Ethereum GameFi Projects Claim Top Spots

Ethereum GameFi projects Sandbox and Axie Infinity retained the top two spots from August on DappRadar’s volume metric, while Crazy Defense Heroes and Gods Unchained entered the top five.

DappRadar measures volume as the total amount of incoming volume to a protocol’s smart contracts. By that definition, four of the top five blockchain gaming projects listed on their platform have some association to the Ethereum network. Only a single BNB Chain-focused project was able to make the cut, as opposed to two the month before.

5. MOBOX: $11.54M (BNB Chain)

MOBOX is a BNB Chain project with multiple gaming experiences built on it. They have games like Block Brawlers, MOland Defense, and Token Master accessible to their community. The GameFi project saw jumps in its User metric at key points of the month, mainly when there was an update or a new game mode about to launch. Both ChainZ Arena - MOBOX Edition and the release of Clash of MOland contributed to user spikes.

Digging deeper into their metrics, a spike in volume metric happened around Sept. 13. During this time, MOBOX launched their $MBXO-MEC swap. This event could have contributed to the influx of volume into the project and propelled them to the fifth spot on DappRadar’s platform.

4. Gods Unchained: $11.99M (Immutable X/ETH)

Gods Unchained is a trading card blockchain game built on the Immutable X network, a layer-two solution on Ethereum. The GameFi project’s users and balance have been steadily trending upwards the past month, but its volume metric slowly started increasing around Sept. 12 and spiked significantly around Sept. 19.

A series of events transpired during this time, including payment from old events, partnerships, and reveling details around a new card pack release. Gods Unchained sent out rewards of their referral program feature, established new partnerships with both Rarible and Gamestop, and teased their new card pack, Mortal Judgement: Lights Verdict.

3. Crazy Defense Heroes: $36.14M (Polygon/ETH/BNB Chain)

Mobile-focused tower defense blockchain game, Crazy Defense Heroes, is in a rather unique situation where they landed on the top three in volume with all metrics seeing a steady decline throughout the month. Around $35.69 million of value that entered the GameFi protocol’s smart contracts happened at the early part of the month, while the rest of the month was fluctuating between the hundreds to a few thousand dollars in value.

A significant event that happened around the same time was Crazy Defense Heroes’ migration of assets from their original wallets to Gnosis Safe wallets. The migration was a move to enhance security of the protocol’s assets. Thus the value measured in DappRadar’s platform could be due to the tracking of new wallets and classifying the value entering as new, rather than just a transfer of existing value.

2. Axie Infinity: $58.86M (Ronin/ETH)

Still in the second spot is blockchain gaming trailblazer, Axie Infinity. The team fully transitioned into the third iteration of their game, Axie Infinity: Origins, for the month of September. The GameFi project kicked off the month with a major convention called AxieCon in Barcelona, which featured two tournaments to promote their eSports scene. Interestingly enough, the cycles of Axie’s volume metric closely followed their competitive scene.

Events occurring around spikes in Axie Infinity’s volume metric are somewhat related to their competitive scene. A large spike for the month happened a few days prior to the start of AxieCon. With two large tournaments held for that event, it could be because of guilds and players purchasing assets to prepare for the tournament. Other events include d balancing patches and new builds that form the meta, both of which affected the market.

1. The Sandbox: $90.72M (Polygon/ETH)

The Sandbox, an Ethereum metaverse project, once again tops DappRadar’s list of value entering a GameFi protocol’s smart contract. Sandbox is currently in the middle of its third Alpha Season and saw peaks of around $13.2 million enter its ecosystem twice from Sept. 23-26.

Two key events within Sandbox transpired during the same timeframe and likely contributed to the influx of value to the metaverse game. Sandbox introduced a new $SAND staking feature specifically targeting land owners. The second event was the opening of a new experience within the metaverse through their partnership with American DJ Steve Aoki.