Written by: Joey, IOSG
Methodology
This study includes two major focuses:
To this end, we screened the top projects with a market value of more than 50 million US dollars, and included large-scale games that have not yet issued tokens but have a high degree of popularity and attention in the community. If some projects involve multiple fields, they are classified into the most relevant vertical track.
Game Ecosystem Map
As of January 2025, the Web3 game ecosystem can be divided into three vertical areas: infrastructure, games, and ecosystems.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure covers the technical foundation of Web3 games, including development frameworks, game engines, AI tools, data management systems, and DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network).
In order to avoid excessive stratification, this classification standard is relatively broad. For example, the "data" category includes both data analysis platforms and in-game data rights confirmation protocols (such as IP protocols).
Games
Includes all playable Web3 game types, and is further subdivided according to different gameplay categories. Among them, "AA+ level games" represent higher quality vertical tracks.
Ecosystem
Ecosystem projects aim to build network effects, covering platforms, studios, game guilds, task systems, and incubators/launch platforms. Platforms mainly refer to aggregated entrances that provide game distribution channels.
For specific project names, please see the appendix at the end of this article.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/4a8962029284e01719f6f91ca41ca258.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/27c8dca8ce61d5d91f633b4d7cfd67fd.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/e9a88287c940a01c3cf5d523ba135e5c.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Market panorama
Overall trend of Web3 games
Annual transaction volume
Although the transaction volume remains high, it has declined from the peak in 2022.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/1101defc4e75dbdccdf2f15d4c1e9f5d.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/70e78bd26fecc88dee417c340183a240.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Annual funding scale
will drop sharply from US$84 billion in 2021 to US$5.58 billion in 2024.
2021-2022: Speculative sentiment drives capital influx, NFT assets, GameFi tokens, and the "earn while playing" model dominate the market, but lack sustainable user stickiness.
2024-2025: Speculative funds decrease, and actual player participation increases, indicating that the industry is transitioning to real game needs.
Daily Active Players
The user base continues to grow and the game adoption rate continues to increase.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/417cccaded13bebc38253edb57744127.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Web3 game market value (CoinMarketCap data)
After excluding the abnormal peak at the end of 2021, the current market value is slightly different from the early stage, reflecting the improvement in the health of the industry:
Early stage (2021-2022): highly speculative, few users but NFT and token hype pushed up the market value.
Current stage (2024-2025): Speculation recedes, and real players dominate the market.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/b093c5951a9284f132f414ff37720874.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Game type trend
Developer structure
The proportion of independent developers has increased, mainly due to the reduction of venture capital and the maturity of development tools. As the tools are improved, the number of games in the future is expected to explode.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/08e66ab3cd36ec8be3236705fe870168.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Project survival rate
With the end of the bear market in 2023, studios and publishers' interest in Web3 games has rebounded, and the number of new works has increased significantly.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/6703c45c383c42231a3749a23e2545e8.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Web3 Ecosystem Dynamics
Head Chain Performance
Immutable and Arbitrum ecosystems grew the fastest in the past 12 months:
Immutable: 181 new games (year-on-year +71%), of which 33% of the projects were migrated from Polygon.
Arbitrum: 119 new games were added with the help of the Orbit framework (+68% year-on-year), of which 23 were dedicated chains for Web3 games.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/3d86a9937677f125b704a4a669f11c5a.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
User Distribution
In terms of user base, WAX and BNB chains still occupy a dominant position.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/fd5489dabe9c38bc3cc5f2ac5448f89e.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Migration trend
Polygon has become the chain with the most migrated projects, indicating that the ecological competition is fierce and the stability still needs to be improved.
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/e27e0a53b3fbdf8574254d463c405647.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/2a0f612dec594b10ea8d16dc5a8c8546.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Smart Contract Development Environment
EVM Dominance
81% The new game chain is still based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), mainly because:
![](https://img.foresightnews.pro/202502/69ec3bda3796b9be2b56c1227a6aa14a.png?x-oss-process=style/scale70)
Developer Choice
The project party actively seeks a better development environment, which forces the ecosystem to continue to innovate to remain competitive.
Conclusion
Web3 games are shifting from being driven by speculation to being centered on real users and sustainable development. Despite the decline in transaction volume, the growth in daily active users shows that the industry is maturing.
Infrastructure layer:The improvement of tools has attracted more independent developers, and DePIN and AI technologies have further strengthened the technical foundation.
Ecological competition:Immutable and Arbitrum have become the main migration destinations, while EVM chains still dominate the market.
The future challenges lie in ecological stability, project retention rate, and the development of high-quality games. The next stage will focus on:
Decentralized games will enter a new stage of development.
Appendix
Infrastructure
Development Tools: thirdWeb, Metaplex, Altura, Stardust, reNFT
Engines: MUD, Blade Games, Cartridge, Reflekt
AI: PlayAI, Carv, Aethir, Arc, Neural, Freysa, MomoAI
Data: Story Protocol, Helika, Chromia, Spaceport
DePIN: Deeplink, Gaimin, Shaga, Beamable, Cudos
Games
FOCG: Pirate Nation, Primordium, Alien Worlds, Downstream, Sage Labs
Speculation: Duper, RPS.live, Force Prime, Pump.fun
AA+ level:
Card: Parallel, Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, Splinterlands
Shooting: My Pet Hooligan, Shrapnel, Off the Grid, Deadrop
RPG: Metacene, Pixels, Cornucopias, Illuvium, Star Atlas, Mines of Dalarnia, Fusionist
Metaverse: Zentry, Decentraland, Sandbox, Nifty Island, Wilder World, My Neighbor Alice, Mobox, (RACA) Radio Caca
Telegram/ Mini Games: Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, Catizen, Wizzwoods, WATC, StepN
Ecosystem
Game Guild: YGG, Merit Circle
Platform: B3.fun, Gala Games, Game7, SuperVerse, Bora, TreasureDAO, Myria, Ultra, Ancient8, Sonic
Studios: Nexus Interactive, Big Time, Mythos, Vulcan, Dapper Labs, Gomble, Ready Games, Playmint
Quest system: Perion
Incubator: Seedify, Everyrealm