April 2024 Web3 Game Update: Active Users Reach All-Time High During Market Downturn

Author: Footprint Analytics

Translation: Baihua Blockchain

In April 2024, the Web3 gaming industry saw a notable shift after setting a record in March. Bitcoin retraced from its all-time high, dropping 10.4% by the end of the month. Meanwhile, the market capitalization of blockchain game tokens decreased by 30.5%. However, the number of daily active users (wallets) reached a historic high of 3 million, highlighting increased user engagement amid broader market challenges.

The data in this report comes from Footprint's GameFi research report. This intuitive and user-friendly dashboard provides key statistics and metrics necessary to understand the Web3 gaming industry in real-time.

1. Monthly Market Review

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

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) prices

Overall, the industry trend remained positive in April. The Bitcoin halving event on April 20 reduced the network's issuance rate, while a bipartisan bill on stablecoin regulation was introduced by U.S. senators, indicating that the regulatory environment may provide clearer guidance. Additionally, during this month, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in federal prison for money laundering violations, showing that regulations in the centralized exchange sector are becoming more defined.

Despite recent quarterly gains, Bitcoin's price fell in April. Ethereum also lagged behind Bitcoin, possibly due to investor uncertainty regarding Ethereum's chances of obtaining ETF approval in the U.S. market.

This reflects a general decline in market sentiment. Public statements from Federal Reserve officials indicated a weakening outlook for interest rate cuts, consistent with strong economic indicators such as wage employment and the consumer price index. Furthermore, Uniswap Labs and Consensys received Wells notices from the SEC, highlighting the upcoming regulatory challenges facing decentralized finance projects.

2. Overall Web3 Gaming Market

In April, the market capitalization of blockchain game tokens fell to $16.6 billion, a decrease of 30.5%. This decline was primarily influenced by the overall trend in the cryptocurrency market and Bitcoin's performance.

Market capitalization of GameFi and Bitcoin

The average daily transaction volume for blockchain games was 8.6 million, a decrease of 16.7% from March, far below the peak level of about 25 million transactions in Q3 2022.

Daily transaction volume of Web3 games

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

Daily active user count of blockchain games

3. Web3 Gaming Chains

In April, there were a total of 1,572 active games across 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

Among the average daily active users (wallets/players) in April, Ronin, Polygon, and Near led the industry. Ronin maintained its lead, with its market share increasing from 25.9% to 29.2%. Near's share grew from 6.4% to 11.3%, while 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 user count on each chain

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

4. Overview of Web3 Games

In April, the total number of games reached 3,118, with 1,319 being active. Among these, 261 games accounted for 8.4%, attracting over 1,000 monthly users.

Monthly active users of blockchain games

The stability of this data has persisted for some time, and there are expectations 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 an ideal fully on-chain game requires seamless integration of on-chain elements with the rich user experience of traditional games.

Despite the challenges, some games performed exceptionally 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 garnered 112,500 users on BNB Chain.

Additionally, Another World, built on Klaytn, became one of the hottest games. It averaged 130,800 daily active users throughout April, growing from 2.1K on April 1 to 172,900 on April 30, a substantial increase, far exceeding the previous daily count of fewer than 50 users. 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 saw a total of 17 financing activities, with total investments reaching $78.7 million, a significant decline of 47.9% compared to the funding amount in March.

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

In April, Animoca Brands demonstrated significant activity across 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 from prominent cryptocurrency and gaming investors, including Spartan, Animoca Brands, BN Labs, and IOSG Ventures.

Similarly, the NFT game Puffverse secured $3 million in funding from investors such as Animoca Brands, Spartan, and Sky Mavis. Notably, Puffverse announced plans to fully migrate its main products and assets to the Ronin network in May.

Latest updates:

Hytopia is set to launch its Beta version following an $8 million node sale.

The NFT card game Parallel is about to land on the Epic Games Store.

AltLayer has partnered with Xterio Games to launch a game-focused Restaked Rollup.

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

Axie Infinity brings new updates to its ecosystem, including Axie experience points and component evolution.

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

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