Changpeng was sentenced to four months in federal prison for money laundering violations, indicating clearer regulations in the centralized exchange platform industry.

Despite recent strong quarterly earnings, Bitcoin prices declined in April. Ethereum also lagged behind Bitcoin, possibly due to investor uncertainty about its chances of obtaining ETF approval in the U.S.

This reflects a general decline in market sentiment. Public statements from Federal Reserve officials indicate a diminished prospect of interest rate cuts, consistent with strong economic indicators such as wage employment and consumer price index. Additionally, Uniswap Labs and Consensys received Wells notices from the SEC, highlighting imminent regulatory challenges for decentralized finance projects.

2. Overall Web3 Gaming Market

In April, the market value of blockchain gaming tokens dropped to $16.6 billion, a decrease of 30.5%. This decline was mainly influenced by the overall trend in the crypto market and Bitcoin's performance.

Market value of GameFi and Bitcoin

The average daily transaction volume of blockchain games was 8.6 million, a 16.7% decrease from March, far below the peak level of about 25 million transactions in the third quarter of 2022.

Daily transaction volume of Web3 games

In contrast, the average daily active users (wallets/players) in April reached 3 million, a 16.9% increase from March, setting a new historic high record.

Daily active users of blockchain games

3. Web3 Gaming Chains

In April, a total of 1,572 games were active on various blockchains, with BNB Chain, Polygon, and Wax leading with market shares of 25.8%, 19.5%, and 15.6% respectively.

Daily active games on each chain

In the average daily active users (wallets/players) in April, Ronin, Polygon, and Near led the industry. Ronin maintained its leading position, increasing its market share from 25.9% to 29.2%. Near's share grew from 6.4% to 11.3%, and Klaytn's share rose from 2.9% to 6.2%.

Conversely, BNB Chain's share decreased from 9.1% to 7.4%. Additionally, Linea's share dropped from 7.8% to 0.15% due to the closure of its Web3 game activity "Linea Park."

Daily active users on each chain

Last month, more chains joined the initiative driven by the support of the Arbitrum and Starknet foundations for the Web3 gaming ecosystem. Immutable announced the launch of a $50 million Web3 gaming reward program and revealed that its ecosystem is currently developing over 270 game projects, including highly anticipated projects like Illuvium and MetalCore.

4. Web3 Gaming Overview

In April, the total number of games reached 3,118, with 1,319 games active. Among them, 261 games, accounting for 8.4%, attracted over 1,000 monthly users.

Monthly active users of blockchain games

These data have remained stable for some time, and there is an expectation for an increase in popular Web3 games. However, for game studios, developing high-quality games is a time-consuming process. Additionally, bridging the gap between partially on-chain and fully on-chain games is a significant challenge. Creating ideal fully on-chain games requires seamless integration of on-chain elements with the rich user experience of traditional games.

Despite the challenges, several games performed well in April.

Several popular games experienced significant user growth on their respective platforms: Pixels gained 1.1 million new users on Ronin, Matr1x Fire attracted 598,200 users on Polygon, and Lifeform gained 112,500 users on BNB Chain.

Additionally, Another World, built on Klaytn, has become one of the hottest games. It had an average of 130,800 daily active users throughout April, increasing significantly from 2.1K on April 1 to 1.729 million on April 30, far exceeding the previous daily user count of less than 50. This surge in popularity helped boost Klaytn's share of daily active users from 2.9% to 6.2%.

5. Game Investment and Financing

In April, the Web3 gaming industry had a total of 17 financing activities, with a total investment amount of $78.7 million, a significant decrease of 47.9% from March's financing amount.

Financing rounds in the Web3 gaming industry in April 2024 (Source: crypto-fundraising.info)

In April, Animoca Brands showed significant activity in five Web3 gaming projects. These investments included Anichess, Puffverse, Gomble Games, Iskra, and Planet Mojo.

In April, the Web3 gaming platform Gomble Games received $10 million in funding support from prominent cryptocurrency and gaming investors, including Spartan, Animoca Brands, BN Labs, and IOSG Ventures.

Similarly, NFT game Puffverse received $3 million in funding support from investors such as Animoca Brands, Spartan, and Sky Mavis. It is worth noting that Puffverse announced plans to fully migrate its main products and assets to the Ronin network in May.

Latest developments:

Hytopia is set to launch its Beta version after an $8 million token sale.

NFT card game Parallel is set to debut on the Epic Games Store.

AltLayer collaborates with Xterio Games to launch game-focused Restaked Rollup.

Sui Gaming Handheld focuses on the Steam Deck, supporting PC and crypto games.

Axie Infinity brings new updates to its ecosystem, including Axie Experience Points and Part Evolution.

The founder of Bored Ape, Yuga Labs, has just transferred the NFT game to others to focus more on Otherside.

Final Fantasy maker Square Enix collaborates with Animoca to launch an Ethereum-based NFT game.

Source: https://medium.com/@footprintofficial/april-2024-web3-gaming-update-record-active-users-amidst-market-downturns-036621bf6401

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