Five Sizzling Web3 Games to Play This Summer
Gaming has long been a cornerstone of Web3 technology, offering enhanced features such as play-to-earn capabilities, asset ownership, and provably fair gameplay in comparison to traditional games. As such, Web3 gaming is a fast-growing segment. Only a few short years ago, players had just a small handful of titles to choose from, whereas today, DappRadar lists over 3,000 gaming dApps, leaving gamers spoiled for choice. If you’ve been looking for recommendations to kill some downtime this summer, look no further. Here are five picks for Web3 games that are making a splash.
Hamster Kombat
Hamster Kombat has become one of the viral hits of the year. Effectively, Hamster Kombat allows the player to mine tokens based on their success at managing a virtual crypto exchange. With the aim of becoming the in-game equivalent of Binance, players invest their earnings into hiring talent, launching marketing campaigns, and expanding into new services.
It claims to have over 200 million users, riding on the success of the TON blockchain and Notcoin, the first viral success achieved through Telegram’s simple messaging interface. Hamster Kombat has been a hit among audiences similar to Notcoin’s, gaining the most traction in countries including Nigeria and Iran.
The game’s developers have chosen to remain anonymous, but have given interviews in the crypto media. They recently revealed plans for a second airdrop, following an initial event taking place in late July.
Guild of Guardians
Guild of Guardians from Immutable is a fantasy RPG game transporting players to a world of dungeons, magic, and adventures. Gameplay involves assembling a team of guardians to battle through each dungeon, and players must craft new items and summon their heroes strategically to ensure they can progress.
Only by leveling up and enhancing a guardian’s power through enlightenment can it “ascend” to become a Radiant Guardian. This means the guardian is minted as an NFT and can be traded as a rare asset in the game.
The game had already become one of the top-traded NFT collections even before it launched in May and showed no signs of slowing down weeks later. It’s been one of the highest-profile titles to launch on Immutable’s zkEVM network, claiming over a million players, according to its website.
NFL Rivals
NFL Rivals, the only game apart from Madden to have been officially licensed by the NFL itself, brings the top players together with adrenaline-fueled, arcade-style gameplay. It puts the gamer in the position of team manager, allowing them to own and collect NFTs representing their star players so they can compete to win against other managers.
The NFL has a huge fanbase, even beyond US borders, which could be a factor behind the game’s success. In June, the game passed $1 million in monthly NFT trading volume, while the studio behind the title, Mythical Games, also disclosed that the app had been downloaded over five million times.
However, an easy onboarding experience is also likely to be playing a key part in these figures. Rather than compelling all users to navigate token-based transactions for all game interactions, NFL Rivals offers a Web2 version with support for non-crypto payments, accessible via the mainstream app stores. It has also enabled an innovative “Quick swap” feature, allowing two gamers to directly swap their NFL player NFTs without any financial transaction involved, based on an agreement of mutual value.
Pixels
Pixels is a resource-gathering game similar in gameplay to Farmville. Players engage in homesteading-type activities – gathering, cooking, and selling their wares in a 2D, free-to-play environment.
One feature that’s likely to appeal to NFT collectors is the ability to natively integrate your own collectibles by importing them, meaning you can play with your own CryptoPunk, CryptoKitty, or Pudgy Penguin PFPs. This introduces an element of interoperability that’s not previously been a feature of other Web3 games, despite asset portability being one of the selling points of having games on-chain.
Pixels launched its token in February of 2024, which went on to become the 10th most-traded token on Binance within the first week of trading. The game claims to have exceeded one million daily active users since launching on Ronin, the scalable Layer 2 network that also supports Axie Infinity. At the time of writing, it’s the top-ranked game on DappRadar.
Catizen
Catizen is shaping up to be the TON network’s third major hit, following the success of Notcoin and Hamster Kombat. The player assumes the role of a cat cafe owner, and must create combinations of their animated kitties to enhance their attributes level up their value. As a Telegram mini-app, it uses a similar “tap-to-earn” interface to its predecessors, but offers a more engaging gameplay experience.
According to the company’s CEO, Catizen aims to replicate the viral popularity of mini-games seen on WeChat in China, and so far, the results are demonstrating success. It claims over 25 million users, with close to five million subscribers to its Telegram channel. The game has also attracted strategic investment from The Open Protocol, a major developer on TON which co-developed Notcoin and the wallet bot for Telegram.
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About The Author
Gregory, a digital nomad hailing from Poland, is not only a financial analyst but also a valuable contributor to various online magazines. With a wealth of experience in the financial industry, his insights and expertise have earned him recognition in numerous publications. Utilising his spare time effectively, Gregory is currently dedicated to writing a book about cryptocurrency and blockchain.
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Gregory, a digital nomad hailing from Poland, is not only a financial analyst but also a valuable contributor to various online magazines. With a wealth of experience in the financial industry, his insights and expertise have earned him recognition in numerous publications. Utilising his spare time effectively, Gregory is currently dedicated to writing a book about cryptocurrency and blockchain.
