Hey guys, today I’m doing an NFL Rivals Review , a licensed NFL American Football arcade-style game by Mythical Games. Mythical Games is a Blockchain gaming company known to crypto gaming OGs for the blockbuster trading-card game Gods Unchained and later Blankos Block Party.
About a week ago, I was reminiscing with a friend about the games we used to play on the PlayStation 1 console, and I recalled a game I had been hooked on for a while—Madden 2001.
Then I remembered an NFL game on the blockchain: NFL Rivals, which boasts over a million downloads on the Play Store (NFL Rivals on iOS). At that moment, I knew what I had to do.
A Few Words About NFL Rivals.
NFL Rivals is a fast-paced arcade-style American football game that combines web2 and web3 gaming elements. The game offers optional in-app purchases through the Google and Apple stores, ensuring compliance with their policies. Additionally, the web3 version, accessible through Mythical’s marketplace, allows players to participate in a secondary market for cards (players) trading using NFTs and the MYTHOS token.
The gameplay is smooth and requires both hands to play (yes, I even tried emulating it on PC). It requires little to no skill, making it a game for everyone who enjoys American football and wants a casual way to unwind.
The pay-to-win aspect is evident and widely accepted. Some individuals are willing to spend money; we rely on those players to keep every game thriving. After all, businesses need to generate revenue from games. If we all prefer a “free-to-play” model, we might face excessive advertisements or the risk that the game could cease to exist entirely.
As you progress, you can collect multiple in-game daily and seasonal rewards, participate in various events, and interact with actual NFL teams and players.
The secondary “crypto” aspect of NFL Rivals is not prominently displayed to players, which is a significant advantage. Casual gamers are less likely to engage with the game if it features crypto elements. In fact, they might avoid trying the game altogether if they believe it revolves around cryptocurrency, which it does not at the core of its gameplay.
Did I mention there is no defense gameplay? Right, who cares about defense anyway.
I Need to Learn The Rules.
I had only a vague idea of how American football is played, so I was glad to see an interactive tutorial at the beginning of NFL Rivals. It helped me learn the essentials of the rules and gameplay. However, many aspects still didn’t make sense to me. So, here I am watching a two-hour game on YouTube, trying to understand why they wear helmets like driving in the “Acropolis Rally”, and amazed by how many people are captivated by this sport.
NFL Rivals Interface: First Impression.
After completing the short tutorial, you are presented with a slick interface that feels like a top-quality mainstream mobile game. I must say that the UX designers have done a great job, especially considering that they have integrated many different elements in a well-organized and visually appealing way.
Unlocking certain features, such as the marketplace at Level 15, gradually contributes to an engaging progression system. This approach helps prevent newcomers from feeling overwhelmed while providing them with clear goals to strive for. As a result, players remain invested in the game and experience a sense of achievement with each level they complete.
NFL Rivals strikes a perfect balance between modern design and high-energy football action. The vibrant team logos, dynamic animations, and sharp player card designs give it the polish of a top-tier sports game.
Thanks to the player stats displayed, building and managing your team is a breeze. The user interface allows for smooth and satisfying player swaps, card upgrades, and synergy adjustments. One of the best features is the “Best Team” button, which automatically selects and adds the top players to your team.
NFL Rivals: Gameplay.
Now is the time to share my opinion regarding the NFL Rivals gameplay. Let’s not forget this is an arcade-style game that can’t be compared with Madden. NFL Rivals aims to offer a quick 2-3 minutes match gameplay rather than playing full matches that last a long time.
The lack of defense caught my attention; the gameplay focused solely on the attacking side. Some might argue it lacks gameplay, but I see what’s happening here. No one likes defense unless you are a professional defense athlete. Even when I play in FIFA career from time to time, I opt for an attacking position. I want to score goals, not defend, so it’s fine by me.
The movement in the game is excellent, although I sometimes find it challenging to avoid enemy players. That’s part of the sport; you can’t just run over them, right? There is also a stamina feature that makes your player slow down, along with options to evade defenders by moving left or right, and even to sprint. Controlling the game with both hands feels very smooth, and overall, the experience is quite enjoyable.
Passing is designed with slow-motion control when performed, making it much easier than expected and enabling greater precision.
When your team defends, you can tap and skip it. Sometimes, they will score a lot, and others nothing. Depending on how strong the opposite team and your defenders are, the algorithm calculates the outcome using each team’s power.
Getting deeper, base players can be upgraded using blueprints and different kinds of in-game “assets,” merged to create better players, and synergies can be applied to cooperate better with other teammates.
NFL Rival: Graphics.
As you have already discovered, NFL Rivals opts for arcade-style, cartoonish graphics with cool animations. When I sprint, I think of the Sheep, Dog ‘n’ Wolf game I used to play as a kid, and yeah, that’s a good thing.
In my humble opinion, the overall atmosphere is pleasant. I would love to see the colors pop up more; there is room for improvement, graphics-wise. Mythical games created an aesthetic that blends great with the gameplay, with all these animations, rather than trying to develop super-realistic graphics that look unreal on mobile devices, which frequently cause the phones to lag and overheat.
The sound design is also excellent and offers an energetic vibe, which I liked a lot.
NFL Rivals: Multiplayer.
Once I unlocked multiplayer, I went straight to play against another random player. Before hitting the button, I thought, “Maybe they have defense here, but no, no defense.”
The multiplayer mode is not multiplayer. You try your best to beat the opponent in the offense, and the algorithm handles the rest. No actual multiplayer takes place here, just like the single-player mode, like in campaign mode.
And while you won’t get the joy of smashing someone’s face in real-time, there is a leaderboard to keep you interested, where in various multiplayer events and ranked matches, you have to win as many games as possible to make it into the rewards.
Become a Guild Owner, or Join One.
Guilds in NFL Rivals add a community-driven element to the game, allowing players to form competitive groups linked to the Rarity League, an NFT-based system offering exclusive benefits for specific digital collectibles. Players must own a Rarity League helmet to create a guild, which also determines leadership and management structures. However, joining a guild does not require a helmet, making it accessible to more players.
Guilds operate with three tiers:
- Guild Owners
- Guild Leaders
- Guild Members
Guild Owners hold the Rarity League collectibles and can create multiple guilds if they own more than one helmet. They appoint Guild Leaders to manage daily operations, while regular members improve their guilds’ leaderboard rankings through gameplay.
The top guilds earn multiple rewards such as in-game currency and NFT Cards.
So Many Rewards.
Like any mainstream game, players need a “hook” to continue playing, and NFL Rivals is not disappointing here. There are several ways to earn rewards as you play, some of which contain players, in-game currencies, and more.
I played increasingly to accumulate those prizes, not just for the NFL Rivals Review but because I enjoyed it.
Below is a list of the reward pools and events from which you can claim prizes.
| Power Pass: | Priced at 8.99€, Unlocks various rewards with “Rewards XP” |
| XP Road: | Same as Power Pass but free. |
| Daily Rewards | Login daily to accumulate various rewards such as Coins, Gems, Base Players, and Packs. |
| Quick Play | A campaign that offers a variety of rewards, including XP, Player Cards, TE Points (Upgraded player points), and others. |
| Tasks | Receive “Rewards XP” by completing things like “Sprint 10 Times”, “Play 75 Games”, etc. |
| Store | Buy player cards using the “Whistles” you earn from the rewards. |
| Daily & Special Events | Participate to earn Gems and other rewards. |
| Leagues | Ranked matches that offer Gems, Conditioning Points, Weight Room Points, Film Room Points, and Auto-Win Tickets. |
Below is a list of the available rewards and what they are used for.
| Weight Room PTS | Points are used to upgrade players at any position. |
| Wildcard PTS | Points are used to upgrade players at key levels. |
| Film Room PTS | In-game currency is used to purchase player packs and upgrade resources. |
| Profile Icons | Used as in-game Icons for your account. |
| Base Players | Used in the program Shop to purchase players, blueprints, and more. |
| Conditioning PTS | Similar to Film Room PTS, used for upgrading players at key levels. |
| Gems | Used in the program Shop to buy players, blueprints, and more. |
| Blueprints | Essential items for in-game crafting. |
| Coins | Used for upgrading players and purchasing player packs |
| Whistles | Used in the program Shop to buy players, blueprints, and more. |
The early rewards are enough to get you going, but like any other game, you will need an extra push as you progress and play competitively, which brings us to in-game purchases.
NFL Rivals: In-Game Purchases.
Every major free-to-play game offers a wide range of in-game purchases, especially mobile games that rely on microtransactions. When you consider the costs associated with licensing a game from a significant sports association like the NFL, as well as payments for developers, server upkeep, and the 30% cut taken by Google and Apple, along with taxes imposed by governments, it becomes clear that selling in-game items is essential for profitability.
The NFL Rivals Shop contains various special offers for all kinds of wallets with limited player packs, premium passes, starter bundles, upgrade packs, and everything else you need to make your gameplay experience more enjoyable.
You don’t need to buy anything to enjoy the game, but like any other, you will need a respectable amount to compete in the top leagues.
NFL Rivals: Marketplace.
Now that I have reviewed the in-app purchases, it’s time to focus on the Marketplace. If you plan to make any purchases from the Marketplace, link your Mythical’s Market account to the game using the profile tab. This way, your marketplace NFTs will appear in-game.
Mythical’s Market operates on the Polkadot blockchain using the MYTH token. At the time of writing this review, the MYTHOS Token is priced at $0.17, while its all-time high was on the release date, January 23, when it was valued at $1.9.
To access it, you need to sign up for an account and send the MYTH tokens to a wallet created automatically for you in the “balance” section.
Remember that you need to pass KYC to withdraw tokens from the marketplace. There are two withdrawal options: through the Uphold service (which also requires KYC on their end) and to an external polkadot wallet.
Now to the juicy stuff. The marketplace contains three types of NFTs, which are used in-game.
- Players
- Blueprints
- Squad Helmets
There are multiple filters to sort the in-game assets based on your preferences. In total, there are 72,968 NFTs available on the Mythical Marketplace, with assets starting for as low as $0.19 for a blueprint, all the way up to 18 million, 174 thousand, 896 dollars and 65 cents for some players, sold by trolls.
Marketplace Data from Cryptoslam suggests that in February 2025, there were $541,480.69 in sales, with 6,491 sellers and 5,677 buyers. The average sale price was $3.81, and 168,922 transfers between wallets were made through 14,528 active owners.
Focusing on what you want through filters can help you find exactly what you need. Despite my limited knowledge of American football, I discovered that with a budget of $200 to $500, you can build a decent team to enhance your enjoyment of the game in the higher leagues. Though it won’t be competitive in the top leagues, it probably won’t make it into the rewards.
Can You Earn Money in NFL Rivals?
Before I answer the obvious question I’m not qualified to answer on my own, let’s examine how you can make some money in NFL Rivals.
- As expected, the marketplace is vital, like every other blockchain game. There are two types of “investors” in blockchain gaming, those who play and flip cards and assets on the marketplace. So, if you know what you are doing, the Marketplace might be a way to earn some MYTHOS Tokens by flipping assets.
- Secondly, participating in events and completing challenges might reward you with NFT assets that can be later sold in the Marketplace or sold to the game directly through the “Quick Sell” feature. However, my journey with NFL Rivals hasn’t reached that far to confirm how viable this scenario is with a free-to-play team.
Regardless of the case, factors such as the rarity and power of each NFT card, the marketplace demand, the price of the MYTHOS token, and the time invested in the game must be considered.
Now for the million-dollar question: Can you make money by playing NFL Rivals? I pulled some information from a recent Reddit post about earnings.
It’s possible, I think the strategy is to invest up front a big amount, like maybe $3000-5000 (seriously, not joking). With the hopes you can sell premium cards back for around what you paid for them to start out.
Reddit User: Vicious_Paradigm
Use that to buy up peak meta cards and their synergies. Full mythical teams, get a warchest of old program cards… then grind every event.
I’m okay with this. If I were to invest in a game, I would focus on those currently under development or just starting. Existing games aren’t always the best option, as in-game economies are often unstable. Right now, what matters most to me is playing enjoyable games. If I can make some profits along the way, that’s a bonus. Mythical Games has consistently delivered exceptional titles. I enjoyed playing Gods Unchained, even though I’m not a fan of card games. I also liked Blankos Block Party and appreciate NFL Rivals, despite my preference for the other type of football.
Reddit user “BradlyL” shared a breakdown post last year about how he made $3,478 with an initial investment of $702$ in /r/cryptocurrency. You can find that post here. Please note that the data in crypto games change constantly. Something that worked last week might be outdated today.
Here’s a fact: once upon a time, Gala Games Nodes sold for $2,000. Those who got them early and didn’t sell until the market peaked made a million dollars from each node. Last time I checked, these nodes were selling for almost $100,000 each and the returns were around $5 a day. The same thing happened with in-game NFTs on multiple “quality” games. NFTs priced $50,000, tailored for passive earnings, are now worth $400$.
My point is always the same, if you don’t know what you are doing, don’t do it. Just enjoy playing the game.
The MYTHOS Token.
The MYTHOS token (MYTH) is controlled by the Mythos Foundation, which, as I understand, is under the umbrella of Mythical Games. It’s not exclusive to NFT Rivals but more like the go-to token for all Mythical and ecosystem Games. It has a broader use case.
Based on data from Coinmarketcap, the total supply is 1 billion, with 776M in circulation. In the partners section, I can see notable names such as Ubisoft, Com2us, Kakao Games, Animoca Brands, Double Jump Tokyo, and others, making a strong ecosystem of partners that could definitely provide value.
The official website’s analytics section provides the Daily active wallet, which was 6.3 million when the NFL Rivals Review was written. There is also information about token burn, among other things, which has accounted for 973,000 tokens up until today, a bit less than 1% of the total supply.
MYTHOS Token is an ERC20 token that can be traded on popular exchanges such as Gate.io, HTX, MEXC, and Uniswap.
Here is a list of games MYTHOS Token is and will be used for.
- NFL Rivals: Earn MYTH Tokens through various activities.
- Football Rivals: Telegram Game, Use NFL Rivals NFTs in f2p events and earn MYTH Tokens.
- Nitro Nation World Tour: NFTs are sold for MYTH in the Mythical Marketplace.
- Blankos Block Party: MYTH is integrated in the in-game economy.
- Pudgy Party: Upcoming game, coming in 2025.
- FIFA Rivals: Probably similar to NFL Rivals. Coming in the summer of 2025.
NFL Rivals Marketing Efforts and Partnerships.
As an NFL and NFL Players Association (NFLPA) licensed game, people expect mainstream adoption and a similar scale of marketing efforts. NFL Rivals has managed to reach over a million downloads on Android and secured partnerships in the past with Amazon Gaming, the Miami Dolphins, and the Super Bowl LVIII Champion Kansas City Chiefs, as well as with OneTeam, a global leader in sports licensing, marketing, sponsorship, and media.
NFL Rivals Review: The Verdict.
Even if I still don’t understand the rules completely, I enjoyed NFL Rivals, and I’m not going to uninstall the game from my device. The fast-paced gameplay makes it ideal for a quick break for people like me who work all day long and need something to distract themselves for a minute.
For this review, I also tried Madden NFL just to compare it with. However, both games are entirely different, and I wasn’t impressed with Madden’s gameplay. It has a steep learning curve and requires significant play time.
I liked NFL Rivals’ gameplay better. It’s smoother and faster, and while I experienced a few glitches, my experience was great. The graphics are nice but could improve a bit, and obviously, the audio engineering is well done.
The overall game design is similar to what you expect from a mainstream game. It keeps you active with multiple rewards that can upgrade your experience.
In the blog, I’ve noticed that Mythical continuously balances the game, which has both positive and negative aspects. On one hand, it’s beneficial for game improvements; on the other, it can seriously impact investors, especially when balancing changes are made. A good example of this is Axie Infinity, among others.
I assume the game becomes repetitive after a month or two, but that’s how all sports games are. If you are a busy person and a fan of American Football, I believe NFL Rivals is for you.