Web3 gaming has come a long way. The current crop of games vying for market share occupy different genres and attract distinct audiences but they share a number of things in common. They successfully leverage the benefits of blockchain without allowing the tech to overshadow gameplay. They’re largely mobile-first to maximize uptake. And they’ve mastered the fundamentals that are integral to every good game, with a focus on player experience and social elements.
The following games have all hit the sweet spot in which entertainment is balanced with opportunities to earn rewards, trade in-game items, and share progress. They also have a high degree of PvP competition that incentivizes players to keep logging in regularly and battling to be the best. To glean the future of web3 gaming, look no further than the following four.
NFL Rivals
Mythical Games’ debut release has smashed it out the park. The football park, specifically. With 5 million downloads, rave reviews, and a loyal fan base, NFL Rivals has scored a touchdown on the first attempt. Arcade-style football gameplay is combined with digital card collectibles, allowing players to create their dream team.
Thanks to official NFL licensing, all of the top American football league’s top players and teams are represented, enabling fans to guide their favorite stars through the season while attempting to fend off all other challengers. NFL Rivals works because it’s mobile-friendly and its UX is equally friendly, abstracting the web3 components to ensure there’s no friction.
The Mythical Games marketplace has been well designed, with filters that allow users to find the players they need to build out their ideal team. The digital collectibles are also sensibly priced, at an average of around $30, making the game accessible to the mass market. While unlikely to appeal to players who aren’t football fans, NFL Rivals has cornered the sports strategy market. It’s fun, it’s skill-based, and thanks to the NFL IP, it’s packed with familiar faces from the greatest league in the world.
My Pet Hooligan
And now for something entirely different. My Pet Hooligan is a cutesy, cartoon game whose graphics and gameplay appeal to a broad swathe of players. Developed by AMGI Studios, MPH may be cute but it ain’t clean-cut. This is one thug life bunny with a whole lotta attitude. The gameplay trailer shows the protagonist shooting his way through an urban environment, collecting XP and power-ups along the way.
My Pet Hooligan features three gameplay modes including Coinpocalypse in which players – or Hooligans as they’re known – compete to collect the most coins within a time limit. Characters who get killed discard their coins which other players can then collect. If this format doesn’t sound chaotic enough then try Anarchy, a free-for-all in which the only metric that matters is body count.
Finally, for those who prefer their gaming more sedate and civilized, Hang Out enables players to explore a sprawling open world environment, create custom content, and battle Zuckbots for spare parts. It also provides an opportunity to practise trick moves and view content created by fellow Hooligans in the movie theater. With its rich graphics, multiple formats, and irreverent humor, My Pet Hooligan exemplifies web3 gaming at its best.
Upland
Upland is an open world – yes metaverse – that actually has real users and metrics that put other platforms to shame. Having launched in 2020, it’s actually one of the first web3 games and is only launching its SPARKLET token now, having deliberately elected to build its ecosystem organically rather than rush things. The patience has paid off, with Upland now the largest open world of its kind with over 3.5M registered accounts and up to 50K daily active users.
An astonishing 6M NFTs have now been purchased on Upland, accruing $15M in volume, and there are more than 300,000 unique land owners, making Upland the largest open world of its kind. Over 3,000 players have created their own stores within Upland and there are 300K unique land-owners. Four years on, Upland has made good on its promise to create a thriving virtual world with its own economy and community of citizens who check in daily for fun, business, and escape.
The launch of the SPARKLET token should drive more attention to its open world while unlocking new ways for content creators to generate revenue. It will be fascinating to watch Upland evolve and discover the ways in which consumers and brands interact with its vibrant digital environment.
Alien Worlds
Alien Worlds is also a metaverse, but as its name suggests, it’s very different to Upland. A galactic mining game that occupies a vast universe, it’s captured the imagination of web3 gamers. More than 9.5m active wallets have racked up over 10 billion transactions and minted 23 million NFTs, making this one of the largest community-based games on the market today.
While mining Trilium (TLM) is the core objective, there are many ways to compete within the Alien Worlds galaxy. Third-party developers are free to create mini-games, providing new ways for Trilium to flow through the internal economy. There’s also significant effort being focused on extending the Alien Worlds lore, strengthening its metaverse while providing opportunities for creators to shape its evolution.
Grants are available for lore creators and game developers, providing a pathway for Alien Worlds to transcend its original confines. The scope for existing games to be integrated into Alien Worlds allows the vision of an open metaverse to be fully realized while building upon the composability that is at the heart of web3.
