Activeplayer reports that the average monthly user count for the monster-battle game Axie infinity is 701,447. This represents levels not seen since January 2021. Before the advent of crypto winter, Axie Infinity’s monthly players reached 2.78 million at their peak in January 2018. In June, the popular game of play-to earn NFT lost 1.2 million players.
The bear market aside, game mechanics were also a factor in the decline in player count. Around the same time last years, players from developing countries reported higher earnings playing Axie Infinity compared to some countries’ minimum wage.
Since then, however, Smooth Love Potion, Axie Infinity’s in-game rewards token for smooth love, has dropped by over 95%. Due to the large number of players who rush in to earn tokens in-game, the circulating supply has increased from around 2.4 billion to 40 billion.
November 2021 saw 2 million Axies sold on the Axie Infinity NFT Marketplace. This was 140,956.7 Ether ( ), or $639.5 Million at the time. The numbers have dropped sharply since then, with 311,300 Axies being sold at a value of 4,143.3 ETH (or $5.37million at the time I am writing this).
This is consistent with a bear market in NFTs, where trading volumes across digital collectibles has fallen 98% since January.
Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge was exploited for $600,000,000. Other developments this year also seem to have affected GameFi’s confidence. Binance has provided additional assistance to reimburse all users since then.
