A recent report on NFT Gaming Adoption Report by Finder placed India at the number one spot in terms of global adoption of Play-to-Earn (P2E) and NFT games. Finder surveyed people across 26 countries and determined that play-to-earn games have become a highly popular niche for users around the globe.
They revealed that 34% of Indian internet users have played Play-to-Earn (P2E) games, which is quite above the global average of 14%. Coming in second place was Hong Kong with 29% and is closely followed up by the United Arab Emirates with 27%. The bottom of the chart was accommodated by France and Sweden with 6% and 4% respectively.
While India clearly leads the way, the survey suggests that the nation’s rate of adoption could grow to be more than 34%. Finder.com writes, “the data suggests that we’ll see NFT gaming adoption grow by 11 percentage points this year.” Also, the report mentioned that 11.4% of the surveyed demographic plan on playing a P2E game soon. This could see India’s adoption hit 45% in the coming months.
P2E gamers around the globe: By sex
As for the global statistics, Finder’s report found that an average of 17% of men compared to 12% of women have played P2E games. In India, they found that 38% of men surveyed saying they’ve played a play-to-earn (P2E) crypto game before, men are roughly 1.3 times more likely than the 29% of women who said the same. That gender gap is expected to close slightly by the end of the year, with 50% of men saying they plan on playing this year, compared to 40% of women, meaning men will be 1.2 times more likely to have played NFT games by the end of 2022.
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They also mentioned that globally, those aged between 18-34 are most likely to have played a P2E game, with an average of 18% saying they'd done so, with India seeing the highest percentage of respondents in that age bracket participating in the P2E realm at 42%.
Future of P2E and NFT Gaming
With the success and big press around the popular and successful NFT-based games like Axie Infinity, it seems like more companies will be taking a crack at implementing a play-to-earn model in their games. In the game Axie Infinity, players are compensated for actively playing the game and can sell or trade their in-game characters with other players for real money. This has built real economies and communities. Big gaming studios like Ubisoft and Zynga, and smaller projects like SYN CITY are attempting to build mainstream games that implement NFTs.
Companies are also hoping to monetize off collecting transaction fees as these assets get traded in the secondary markets among players, and nobody wants to be late to the potential boom. Games range from collectathon games such as Axie Infinities to entire virtual worlds such as Decentraland where users have invested millions into virtual real estate in the hopes it appreciates in the future. The possibilities are endless, and as more people experiment within the space, these games will only become more fleshed out and expansive.
Currently, studios, small teams, and individuals are ramping up their own projects to claim their piece of the pie in the new virtual economy. While this demand has been increasing, developers may be looking for quicker ways to update and develop their games in the fast- growing space.
Another recent study by DappRadar revealed that blockchain-based games raised $2.5 billion in Q1, 2022 from investors. The bold forecast predicts that total investments could exceed $10 billion (assuming the current pace maintains). Some of the most notable examples of such financings include Yuga Labs and Immutable-X. The former is a studio behind the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Two months ago, it secured a $450 million fundraiser led by Andreessen Horowitz.
For its part, Immutable-X (which hosts two of the most popular blockchain games – Gods Unchained and Guilds of Guardian) raised $200 million. As a result, its valuation surged to $2.5 billion. Splinterlands, Alien Worlds, and Crazy Defense Heroes ranked as the most attractive games for the player base.
