P2E games study, conclusions, market evaluation and top-40

[burenka]

It seems that recently the amount of games with the REAL economy has dramatically risen. I saw tons of topics, advertisements, discussions, and dialogs in the game industry, smth as "NFT is the next big thing for the game development industry. I decided to form my own opinion and re-check everything. I found data collect in autumn 2021, with "full list of P2E games", there were 596 links to projects. So here is my small study about it.

P2E - means "Play-2-earn" in this topic, all differences with RCE (Real Cash Economy), Virtual Worlds, etc are neglected. P2E in this case means "players can put into the game world some currencies and values by direct exchange for real money, use those values in the game, and then turn those values back into real money".

First, let's take a look at the platform:

PC/MAC App - 89 projects (14,93% of all games have PC/Mac clients).
Browser Play/WEB - 507 project (85,06% of all games can be played in web browser)
Mobile Play/Interaction - 123 projects (20,63% of all games have Mobile client or extension)

So, it can be easily concluded that WEB-games are practicaly dominating.

Let's do some charts. First, which games are the most popular:

• plantvsundead.com/   128500000
• axieinfinity.com/   25970000
• secondlife.com/   10990000
• rollercoin.com/      10666000
• splinterlands.com/   5533000
• cryptocars.me/   4683000
• mydefipet.com/   4226000
• upland.me/      4025000

Digit is "Similar Web DNS tracking, total visits over September 2021". That digit does not convert into "Audience" directly but could be used as an indirect index, for example, if we see 128.5 mln sessions for PlantVsUndead and 25.97 mln sessions for AxieInfinity, we can just conclude that PVU is about 5 times more popular than AI.

I heard a lot of rumors, that P2E started to bloom after the widespread of blockchain/crypto/NFT technologies. So, well, let's try to form a chart of games, which does NOT use any blockchain techs inside:

• secondlife.com/   10990000
• neftgame.org/   1060000
• farmgame.fun/    994767
• virtonomica.ru/   800506
• taxi-money.info/   761307
• bitcoin-farm.org/   759801
• ff-original.com/    688242
• honeygame.org/   573742

Interesting, but there was no Entropia Universe game in that list, which is probably a mistake or missed conclusion. But in general, we can see the interesting observation: The most popular games without Blockchain techs inside average 5 times less popular than games WITH blockchains inside. Here is the place for some fast hypotheses - for example - it might be easier to advertise games with crypto-currencies instead of real money, due to regulations and gambling restrictions.

Lets bring some more data to walk through, top 40 P2E games:

Code:

Link,Traffic 09.2021,CryptoGame,Mobile Play,WEB,PC/MAC App,In Development
plantvsundead.com/,128500000,X,X,-,-,-
axieinfinity.com/,25970000,X,X,-,X,-
secondlife.com/,10990000,-,-,X,X,-
rollercoin.com/,10666000,X,-,X,-,-
splinterlands.com/,5533000,X,-,X,-,-
cryptocars.me/,4683000,X,X,X,-,-
mydefipet.com/,4226000,X,-,X,-,-
upland.me/,4025000,X,X,-,-,-
wanakafarm.com/,3969000,X,-,-,X,X
cryptozoon.io/,3621000,X,-,X,-,X
dragonary.com/,3389000,X,X,-,X,-
overlord.world/,3151000,X,X,X,-,X
mobox.io/,2890000,X,X,X,-,-
secure.imvu.com/,2834000,X,X,X,-,-
alienworlds.io/,2557000,X,-,X,-,-
alienworlds.io,2557000,X,-,X,-,-
staratlas.com/,2271000,X,-,X,-,-
binamon.org/,2002000,X,X,-,X,-
cryptoblades.io/,1784000,X,-,X,-,-
blockmonsters.co/,1759000,X,-,X,-,X
monstainfinite.com/,1734000,X,X,X,-,X
illuvium.io/,1722000,X,-,X,-,X
sandbox.game/,1655000,X,X,X,X,X
binemon.io/,1534000,X,X,X,-,-
blockfarm.club/,1462000,X,-,X,-,X
bunicorn.game/,1395000,X,-,X,-,-
wavesducks.com/,1318000,X,-,X,-,-
decentraland.org/,1316000,X,-,X,-,-
farmersworld.io/,1162000,X,-,X,-,-
godsunchained.com/,1132000,X,-,-,X,-
thetanarena.com/,1121000,X,X,-,X,-
herofi.io/,1071000,X,X,-,X,-
neftgame.org/,1060000,-,-,X,-,-
leagueofkingdoms.com/,1004000,X,X,X,-,-
farmgame.fun/,994767,-,-,X,-,-
cryptomines.app/,978902,X,-,X,-,-
zed.run/,952447,X,-,X,-,-
petgames.io/,829040,X,-,X,-,X
virtonomica.ru/,800506,-,-,X,-,-
dragonwarrior.io/,781432,X,-,X,-,-
meebmaster.com/,777557,X,-,X,-,-

Who play P2E games?

I don't have any real social data to create custom profiles at this moment, but according to different sources and game design rules, I have to just extend the list of players wider than just "people who want to earn some cash":

• Hardcore gamers, who want to raise stakes. It is much more "real emotions", whenever every and each action (and mistake) in the game cost you something. If you have something to lose, you will value that more.
• Casual Roamers - people who not actually intend to play that genre, but eventually found one game and just surveying and wondering.
• Gamblers - people, who see that games as a complex "slot machine"
• Earners - players, who actually intended to earn some real money
• Investors - people who believe in future development in one game and tries different approaches to investments.

This is probably not the best grouping analysis for a such complicated question, I've just wanted to stretch that there is NO ONE UNIVERSAL type of players, and they should be divided into several categories to learn deeper.

How many people play these games?

According to the calculations of the amount of traffic on the Dataset game sites in September 2021, it was: 296.381.514 visits.

Lets assume, based on September data for a sample of 596 games, that if we believe that the audience overlap is at least 50% between all projects (and exclude top of tops to decreace averages closer to medians) so we will digit like "at least 80 million gaming uncrossed sessions per month", next assumption goes rate of summDAU to MAU convert is 1:10, this will give us raw statement: "at least 8 million people around the world played games with signs of P2E games last fall". According to the volume of advertising, and announcements of new projects, we can add words that "and growing".

So now my best guess is: "at least 8 million people around the world played games with signs of P2E games in the end of 2021, and growing".

Why such active growth in recent years?
 
One prominent hypothesis suggests itself, For many years, before the active spread of cryptocurrencies, the main factor in the development of this sub-genre of the gaming industry was in the LEGAL RESTRICTION.

A good example is the company Mind Arc (mindark.se) which, to effectively operate its game Entropia Universe, had to create THE BANK in which all user payments are fully reserved for the time when the funds are on the player's balance in the game. And they are monitored by a bunch of regulators, while they operate under the jurisdiction of Sweden, known for its liberality concerning "gambling-like projects."

Questions

Honestly, after my short study, I found more open questions rather than answers. What I can conclude,

• Yep, there are a lot of P2E games, much, much more than several years ago.
• Mostly, they are web-based.
• I believe there are more than 8 million active players in the world.
• "Legal freedom" is a key to P2E industry growth.

P.S. Initially I wanted to name the topic "how to check 600 P2E games and don't get mad"
P.P.S. I'd love to read your opinion about P2E games market, and especially the type of player's descriptions.

[burenka]

One more important thing which I fogrot to mention, as I'm checking sept-21 list, a lot of game-projects are offline, or seem dead. Thats also something to dig.

[NanLomarig]

I'm a true fan of various computer games and constantly monitor multiple changes in the market. When I heard about P2E games, my first thought was that it was some scam. It seemed to me that this was a ridiculous form of gambling. However, more and more of my friends and acquaintances began to play it and say good things about such games. I haven't dared to try it myself yet, but I'd like to know your opinion!

[NameBaby]

Nice study burenka. I think even there are many P2E games online, and most of them play the games assuming they will earn a lot by playing the games. But thats not the case. Most of them spend hours and hours in front of the screen and get paid very small amount of money compared to the efford they put into play and I think it does not even cover the electricity cost. But most of the time early adopters to the game dominate the game while accumulating lots of profit.

[FatFork]

Nice study burenka. I think even there are many P2E games online, and most of them play the games assuming they will earn a lot by playing the games. But thats not the case. Most of them spend hours and hours in front of the screen and get paid very small amount of money compared to the efford they put into play and I think it does not even cover the electricity cost. But most of the time early adopters to the game dominate the game while accumulating lots of profit.

But you forget about the entertainment factor. Usually with games like that, as long as you are already into the game, and you have a lot of time you can pretty much play it forever if you want to, I think it is worth it. Just to have some hours of enjoyment by playing a game and interact with people that are playing it. I know people who play Half Life 2 or Team Fortress 2 for many years, and they have hundreds of hours of fun in those games, without ever earning a single penny.