- Almost 75% of online games have a keen interest in utilizing cryptocurrency and make use of NFTs for Revenue generation and transactions.
- NFTs can be traded for other forms of economies and also converted into fiat currency, which has lured in Online Gaming industry into it
The online gaming market size was valued at 61.7 Billion USD in 2022, which is estimated to spike to 163 Billion USD by 2032, and it is believed that blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency economy are going to be the main factors behind this rise. While a handful of games have already merged blockchain technology into their revenue ecosystems, cryptocurrency has yet to spread extensively in the crypto world.
Rise of NFTs and Crypto Gaming
Blockchain Technology has proven to be robust since its inception, and its dynamic nature has resulted in new Innovations, eventually making decentralized online economies and finance a strong possibility in the modern era. While several industries have already utilized this technology and have made use of cryptocurrencies, it was only inevitable that the extravagant world of online gaming would welcome it with open hands and give rise to crypto gaming, with NFTs being the prominent currency in it.
Surely NFTs might be the new concept introduced to this ever-changing dynamic world, but online gaming is not. The advent of NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) and Blockchain technology has given birth to new chances for online gaming developers and Consumers to add an element of Real World economics to their online gaming ecosystem.
According to PriceWaterCoopers (one of the top 4 Audit firms), there are almost 14 billion bitcoins in circulation, which speaks strongly about the rise of cryptocurrency, and its impact on online gaming can also be foreseen as it has already enabled online gamers to be part of a decentralized platform that is not influenced or intervened by a single authority or Government.
Emergence of Gaming Tokens
According to a survey conducted by CoinmarketCap, the Worldwide Gaming token market is worth more than INR 1 Trillion. These tokens actually have real world value, as these NFTs can be traded for other cryptocurrencies as well as converted into fiat currency, such as US dollars or INR.
Some of the top gaming tokens are ApeCoin (APE), Decentraland (MANA), and Sandbox (SAND). APE is the top tier most valued gaming token, standing formidably at a market capitalization of INR 177 Billion. It is also a native coin of a popular NFT, namely ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club’. MANA is built on the Ethereum blockchain and is used to purchase decentralized NFTs. MANA’s market capitalization is more than INR 143 Billion. SAND is a metaverse running on the Ethereum blockchain with a market cap of INR 127 Billion.
There are obviously a lot more pros than cons in the resulting crypto gaming that we have seen after the impact of cryptocurrency in online gaming. While the Volatility of the cryptomarket is a concern for every Industry, the perks of safe, secure, and instant transactions along with decentralization can’t be ignored.