The Ultimate Guide to Playing Games & Earning Crypto

12 May 2022 • 33 min read

Last updated: May 12, 2022 (version 1.0)

This guide by DappRadar serves as an educational tool for those looking to dip their toes into play-to-earn gaming, NFT games, blockchain gaming, or GameFi. The blockchain space is full of opportunities, but many will fall flat. As a gamer, there’s no better dream than to make money from your favorite activity. Two decades ago, we could only spend money on the game we played until the rise of esports made a career in gaming a possibility.

Now, the development of blockchain gaming allows anybody to participate and earn from their efforts. Remember that earning doesn’t mean ‘becoming a millionaire.’ Instead, it’s all about generating value from your in-game activities that you can also extract from the game’s ecosystems should you want to do that.

We at DappRadar hope you will enjoy The Ultimate Guide to Playing Games & Earning Crypto. This guide will be under continuous development. Users with a DappRadar PRO membership will always have access to the most up-to-date version of this guide.

An introduction to play-to-earn gaming

Play-to-earn gaming and GameFi have taken the world by storm, yet we’re only talking about 2.2 million daily active wallets. Perhaps gamers own multiple wallets in the same gaming ecosystem, or maybe they play different games on different blockchains. Therefore it’s very likely that the number of daily unique players is around 1 million or even lower. The online shooter Fortnite peaks at 24 million players in one day to put this into perspective. That’s how early we are with play-to-earn gaming.

Yet, in the first four months of 2022 alone, we’ve seen more investment money flowing into blockchain gaming than the entirety of the record $4 billion from 2021. People sometimes say you need to follow the money. If we do that, then it would be safe to say that blockchain gaming has the future.

DappRadar tracks all on-chain activity for gaming dapps, but blockchain data doesn’t mean the same for each game. Splinterlands uses on-chain transactions to play a match, trade cards, or open a reward. However, Crazy Defense Heroes only registers a blockchain interaction when players decide to claim their daily rewards.

When you start researching blockchain gaming, it’s essential to realize what you are looking at. Research the product, the community, and the developers. That’s what we will try to help you with. In addition we give you 5 examples of proven blockchain games that are worth dipping your toes into. But let’s first talk about what play-to-earn is…

Different product categories within this niche

A guide about playing games and earning crypto can’t be written without understanding play-to-earn gaming. A play-to-earn game uses blockchain technology to give players ownership over in-game assets. These assets can be game items (NFTs) or game currencies (crypto tokens). Some games will allow players to earn limited edition NFTs as a reward, while others use a cryptocurrency as a central part of their economy. Essentially you can earn something from the time and effort invested into a video game.

In this guide we’re not going to differentiate strongly between NFT games, GameFi or play-to-earn (also called play-and-earn), but let me quickly address each of them to give you a global impression of the differences.

NFT games – Do not use a blockchain-based token for their economy but allow players to use, win or earn NFTs. These NFTs can be game items, characters, or other types of rewards. Players are free to trade, borrow or sell their NFTs as they please.
GameFi – Gamification of financial services has become a popular topic in blockchain. These GameFi products make basic financial transactions interactive, for example, allowing users to harvest their yield from an actual virtual farm. These games aren’t entertaining, but are all about optimization and rather passive gameplay.
Play-to-Earn – Sometimes labeled as play-and-earn to emphasize the need for a game to be fun first. These games have (a part of) their game economy relying on blockchain technology, allowing gamers to earn crypto tokens that they can exchange for other assets.

Even though these 3 product categories seem very distinct, the truth is that it’s often difficult to categorize a gaming dapp into one of these. In this nascent industry, it can very well be that the player objective defines the product category, as some players farm in-game resources to make money while others simply play the game for fun. That’s where the idea of gaming nations comes into play, as a full-fledged game economy will bring workers, organizers, players, community leaders and developers together. When a game economy only consists of people working to earn, this economy will undoubtedly fail at some point. There needs to be a balance where enough people are enjoying the game, so that a number of workers can earn from their efforts.

Eleven things to watch when you play & earn

First and foremost, play-to-earn gaming should be about having fun. Without an entertaining game, playing-to-earn can often become joyless and dull. Also, remember that diving into a play-to-earn game with the expectation of instant riches is very ambitious. It’s not that this isn’t possible. We’ve all seen the success that Axie Infinity brought to people in The Philippines during the pandemic. But it does take hard work and dedication. Gaming economies are still relatively immature, and at the moment, developers are still working out how to build economies that can sustain millions of players.

Investing in a play-to-earn game can be intimidating. You rely on the execution of a development team that may or may have never released a video game before. But let’s say you want to dive into a play-to-earn economy and see if it’s possible to earn a decent living. Potentially you will find dozens or even hundreds of interesting projects to invest in. To make an informed choice, before you spend your time and possibly money, consult this checklist to find out which games work best for you.

Set your goals

What do you want from a play-to-earn game? Is making money your priority, or do you want to enjoy a game primarily, with the chance to make some money on the side? Are you looking for a community, or are you searching for the game with the best artwork? Knowing what you want from your play-to-earn game will help you narrow down your choices before you begin searching.

Choose something you want to play

Listen, we all get excited with the promise of eternal riches. But when you’re looking into a play-to-earn game, perhaps the most important question is ‘is the game any fun?’. We can all click and farm tokens, but a game world can only succeed when the digital citizens are actually having fun. The game should be so much fun that players would be willing to buy assets into it, like cool skins or better weapons. Games that aren’t fun and rely strongly on simply clicking, tend to have a short shelf life. Use your own judgment here. It’s easy to get swept away with cool trailers and in-game images that don’t depict reality.

It’s no good pouring money, time, and effort into a game if you don’t enjoy playing it after one week. Gaming should be fun, not a job. And even if you are doing it intending to make serious money, you’ll be able to play harder and for longer if you enjoy what you’re doing.

Longevity & community

Taking a chance on an exciting new game can reap huge benefits. Early adopters are always rewarded handsomely in play-to-earn gaming communities. But there is a risk that you’ll put your resources into something that might not last, and you’ll be left with nothing. Check how long a game has been in development and how many people are playing it. For example, Sunflower Land launched its open beta on April 7th, 2022 and ten days later, all 100,000 land plots had been bought up. So it has a strong community. It also has a long history of development and a backstory that suggests it will continue evolving and progressing.

Assess your barriers to entry

Once you’ve selected a few games that you think you want to try, find out how much it will cost you to start playing. In November 2021, at the height of cryptocurrency and NFT mania, the cheapest Axie avatars were on sale for around $120-$140. So even going in at the entry-level would cost about $400. And playing with the weakest Axies would usually result in losing battles and not earning much money. Also, the set-up process for Axie Infinity can be off-putting for people new to the scene. Working out how to use the Ronin Marketplace and converting ETH to WETH is complicated if you’ve never done it before.

A game like Gods Unchained has a far easier onboarding process and can be a friendly gateway to blockchain gaming. You also need to find out how much it will cost you to play correctly. It’s no use entering a game only to find out that all of the whales who’ve been there from the start hold all the resources and won’t let you have any of them.

Assess your barriers to exit

Spending time and effort to play to earn is one thing. But once you’ve accrued all of your assets and want to cash out your money, you don’t want to find out that there’s a waiting period or that you need to spend more cash just to do it. Bear in mind that many games have an in-game token, like TOWN for Town Star or ILV for Illuvium. To turn them into cash, you will usually need to go to a decentralized exchange (DEX) and turn them into a cryptocurrency that you can then sell for fiat currency via a centralized exchange, like Coinbase or Crypto.com.

Some games, like Axie Infinity, run on their own native blockchain. Because these games have their own blockchains, it’s straightforward to trade items within their ecosystems. But things get a bit more complicated when you try to move things out of their ecosystems.

Study the game’s roadmap

Every game developer with a decent plan will have a proper roadmap. If they don’t, this is generally a red flag. Roadmaps should contain every significant milestone and high-level task that will result in the team’s desired outcome. If a game developer plans to introduce features that you want later on down the line, it’s worth learning a bit more and maybe dipping your toe in the water.

While a community should always hold developers to account for what they say they will deliver, you shouldn’t worry if there’s a little bit of slippage. Problems occur and things run late, but if the development team is honest and can give reasons for why they’re running behind, it’s fair to cut them a little bit of slack.

Use analytics tools

DappRadar is the world’s best resource for finding out about token prices, NFT values and the cost of land within a game. We have rankings pages for Games and for NFTs where you can see how much in-game assets and avatars will cost you. We also have dedicated pages for just about every play-to-earn platform, and we’re adding more every day. Just go to the search bar on the homepage and type in the name of the game you want to know more about.

Alongside DappRadar, the internet has plenty of other resources you can tap into to find more about the game you want to play. Visiting a game’s website should give you some useful information to get started with. And they’ll be able to advise you on how you can start playing-to-earn on their platform. Dune Analytics has data visualizations created by the web3 community which give great insights into trends, prices and how popular a game is.

Take a look on social media

People talk and the knowledgeable gaming community will usually root out the fakers, frauds and phoneys. Go to Twitter and check if the game has an account. See what they’re posting and how often. Are they interacting with people? If not, consider why. Check their Discord server. Most web3 platforms have a Discord server and use it as a place where they can talk to their community and where its community can talk amongst itself. Join their Discord and start chatting with people. If you don’t want to chat, feel free to just follow the conversation and judge for yourself whether or not it seems legit. Discord channels are also a great place to learn some gameplay tactics and expert strategies that will help you on your way to success.

Know what you earn from playing

If you’ve started play-to-earn gaming in order to get great rewards and earn some money, it’s good to know beforehand what you’ll win for participating. Titles in the Gala Games franchise often dole out rewards in GALA. Pegaxy has two native tokens, Pegaxy Stones (PGX) and Vigorus (VIS). GALA is a utility token for the Gala Games ecosystem and it gives players some control of the platform. It also grants holders in-game rewards and assets, thus helping you become a better playerplay. So Gala Games’ token is probably a better investment than Pegaxy’s. This means playing something like Town Star or Last Expedition could be a safer long-term bet than playing Pegaxy. Other games like Treeverse and Mirandus have open-world environments where players can find, forge or win in-game assets they can then sell for real money.

Investigate the tokenomics

Launching a game economy isn’t an easy task, and it’s also important to understand how the team is rewarding itself. Do the founders have vast chunks of the native token? If yes, are they vested, i.e., locked up so they cannot sell them as soon as the price pumps and cripple the economy. Are there good retention mechanics for the token, i.e., players stake it in a vault to earn more. Look at how the game incentivizes people to hold their tokens and not run away. Players can earn a token, but do they also have means to spend it inside the game’s economy or do they have ways to stake and earn interest. Crucial information if you’re looking at tokenomics.

Who’s behind the game

Knowing the team behind any game is hugely important. Take Gala Games’ play-to-earn Mirandus. It comes from a well-known blockchain gaming studio with credentials and a string of hugely successful games on its CV. But the people who actually developed the game are Gala Games CEO Eric Schiermeyer and Lead Game Designer Michael McCarthy. If we look into their backgrounds, we can get a better sense of whether or not a game is worth playing.

Similarly, if a big investor or well-known VC has put their money and name behind a game, there’s a good chance the project is not a scam and it will be good. Take Animoca Brands’ purchase of the Eden Games studio. Animoca Brands has plenty of resources and a long reach when it comes to all things blockchain and web3. So any new title that comes out of Eden Games will have a good chance of entering the Animoca Brands joined-up ecosystem and can rely on the bigger company for marketing and PR.

These are games to watch

Again, this is not investment advice.

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is the pioneer of play-to-earn mechanics and has the longest-standing track record in the field. Available both on desktop and on mobile, the game attracts thousands of players every week.

Platform: PC & Mobile
Game genre: Turn-based strategy
Entry fee to start earning: $45
Tokens: AXS and SLP

Gameplay – Axie Infinity offers two gameplay modes – adventure and arena. In the adventure mode, players battle progressively tougher enemies on each level gathering SLP tokens in the process. The arena mode allows players to battle each other for a higher place on the overall leaderboard. Gamers who make it to the top of the leaderboard earn AXS tokens.

Playable characters in the Axie Infinity game are represented by Axie NFTs. Each character has specific abilities, boosts, and buffs. Combining the perfect team of three Axies requires skill and research. Some types of Axies complement each other which can help you build an even stronger team.

How to get started – Getting started with Axie Infinity is easy. You can download the mobile version of the game from the respective app store, or visit the official website and get the Mavis Hub for PC. Once you’ve set up your account and have the applications installed, you need to visit the official Axie marketplace. There you’ll be able to purchase Axie NFTs.

To play the game, each player needs at least three Axie NFTs to form a team. Choose wisely and set up your team. Once you have your Axies in place, you’re ready to start enjoying both gameplay modes. Currently, the lowest price for an Axie NFT is about $20 dollars, bringing the total cost to start playing to about $60 for three NFTs. Of course, rarer characters with better abilities will cost you more.

Rewards – Axie Infinity has a robust in-game economy built around its two native tokens SLP and AXS. SLP is the main rewards token in the game, and players can use it to power up their Axie characters, aside from exchanging it for other tokens. AXS is the main governance token, but also serves as the reward token for leaderboard winners from arena battles.

Arc8

Arc8 is one of the most popular mobile-based play-to-earn dapps. It attracts thousands of users each week thanks to the intuitive design of the app and the ease of use it offers to players. With numerous mini-games to choose from, there’s a little bit for everyone on Arc8.

Platform: Mobile
Game genre: Mini-games
Entry fee to start earning: $0
Tokens: GMEE

Gameplay – During its first official gameplay season, Arc8 introduced ten different mini-games for players. Nine of them were available to everyone, while Sky Lords was only accessible to players who owned the G-bots in-game NFT characters. Now that season 2 has begun, Arc8 plans to introduce even more mini-games.

How to get started – Getting started with Arc8 is easy and accessible. You need to download the Arc8 mobile application from your Android or iOS app store. Once you have the app installed, you’ll be prompted to create your Arc8 wallet. This is where your GMEE rewards will be stored. If you want to get a head start you can also top up GMEE in your wallet and start participating in tournaments right away. Importantly, if you want to participate in Sky Lords games, you’ll also need to purchase a G-bot NFT from OpenSea.

Each mini-game on Arc8 requires seven test runs before you become part of the official ranking. After your test runs are complete you can either play in practice mode or challenge real players in PvP battles. The practice mode requires a certain amount of credits to play. This is the in-game currency that does not have a monetary value. You will need GMEE tokens if you want to participate in PvP battles.

Rewards – Rewards in Arc8 come from PvP battles or tournaments. Both playing modes require an up-front investment of GMEE. PvP battles are divided into three modes, with the cheapest entry being 0.1 GMEE with a reward of 0.18 GMEE for the winning party. The most expensive PvP battles require an initial investment of 10 GMEE and a return of 18 GMEE for the winning player. Tournaments on Arc8 have varying entry requirements and rewards pools.

Aavegotchi

Aavegotchi is one of the most popular virtual world gaming platforms on the Polygon network. Recently, it launched its Gotchiverse offers players new gameplay, the opportunity to own land plots, and a chance to freely communicate with their peers in the metaverse. It is also a great way to showcase your Aavegotchi NFTs and the rare wearables you might have collected in order to compete in rarity farming events.

Platform: PC
Game genre: Mini-games, passive play
Entry fee to start earning: $1
Tokens: GHST, FUD, FOMO, ALPHA, and KEK

Gameplay – With the launch of the Gotchiverse, Aavegotchi introduced numerous gamification functionalities to the platform. One of the main entertaining aspects of the game is to collect rare Gotchi characters and wearable NFTs. Additionally, Aavegotchi often hosts playdrops – events during which players compete in mini-games and receive valuable resources. Aside from the official Aavegotchi games, community members can create their own gaming experiences and share them with their peers.

How to get started – Getting started on Aavegotchi only requires you to purchase a Gotchi character. But you can also borrow them from other players. Lending prices start at roughly 0.5 GHST for a couple of hours. This is the easiest way to get started, and also the cheapest. All you need to a bit of GHST and some MATIC to cover the transaction costs.

Aavegotchi NFTs are purchased with the game’s native token GHST. Visit the official Aavegotchi website and register with your crypto wallet. Load up some GHST tokens and head to the shop to find your perfect Gotchi character. Aavegotchi characters hide behind portals. Unopened portals give you a chance to choose between several Gotchi characters all with a different underlying crypto token. Choose wisely, as this will be the token in which you will receive staking rewards from your Gotchi NFT.

Rewards – As one of the more established play-to-earn platforms out there, Aavegotchi has developed several rewards streams for players. The first opportunity to earn rewards is through staking your Aavegotchi character. This will bring you passive income in the cryptocurrency your Gotchi supports – DAI, Matic, ETH, and many more. A second play-to-earn mechanic comes in the form of the newly released Alchemica tokens. FUD, FOMO, ALPHA, and KEK can be earned through play drop events. Last but not least, you can also rent out your Gotchi NFTs for an additional passive income stream.

Crabada

Crabada is an idle play-to-earn game on the up-and-coming Avalanche blockchain. Gamers get a chance to breed, lend, rent, and battle crabs represented by on-chain NFTs to earn cryptocurrencies with real value.

Platform: PC
Game genre: Looting, idle play
Entry fee to start earning: $450
Tokens: CRA, TUS and CRAM

Gameplay – Crabada NFTs can be deployed into the various mines of the undersea world. Players must first form a Mining Party, composed of 3 Crabada characters. Next, players select a vacant mine and deploy their Mining Party. The Crabada then get to work and begin the process of mining treasure without any supervision required from players. By default, each Mining Expedition takes 4 hours and rewards 3.75 CRA and 303.75 TUS once completed.

Aside from idle mining, Crabada NFTs can also engage in Looting missions. Players select a mine that another player is mining and deploy their Looting Party. The Crabada will then begin engaging the Mining Party in combat. Each Looting Mission will take between 1 hour to 2.5 hours, depending on whether the Mining Party sends reinforcements to defend their mine.

How to get started – In order to start playing Crabada, you first need to acquire or rent three Crabada NFTs. These will form your looting and mining mission. At the time of writing the cheapest Crabada on the native marketplace is sold for around $300 in TUS, bringing the entry cost to start playing to around $900. Importantly, you can rent Crabada NFTs if you don’t want to jump straight into significant purchases. Once you have your Crabada team ready, you can find a vacant mine and start playing.

Rewards – The main reward token in Crabada is TUS. PLayers also earn CRA tokens which are used in the platform’s governance. Players receive rewards both from mining and from looting missions. Mining missions in empty mines guarantee a reward, but take longer to complete. On the other hand, looting missions can bring in more TUS rewards as they take less time to complete. However, there is a risk that the mission can be unsuccessful. The earning potential for mining missions is 3.75 CRA and 303.75 TUS once completed, while looting missions can bring up to 2.4375 CRA and 197.4375 TUS if successful.

Splinterlands

Splinterlands is arguably the most visited play-to-earn game in the space. With an average monthly unique wallet count of more than half a million, the trading card game has captured the attention of gamers all over the world. Collect a strong deck, and chose your Splinter wisely, as each one brings in a special boost to your characters.

Platform: PC and mobile
Game genre: Trading card game
Entry fee to start earning: $10
Tokens: DEC and SPS

Gameplay – Splinterlands is a classic trading card battle game. Players collect character cards with varying strengths and abilities and create decks to face opponents. In-game characters are divided among two groups: Summoners and Splinters. Splinters determine the category of Summoners a player can place in their deck, and give them additional powers. On the other hand, each individual Summoner has specific abilities and powers. Finding the best combination between Splinters and Summoners is the best tactic to win battles in Splinterlands.

Aside from PvP battles, the Splinterlands community organizes frequent tournaments aimed at different player levels. Importantly, winning a tournament can bring more rewards than simply battling opponents and climbing the season rankings.

How to get started – Getting started with Splinterlands is extremely easy. Thanks to the integrated Wax wallet support, players can register on the platform with a social media account of their choice. Once the registration process is complete, players will need to purchase a Summoner Spell Book, which costs $10. The Spellbook contains a starter pack of Splinter and Summoner cards and unlocks the play-to-earn mechanics of the game. Once you have a Spellbook you can start building your decks, and purchasing more powerful cards to compete against stronger opponents.

Rewards – Splinterlands offers players three rewards funnels. Winning PvP battles grants players DEC tokens, which can be used to purchase valuable in-game items and power-ups. On the other hand, participating in tournaments and winning them grants players SPS rewards. While DEC is the in-game currency, SPS is used as a governance and staking token. What’s more, Splinterlands is currently airdropping SPS tokens to all players who stake the native currency. Thirdly, the game offers daily quests which come with a reward in NFTs, in-game currencies or crypto tokens.

How to get in early

Striking early is the key to any successful investment strategy but finding the potential winners is not such an easy task. Investors can potentially spread thinly or go all-in on a project that perhaps doesn’t warrant such a move—that’s why we are here. DappRadar provides users with accurate user activity metrics so the community can easily track new and upcoming gaming projects, finding which ones are generating the most traction and activity to help guide decision-making. But remember, with high rewards also come bigger risks of losing your funds.

Use DappRadar to spot dapps early

Getting in early can mean the difference between flipping a tidy profit or showing up too late to the party. Additionally, spotting the projects with a desire to fulfill roadmaps and deliver on promises made is equally important. Easy right? Let’s take a look. First of all, it’s important to know how to zoom in on gaming projects listed on DappRadar.

Head to DappRadar.com in a new tab
At the top of the site, you will see Rankings – click that
You are presented with a list of blockchains and the dapps on those networks below. You can search through all the games or zoom in on a particular network.
Below the networks, you will see the categories of dapps – click games
To find the hottest game projects, we advise not to filter by network and instead choose a 7-day filter and rank results by Users. This way, you see which game dapps attracted the most users over the last seven days.
To cancel out some noise, use the filter to the top left of the rankings to zoom in further on users. Here we will set the minimum number of users to 500 and the max to 20,000. When you have DappRadar PRO, you can use multiple filters at the same time. This arguably allows you to generate better results.

We are looking for up-and-comers, so setting tighter parameters for users helps avoid the dapps not gaining any traction and, at the other end of the scale, avoiding the established projects. The result is a list of gaming dapps across all networks that have attracted more than 500 but less than 20,000 unique active wallets in the past seven days.

Below you will see CryptoMines in 14th position with a user increase of more than 700% in the past week. Interesting right? Let’s dive in. We spot something slightly concerning here; the 700% is based on leaping from a relatively small number to another pretty small number. Still, the increase was 700%, but numbers can be deceiving. It received little interest then received a significant percentage peak. Also, from looking at the overall chart on the right, we see this game has peaked already.

Of course, judging a dapp on seven-day metrics is a small window, and by clicking through to a particular dapp, we can see its longer-term activity.

Now let’s take a look at the token attached to the game, CryptoMines Eternal (ETERNAL), and we want to stress the correlation you will see here. Many people don’t understand how using DappRadar could guide investment decisions. Let me show you. The chart below and the correlation to DappRadar user data are clear.

The token price peaked on November 26th, 2021, at the same time CryptoMines surpassed 200,000 UAW for the first time. Moreover, the trend is evident. One thing is vital to understand here. Watching crypto charts, an investor will encounter massive turbulence, and it’s hard to know whether jumping in is a good idea. Monitoring the number of UAW interacting with a dapp is much less volatile. Either people are enjoying it, or they are not. As you see below, if you know a dapp is finding traction regarding users, perhaps surpassing 5,000 per day, the token is likely moving up as well.

So in this example, we found a project that started gaining serious traction back in September last year, only to drop off a few months later. However, those who jumped in early and exited at the right time would have been happy.

On Tuesday, September 14, the ETERNAL token price was a little over $2.00, and a clear upward trajectory can be seen regarding users. On Friday, November 26, the cost of ETERNAL hit almost $780. That’s a 38,900% increase in the value of ETERNAL in less than 12 weeks. Even if you had watched the number of active users until early October, when the upward trend was clear, there was a huge potential profit. However, we don’t have a time machine, so linger here to educate yourself on what to look for.

The above only considers hard data points, and it is also vital to look at the project with a magnifying glass to see what it’s all about. This part of the process requires common sense and research, but some key things to look at are.

The tokenomics – Do the founders have vast chunks of the native token? If yes, are they vested, i.e., locked up so they cannot sell them as soon as the price pumps and cripple the economy. Are there good retention mechanics for the token, i.e., players stake it in a vault to earn more. Look at how the game incentivizes people to hold their tokens and not run away. Players can earn a token, but do they also have means to spend it inside the game’s economy or do they have ways to stake and earn interest. Crucial information if you’re looking at tokenomics.

The team – Who’s building this game, and what is their history? Importantly, seeing that a team member once worked at EA or Ubisoft, while cool, may not mean much here. Check out the team members on Twitter, and see what they are all about. Furthermore, look for any information about investors, do any big players have faith in this project yet?

The game – what’s the game like? Is it fun, or is it a button basher designed only to reward tokens? This makes a difference because a button basher generally has a short shelf life unless tied to a more extensive roadmap with clear deliverables. Use your judgment here. When in doubt, don’t invest. It’s easy to get swept away with cool trailers and in-game images that don’t depict reality.

Finding rising stars on DappRadar

A further way to isolate dapps within the gaming category is to click the New Dapps filter at the top left of the rankings. Using this filter, you can see projects that have been listed on DappRadar within the last ten days. These lists change every week as more dapps arrive, so research is on-going.

Straight away, we see a huge percentage increase in the user tab. But it’s one of those dapps we spoke about earlier where the number of users went from zero to less than 100, it’s relatively small but the percentage indicates otherwise. Additionally, looking through all the new game dapps gives you an idea of which blockchains are fostering dapp development. We see mostly BNB Chain, Wax, and Polygon dapps in the list.

More interesting to dive into here is Phantom Galaxies on Polygon. It’s telling us it attracted over 700 users in the last seven days, the biggest of all the new gaming projects on the list.

First of all, let’s look at the description of the game. “Mecha Starfighters Battle on the Blockchain! Open-world online space sim with fast-paced shooting and gripping story.” A few words jump out here. Mecha, battle, space, and fast-paced. These things are appealing and warrant further investigation. Also, there is no flashy mention of play-to-earn or tokenomics, so maybe it hasn’t even launched yet.

A quick look at the official website reveals a flashy trailer, some impressive behind-the-scenes in-game footage, and a roadmap. However, scrolling to the bottom indicates the real juice – Animoca Brands backed the game. Animoca has become one of the leading investors and biggest players in the blockchain gaming space.

Nonetheless, looking at the site confirms the suspicion that the game is not yet live, and instead, people are speculating. The user data would also indicate a rush of users then a drop-off. So what’s happening here?

The release of Origin NFTs is why people rushed in. The Halberd-001 NFT is required to access the first challenge, and they are selling on NFT Marketplace OpenSea for around $15 at writing. To participate in the second challenge, another NFT is required, which is available on OpenSea for approximately $70.

There are a couple of things to note here that point at Phantom Galaxies potentially becoming a star. Firstly, Animoca Brands doesn’t invest in any old project, they are well known for supporting some of the best in the industry, and they are certainly not looking to support cash grabs. Secondly, early participation gives players a chance to be involved with an NFT land presale, which is arguably one of the most lucrative things to get involved in blockchain games. Furthermore, despite being relatively new, they have more than 100,000 followers on Twitter, with regular updates and interaction from the team.

This looks positive, and the barrier to entry is low at under $100. Additionally, if the game delivers on what it’s promising on its site, then Phantom Galaxies looks like it could become an extremely playable game with earning mechanics baked in.

A glance at the single dapp page can tell you whether we found a star or just another project trying to attract value. Moreover, a few key questions need to be asked before apeing into any project. Ultimately there is no crystal ball, just good old-fashioned detective work, and research. DappRadar, alongside your intuitions and lite analysis, can provide the data to make informed decisions about dapp games and strike while interest is building rather than jumping into projects already at their peak, as we said at the start – no risk, no reward.

Launchpads and getting tokens early

We already mentioned that the new dapp listings on DappRadar can turn out to be a gold mine. But where do you need to look for information about upcoming projects that aren’t live on the blockchain yet? Before we dive into this, we need to clearly state that we’re moving in strong speculation territory here. Investing in projects before they are live is a serious risky business.

One of the initiatives that has made a big splash in the past 12 months, is the rise of IDO launchpads. These launchpads require users to KYC (register and confirm their identity), but in return they get investment opportunities previously only available to venture capitalists and large-scale investors.

These are early investment opportunities. On a launchpad a project can register to offer their tokens, and then token holders of that launchpad get early access to the tokens. Investors need to confirm their identity, often meaning that citizens from the US are blocked from using these launchpads.

Launchpads offer tokens at a discounted price, making sure that everybody who invests immediately makes money when the token hits the market. In many cases the maximum allocation per individual is limited to a maximum of for example $500 or $1,000. Keep in mind that success of a product launch can’t be guaranteed through these launchpads. There’s always a risk involved, similar to for example crowdfunding on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

Some examples of popular launchpads:

Closing words

Play-to-Earn is an entire new, exciting paradigm for the games industry. It makes players participants with a potential financial incentive to participate. This business model is new, and will meet lots of resistance from established games industry veterans and gamers alike. What we have presented here isn’t a blueprint for success, and it’s not financial advice. Above all, we hope this document serves you in developing and forming a well educated and researched opinion about new, upcoming and existing blockchain games.

Thank you, and may the odds be ever in your favor,

The editorial team at DappRadar

Ian Kane
Hristina Yordanova
Charlie Butler
Jade Gao
Robert Hoogendoorn

The Ultimate Guide to Playing Games & Earning Crypto

DappRadar

12 May 2022 • 33 min read

Last updated: May 12, 2022 (version 1.0)

An introduction to play-to-earn gaming

Different product categories within this niche

NFT games – Do not use a blockchain-based token for their economy but allow players to use, win or earn NFTs. These NFTs can be game items, characters, or other types of rewards. Players are free to trade, borrow or sell their NFTs as they please.
GameFi – Gamification of financial services has become a popular topic in blockchain. These GameFi products make basic financial transactions interactive, for example, allowing users to harvest their yield from an actual virtual farm. These games aren’t entertaining, but are all about optimization and rather passive gameplay.
Play-to-Earn – Sometimes labeled as play-and-earn to emphasize the need for a game to be fun first. These games have (a part of) their game economy relying on blockchain technology, allowing gamers to earn crypto tokens that they can exchange for other assets.