Play-to-earn games in the open Metaverse are about interoperability, the frictionless transition of players, assets and property (as NFTs) between the worlds and communities of multiple blockchains. More than that, play-to-earn games are about being rewarded for your time and energy, they are about ownership and sovereignty as well as being entertaining, challenging, exciting and, well, a whole lot of fun. Of course, play-to-earn also gives you an avenue to generate income from your passion.
In traditional gaming assets are created and owned by a handful of gargantuan companies making a king’s ransom on your watch, play-to-earn gaming in the open Metaverse is a paradigm shift which puts the power and the wealth back in the hands of the players.
Polygon, Wax, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and Ethereum all have a stable of play-to-earn games driving the mainstream adoption of both web 3 and the decentralized technologies upon which it is built. However, the curtain is very much still rising on the open Metaverse, as such many of these play-to-earn games are only accessible on the chain they were created.
This adds a barrier for new gamers looking for the best playing experience, graphics, or games to make money: It’s not always easy to know where to begin. This guide to 28 of the current crop of play-to-earn games should shed some light on where to invest your time in 2022.
Play To Earn Games On The Polygon Blockchain
In 2022, much of that excitement for play-to-earn games in the open Metaverse is down to Ethereum layer 2 solution Polygon – a decentralized framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchains, as well as stand alone blockchains built on Polygon itself. It’s the very scaling solution we use at gDEX Metaverse.
If that sounds too complex and you just want to blast some baddies and earn some cryptocurrency, never fear. Being the Ethereum scaling solution to end all other scaling solutions, Polygon is experiencing near unprecedented growth. With EIP-1559 most likely deployed by the time you read this, the number of play-to-earn games employing Polygon will skyrocket. And the game roster is already well fuelled, just take a look at F1 Delta time, League of kingdoms, or Neon District to get a feel.
Aavegotchi
Built on Ethereum and, like gDEX, using Polygon for lower fees and speed, Aavegotchi is a play-to-earn game which draws on nostalgia for everyone’s favourite pet of the 1990’s: Tamagotchi. If you’re too young to know what I’m talking about, in the 1990s people walked around with digital pets on keyrings in their pocket. The idea was to keep the Tamagotchi alive. Yes, it was a strange time. Aavegotchi takes the keep-your-pet alive gameplay and supercharges it with blockchain-enabled functionality.
Aavegotchi has one of the most engaged communities in the space and is seen by many as one of the key contributors to play-to-earn open Metaverse. But, Ethereum based smart-contract blockchains aren’t the only players in the Metaverse cyber-town. Let’s have a look at some of the biggest play-to-earn games in the open Metaverse operating on other blockchains.
Play-To-Earn Games On The Binance Smart Chain
NFT Farmer, Elfin Kingdom, SecondLive, Bombcrypto, BSC, home to the world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency, will play a key role in the open Metaverse. A plethora of games are already bringing in more players, the gigantic BSC marketing machine behind the blockchain ramping up like some kind of end of level boss.
CryptoBlades
CryptoBlades was launched on the Binance Smart Chain in May 2021. It is a play-to-earn NFT RPG with 20 thousand players in the past 24 hours. Cryptoblades is built around the acquisition of Blades. It’s a game of combat, skill, NFT asset utilization and trading.
Play-To-Earn Games On The WAX blockchain
If you didn’t know, WAX stands for Worldwide Asset eXchange. It’s a modern blockchain specifically made for trading virtual items, i.e. NFTS. It’s a wonderful addition to the open Metaverse and lends itself perfectly to play-to-earn. Obviously. Wax on, wax off.
With games like Farmers World and Farming Tales, you could be mistaken for thinking WAX was a blockchain for the agriculturally minded. Crypto combines aside, there are more play-to-earn games to be discovered here. Prospectors, Office Land, Beast Dragon, Coin Pirates, and Dragons Valley are some of the most popular games on Wax. And they don’t involve tractors.
Alien Worlds
The biggest play-to-earn game on the WAX blockchain is Alien Worlds, a free-to-play game in which takes you on a modern day space race as an interplanetary miner. Alien Worlds is home to the token Trillium (TLM).
Play-To-Earn Games On The Hive Blockchain
According to the PR, HIVE is the largest and only publicly traded company mining Ethereum on an industrial scale. An industrial scale? Not surprising that play-to-earn games on their blockchain are not priority number one, but they are growing in number, graphics, game play and audience. Dcity, Rising Star, hashkings and Rabona have had varying degrees of success. But one game on Hive stands above the rest in terms of popularity.
Splinterlands
Splinterlands is a collectible card trading play-to-earn game, players using their skill, cunning, strategy and cards to battle monsters. As the wider world got wind of the play-to-earn revolution sweeping the gaming globe in 2021, Splinterlands was one of the biggest success stories,
Play-To-Earn Games On The Solana Blockchain
With its smart contract potential only starting, play-to-earn on the Solana blockchain is a somewhat small affair. Basically, there aren’t really any to speak of. Plenty of Metaverse worlds, exchanges and marketplaces, but not so much in the way of FPS, puzzle and card games, let alone Star Wars space shooters. It won’t stay like that. Some of the best play-to-earn games in 2022 will be found on Solana.
Solchicks is in alpha, Immortal Arena in beta. The number of games in development is worth keeping an eye on. DefiLand, Project seed, Aurory, Funky Fruits, House of Sparta. Most excitement is centred around Star Atlas.
Star Atlas
Built on Unreal 5 and wielding a white-paper with more administration than city hall in Paris, Star Atlas is a massively-multiplayer online play-to-earn space operatic metaverse. There is a struggle for resources, territorial conquest, political domination, rebellion and factions, turmoil and space ships. And of course your NFTS are yours and you can earn real-world income.
The Future of Play-to-Earn Games in the Open Metaverse
The number and quality of play-to-earn games in the open Metaverse is increasing by the day. Real time strategy, RPGs, sports simulators, FPS, action adventure, puzzle and dark and twisted zombie dystopian exploration games are all available or being developed. As the graphical power increases and blockchain speeds gather momentum, more and more players, adamant that the future of gaming is about sovereignty, ownership and making money, will flock to the open Metaverse.
These are some of the best play-to-earn games you should be playing in 2022. Let us know what you think, drop us a message on Twitter or join our Discord to share your favourites.
