Gaming accounts for 45% of web3 industry active wallets despite decrease in activity

On-chain gaming accounts for 45.43% of the decentralized application (dApp) industry, even though gaming-related Daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW) recorded a 12.33% decrease in February, a recent DappRadar report revealed.

As of the end of February, there are 752,735 dUAW recorded on-chain, according to the DappRadar report. Despite the overall decrease, two games – Oak of Peak and Trickshot Blitz- increased their on-chain user counts. Game developer Unity also demonstrates its bullish sentiment towards the industry and entered the field by offering 13 blockchain-based software development kits (SDK).

Blockchain Gaming

The report notes that the 12.33% decrease recorded last month shows consistency with the previous years, as “February tends to be a slow month for the industry.”

Even though gaming still accounts for almost half of the industry activity, its dominance didn’t remain intact from the shrinking dUAW numbers.

February’s 45% marks a decrease from gaming’s dominance over the industry in January, which was 48%. The current dominance rate rewinds the growth recorded in January and returns dominance rates to the same as in December 2022.

Regardless, gaming continues to hold absolute dominance over DeFi. Compared to gaming, DeFi recorded an increase in dominance rates, reaching 24% from January’s 21%. However, this is still nearly half of gaming’s 45%.

Going against the tide

The overall decrease in the number of dUAWs reflected on all major gaming blockchains, except for WAX (WAXP). In February, Wax increased the number of its dUAWs to 342,764, which marks a 3.26% increase.

All other major chains recorded decreases in February, with HIVE (HIVE) recording the most significant shrink at 36%. Polygon (MATIC), BNB Chain (BNB), and EOS (EOS) also shrunk by 35%, 12%, and 3.44%, respectively.

The game Oath of Peak strongly went against the tide and became the top-performing game in February by increasing its monthly UAW (mUAW) by 136% and reaching 88,090. Trickshot Blitz was another game that also recorded growth during February by increasing its mUAW to 84,160, marking a 49% increase from the previous month. Finally, Farmers World managed to resist the overall decrease in February by recording a 4% growth in its mUAW.

Bullish with SDKs

The report also noted a newly emerging trend within blockchain gaming: SDKs. Citing Alchemy’s Q4 data, the report states that there was an 87% growth in Ethereum (ETH) SDKs in 2022. Moreover, a 16% increase was recorded in installs during the fourth quarter in comparison to the third of the same year.

Noticing the new trend, the game developer platform Unity also entered the field by offering 13 blockchain gaming SDKs. Unity launched a “decentralization” category in its online store where it listed these SDKs, which include major protocols like Immutable X (IMX), Solana (SOL),  and MetaMask.