Game over: Over 30% of Crypto Games have been discontinued

The blockchain game group Game7 reports the latest research About 50 crypto games Development stopped 2023. But new data collected by Big Blockchain Games List Creator John Jordan, who also wrote BlockchainGamer.biz, It indicates that the number of closed or stopped crypto games is very high.

In fact, Game7's original number is three times higher.

Big Blockchain Game List found that 248 crypto games Discontinued or inactive in the first half of 2023, and 162 were terminated Second half of last year. That means an estimated 410 blockchain games went dark last year, more than 30% of the 1,322 games on this list.

The most common reason a game is called “discontinued” is a long period of no updates or activity – meaning the game has been silent for months on all of its social media channels and websites.

Other games like Blankos Block Party, Gran Saga: UnlimitedThe Harvest, Pixelcraft, Lost Archive Plus, Peak Oath, and Arcane Magic have all been marked as “cancelled” because they've made public announcements about ceasing development—usually citing market conditions, lack of funding, or both as reasons for their closure.

In Blankos Block Party, in the legendary games group He quietly announced the closure of the desktop game In December, only after a year and a half Epic Games Store launched. Now, the NFL Rivals Developer is planning Blankos Mobile game instead.

Some blockchain games have been marked as defunct because they have deleted all their accounts and disappeared. And few have abandoned their plans for blockchain to become a non-crypto play. Neopets Metaverse And Immortal game. Neopet CEO Dominic Law said earlier Decrypt Because most of their fans have ditched crypto Don't just thinkThe Immortal team claimed that it migrated the game from the blockchain through “severe fraud”.

Reached for comment, Game7's main contributor George Isichos told Decrypt in a message that the team has not treated projects on social media as “standstill” for a long time for the report. Ischios instead suggests that some “dormant” games may simply be “in the early stages of the development journey or quiescent between marketing cycles.”

Which blockchains have seen the most losses? according to List of Big Blockchain gamesBinance's BNB Chain has seen many games shut down in 2023. Polygon Games has also discontinued games, as well as Ethereum Mainnet and Solana. Nine games remain in the second half of 2023. Su They are said to be marked as discontinued.

Chains that have seen a lot of games disappear or become inactive and are proportional to their relative sizes. Game7 previous report Polygon and BNB are the two best chains with the most games, while Ethereum Mainnet is third and Solana is fourth.

However, it is important to note that this fresh information is not completely complete. In the year Most of the games closed in 2023 are marked as “unknown” or “other” with respect to their respective blockchains. in the past Decrypt Research has shown that this is a common issue, as many blockchain games do not clearly state what chain they use on any of their social media accounts, websites, white papers, or other related documents.

And with games still in development, some of these now-defunct titles are marked as “unknown” because there's often no blockchain-based data to interpret until the teams launch any NFT sets or tokens. They simply didn't choose a blockchain to build before they were shut down.

Given the small size of the market in 2023, the number of abandoned or canceled blockchain game projects is high, but the dropout rate of approximately 30% is consistent with the broader gaming industry. In the year The 2023 report found that 43% (non-crypto) mobile games They are canceled during their development – and 83% of mobile games “fail” within three years.

The wider gaming industry has also had a rough year with game cancellations, studio closures and mass layoffs. In the year By 2023, the gaming industry has projected 10,500 layoffs Game file Newspaper.

And 2024 is not off to a great start. Or. Minecraft Legends It has just stopped development updates, and Twitch, Unity, Discord, and Architect have already laid off thousands of employees together. The economic and strategic challenges of the past year for the gaming industry may not be abating any time soon.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated since publication to include feedback from Game7 about its own information.