How 2024 Redefined Web3 Gaming

Web3 Gaming

Web3 gaming may still be some time away from achieving widespread mainstream success, but 2024 proved one of its strongest years. For a while now, blockchain gaming has been making significant strides in gaming quality and audience growth. The last 12 months, however, have seen some key developments occur in the sector that are impossible to ignore…

Web3 Gaming Explained

If you’re a novice to all things blockchain, you might wonder what Web3 gaming is about. Web3 gaming is a lot like finding a secret cheat code, except it’s one that unlocks the gaming industry itself. What we’re trying to say is that it’s changing the rules entirely!

Rooted in blockchain technology, web3 gaming experiences introduce ecosystems that actively centre players. No more grinding away to earn assets like skins in a game only to find they’re useless outside of the title. In web version 3.0, these items become NFTs (non-fungible tokens) that you can trade, sell, or even bring into other games. Imagine winning a legendary sword in one game and wielding it in another – finally, your hard-earned loot belongs to you, not the corporate bigwigs!

Over the past few years, this radical concept has gone from niche to newsworthy. According to industry insights collated by Cointelegraph.com, Web3 gaming is set to attract 50 million monthly active users in 2025. How did it reach such lofty heights in a relatively short space of time?

Well, we can thank the play-to-earn (P2E) model for that, which has grown in parallel with blockchain popularity. You’re probably quite familiar with the traditional way of playing games: pouring hours into a title without any real-world return, but the P2E model flips that by allowing gamers to earn digital assets through gameplay.

Early P2E titles like Axie Infinity and Crypto Kitties appealed to the gaming community for sure, but this new sector combining gaming and decentralised finance didn’t get to the point where it’s pulling in millions of users each month by a handful of blockchain-based titles alone. The crypto side also had to pull its weight, and interestingly, it was able to do that via integration in another burgeoning gaming sector…

iGaming, aka online gambling, is a 21st-century success story if ever there was one. Just a few decades ago, if you wanted to get your poker or roulette fix, you’d likely have to travel a fair bit to reach a licensed casino. All that changed in the Web2 era, though, with online casino and gaming platforms springing up that modernised and digitised a whole spectrum of card and table games, as well as more unique variants like keno.

As decentralised currencies picked up speed in the late 2010s, a number of casino platforms began to accept tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether, transforming games like blackjack and roulette in the process. The integration of decentralised currencies has even made playing crypto keno games online possible.

While P2E games appealed to gamers, crypto gambling became popular with crypto enthusiasts looking for innovative ways to spend their tokens and diehard casino players. The stage was set for global domination!

2024 in Blockchain Gaming

It’s clear that the Web 3 gaming sector has made significant strides this decade, so what was so special about 2024 in particular? Well, this was the year when a number of high-profile Big Tech and gaming companies made some serious moves into blockchain gaming.

For starters, the year brought about the release of a series of big-budget AAA games developed to rival conventional gaming experiences. Titles like Star Atlas and Illuvium pushed the boundaries of just what was possible with Web 3 gaming, and Gunzilla Game’s Off the Grid became one of 2024’s standout hits.

Initially launching on the Epic Games store, where it briefly became one of the platform’s most popular downloads, Off the Grid also launched as an early-access version for PS5. Its launch was boosted even further when several star streamers (including Ninja and TimtheTatman) hyped up the game among their considerably large audiences.

Ubisoft also made good on its promise to continue investing in its blockchain output by finally unveiling Champions Tactics Grimoria Chronicles in October. Although the French developer’s previous forays into decentralized gaming – specifically QUARTZ – failed to hit the mark, this turn-based RPG was one of the year’s most anticipated games.

The year in blockchain gaming wasn’t completely dominated by blockbuster titles. In early 2024, Telegram, the cross-platform messaging app, experienced quite a surge in Web3 gaming activity – spurred on by the rollout of the TON blockchain.

Suddenly, indie developers had the means to create decentralized games that could be accessed directly in the app. They may have been lightweight gaming experiences, but the likes of Hamster Kombat and Notcoin amassed users in their millions. No wonder, then, that Telegram accounted for an impressive 21% of all new blockchain game launches as the year drew to a close.

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