Web3 gaming is an industry whose best still lies ahead. The quality, diversity, and interactivity of web3 games is improving all the time but that doesn’t mean it’s yet to deliver. Several web3 titles are already live that have hit that sweet spot in which playability is combined with the sort of enhanced features that blockchain can provide. As a result, they’re deliciously addictive, ridiculously fun, and eminently playable. The following six are as good as it gets.
Pixels
Until fairly recently, Ronin Chain was known for one game and one game only: Axie Infinity, the one that started the whole Play-to-Earn movement. But now another game’s occupying blockspace on Ronin and it’s captured the imagination of players. With close to 500K daily transactions, Pixels is a veritable hive of activity.
A community-focused builder game, Pixels enables users to create games that integrate digital collectibles. Existing IP can be used within Pixels, while users can immerse themselves in Farmville style tasks: managing crops and taking care of animals. It’s a formula that’s been tried many times in web3, but Pixels has nailed it, combining simple but cutesy graphics with fun games. It’s also got clever tokenomics baked in that have seen the PIXELS token rack up $90M of daily volume.
World of Dypians
You might not have heard of World of Dypians, but the stats don’t lie: over 460,000 players a month can be found doing their thing within this expansive multi-chain game. There are multiple quests to complete, realms to explore, and armor and other accessories to collect. Thanks to the high degree of customization, players can refine the gameplay experience to suit their preferences, create everything from tools to weapons, and trade them freely.
One of the best things about WoD is that its world is constantly expanding, ensuring there are always new sections of the map to unlock and new ground to conquer. Within the growing WoD ecosystem, there are also new NFT collections to trade, mini-games, and social features that ensure wherever your journey takes you, you’re never alone.
NFL Rivals
If you’re a web3 native and American football fan, odds are you’re familiar with NFL Rivals, the Mythical Games title that’s secured over 5 million downloads and accrued a loyal fan base. If you’re neither of these things, NFL Rivals nevertheless warrants a closer look. For one thing, the arcade gameplay, coupled with the card collecting strategy element, is perfectly balanced, giving NFL Rivals much wider appeal than a game of this nature would ordinarily warrant.
For another, the onboarding is extremely smooth, abstracting all of the web3 components so that players can focus on the game experience. NFL Rivals is the ideal jumping-off point if you’ve never tried a web3 game. It captures everything that’s great about web3 gaming and fully deserves the multiple awards it’s been shortlisted for.
Nine Chronicles
If there’s a theme running through many of the most popular web3 games it’s the concept of player ownership. This doesn’t just apply to the characters and wearables, but also to the games themselves: players get to call the shots, dictating game expansion and new features, with the studio merely the mechanism for implementing the community’s wishes. Nine Chronicles embodies this trend.
A top 20 gaming dapp, Nine Chronicles is an RPG in which players call the shots. Clever tokenization has helped to create a robust internal economy in which players can earn rewards from staking NCG, which they can also earn through crafting items. Trading these items for better gear allows them to earn further NCG and upgrade their own equipment. Highly playable and eminently fun, Nine Chronicles is the RPC web3 deserves.
Copycat Killer
Copycat Killer is billed as a social destruction game, which is reason enough to check it out. It’s developed by PlayGround, a studio that’s earned a reputation for consistently publishing fun, accessible web3 games. Copycat Killer combines suspense with strategy, tasking players with identifying the murderer while trying to avoid becoming the next victim.
Copycat Killer is currently one of the most popular gaming dapps on Polygon and it’s the ideal taster for what PlayGround has to offer. After getting to grips with the simple but engaging strategy game, you’ll be raring to explore the rest of the PlayGround portfolio including Parkour Battle, Panic, Bed War, and Skyward.
AlphaOrBeta
Is it a prediction market disguised as a game or is it a game dressed as a prediction market? Whatever the case, it’s found its audience thanks to some clever gamification. Players simply need to take binary bets on questions ranging from whether Bruno Mars or Chris Brown is a better performer to China’s likelihood of unbanning Bitcoin.
AlphaOrBeta is a great means of showcasing what blockchain’s good for: provable fairness, transparency, and achieving social consensus. The retro gaming-inspired interface is perfect, allowing players to dive right in and start making their voice heard.