Caladan: More than 90% of Web3 games failed after $15 billion boom as gamers never showed up

Gaming took 63% of all Web3 venture funding in 2022, but by 2025 its share had fallen to single digits as capital rotated into AI, real-world assets and layer-2 infrastructure. What to know : Web3 gaming has imploded, with more than 90% of GameFi projects effectively dead, token prices down roughly 95% from their peaks, and funding to studios collapsing by 93% by 2025. The play-to-earn model, which turned games into speculative financial loops, collapsed once new inflows slowed, leaving once-hyped titles like Axie Infinity and guild tokens like YGG trading at a fraction of their peak values. Investors and studios poured billions into tokens and NFTs before building compelling games, and as capital shifted to AI, asset tokenization and infrastructure, more than 300 blockchain games shut down, turning Web3 gaming into a cautionary tale about chasing speculation over product-market fit.