• Native crypto token: trilium (TLM)
• Blockchains: Native WAX blockchain, but also runs off Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC)
• Monthly user base: 1,000,000
• Initial investment required: You are required to buy NFT game cards such as land in order to mine.

CryptoBlades

CryptoBlades is a web-based role-playing game that is modelled after classic titles such as Skyrim and Dark Souls. To obtain SKILL tokens, players must battle monsters or accomplish in-game raids. Players can construct weapons to get an advantage over their opponents or increase their power during battles. After that, these items can be traded on an open market.

The game itself is simple to understand. Each character, weapon, attribute, and adversary is assigned one of four main components: fire, earth, lightning, or water. Each component will have its own set of strengths and weaknesses, which players must exploit in order to defeat their opponents.

• Native crypto token: cryptoblades (SKILL)
• Blockchain: Binance Smart Chain
• Monthly user base: 510,000
• Initial investment required: Users will need to make an initial deposit of roughly 0.2 BNB to play and pay transaction fees in-game.

Axie Infinity

A universe based on Pokemon where you may buy, care for, breed, and trade digital monsters known as "Axies." Axie Infinity is powered by its own custom-built sidechain, which allows it to optimise gameplay and scale effectively.

The game has a great earning potential, but breeding, caring for, and trading rare or unique Axies demands a lot of time and effort. These monsters can fight each other for SLP tokens or be dispatched on resource-farming tasks.

• Native token: axie infinity (AXS) and smooth love potion (SLP)
• Blockchain: Ethereum
• Monthly user base: 308,000
• Initial investment required: Before you can play, you must first purchase three Axies from the in-game marketplace.

Upland

Upland is an NFT metaverse designed to be similar to our own, where people can buy, sell, and exchange real-world properties. Users can then play games, manage businesses, and communicate with Uplanders all around the world.

Players control an Upland avatar who may explore a city looking for available properties to buy. They can even go to the homes of other players. Users can complete a Collection to get special UPX prizes and boost a property's earnings. Similar to Monopoly, the more properties of a particular hue you hold, the more valuable they become.

• Native token: upland (UPX)
• Blockchain: EOS
• Monthly user base: 155,000
• Initial investment required:  You must first purchase a virtual property before you can create an account.

Splinterlands

This is a digital collectible card game in which players collect and utilise cards with varied abilities and characteristics to battle other players. Each card is represented with a non-fungible token (NFT), which can be traded or exchanged on the open market. The game is based on one-on-one combat, with battle characteristics provided to participants at random.

After then, both players have a set amount of time to put together a deck of cards that they will use to attack each other.

• Native token: dark energy crystals (DEC) and splintershards (SPS), which is the governance token
• Blockchain: Hive blockchain
• Monthly user base: 120,000
• Initial investment required: If you want to unlock the play-to-earn features and obtain DEC tokens, you'll need to spend $10 on the summoner's spellbook.

Where did GameFi come from?

GameFi was founded in 2017 as a result of a number of circumstances, including the rise of the NFT phenomena CryptoKitties. CryptoKitties, the digital collectibles economy, was a viral success, with over 14,914 users per day at its height. CryptoPunks, a collection of 10,000 pixelated NFT characters built on Ethereum, had a similar level of success, with sales exceeding $1 billion in 2018.

Unfortunately, the NFTs' performance revealed both the positive and negative aspects of blockchain technology at the time. Congestion on the Ethereum network was generated by games like CryptoKitties, which resulted in dramatic spikes in transaction fees and far longer than normal transaction confirmation times. These technical challenges revealed a clear market need for more efficient and scalable platforms capable of meeting the growing demand from online gamers and virtual asset collectors.

Since then, a slew of new "Ethereum killer" blockchains have arisen, promising quicker transaction speeds, increased scalability, and lower transaction fees. Solana and Cardano, for example, have just achieved fresh all-time highs as investors place large bets on new dapp competitors.

Over the course of 2020, the emergence of decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms, providing a spectrum of blockchain-native financial platforms that run purely on smart contracts, was the next important component supporting GameFi's expansion. This established the foundation for decentralised exchanges to open and trade in-game currency, as well as other services like lending and staking.

Andre Conje, the creator of Yearn.finance and a DeFi developer, tweeted in September 2020 about the gamification of monetary policies in a decentralised system. He saw the many advantages DeFi and NFTs could bring to the online gaming business, and GameFi apps sprang up immediately. Axie Infinity was one of the first play-to-earn games to gain traction, with revenue exceeding $1 billion on Aug. 9, 2021.

What’s next?

The combined market capitalization of top games has surpassed $14 billion, indicating that GameFi has already achieved substantial traction. However, prominent crypto industry opinion leaders feel this new sector has a lot more potential, with Tron creator Justin Sun recently noting that he believes this new sector will be critical to expanding bitcoin acceptance.

"GameFi will be the next big thing, making DeFi, NFT, and the broader crypto ecosystem simple to comprehend and participate in."

Crypto entrepreneurs and gaming businesses are already racing to cash in on this meteoric rise, with a slew of new games set to debut in the coming months, including:

• Star Atlas
• Ember Sword
• Guild of Guardians
• The Sandbox
• Dr Who: World’s Apart

There are also entire gaming platforms being created, such as MOBOX, which allows users to design their own interoperable games and NFTs. It also includes DeFi components like as liquidity pools and staking, which allow gamers to earn money from their assets, which can be used to buy improvements or produce keys to open chests containing additional NFTs.

The universe of GameFi does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. The sector's potential is limitless, thanks to new investment and GameFi-specific funds pouring in.