The dawn of product market fit for crypto games and NFTs

Many adults, teenagers, and kids spend a significant amount of time gaming, either on their own or with their friends. These games have quests, skills to train, player tournaments, and sometimes an entire economy (e.g. World of Warcraft). When envisioning the integration of crypto and gaming, many picture a Ready Player One style world with a digital economy running on a blockchain network. Avid gamers imagine a better version of the games where individual users have the potential to be rewarded for their contributions.

This utopian vision of crypto-based gaming isn’t ready, technically or socially, for the mainstream audience but crypto and blockchain-based games are steadily gaining momentum. So let’s examine 1) briefly why blockchain has the potential to enhance gaming, 2) the existing non-fungible token (NFT)/blockchain gaming landscape, and 3) the revenues of the 3 top blockchain companies.

A brief overview of gaming business models

There are a multitude of traditional gaming business models. The most successful today are:

• Free with in-game cosmetic purchases (FortNite)
• Box game/digital download with expansion content purchases (Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo games)
• Free with in-game non-cosmetic purchases (pay to play)