January Monthly GameFi Report

After a tough year, January was the most favorable month for the crypto market. While most of what can be said applies to other bullish cycles, several statistics made January very interesting in the blockchain space.

For example, while altcoins tend to follow BTC in performance (first is Bitcoin season, then altcoin season), the end of January saw an exceptional performance in altcoin prices, including those within GameFi. This indicates that the market is strategically waiting for any sign of positive macro news to jump back into highly speculative crypto assets, despite the carnage in 2022.

GameFi investments have continued to dry up, and whether the positive sentiment continues long enough to revive VC interest in blockchain gaming projects remains to be seen. In January, over half of funding went to GameFi infrastructure – while investing in specific games or studios remains an uncertain proposition, VCs are less lukewarm to the GameFi industry.

The long-awaited AAA blockchain games have finally started hitting the markets, led by the Beta of Illuvium, which has already seen a lot of activity.

The main findings

General crypto overview

• ETH rallied from a low of $1,200 in late December to a peak of $1,660, best price performance in a year
• Many prominent altcoins saw their values ​​double, even triple

GameFi users

• New users as a percentage of total users in GameFi decreased to 36% from 38.8% in December
• Active GameFi increased slightly at the end of December
• However, the number of new GameFi users was the lowest since August 2022

Overview of GameFi projects

• Illuvium has grown to have the third highest active users on Ethereum even while in Beta
• The price of AXS doubled while Axie Infinity’s market share of transactions grew
• Polygon GameFi users tripled from January 1st to January 5th
• Unlike other ecosystems, BNB’s GameFi user numbers declined

GameFi investment and financing

• GameFi funding continued to fall, hitting record monthly lows of $20.9 million
• 3 projects in the GameFi area received support in January

Overview of crypto macros

The crypto market had its best month in about a year as the price of ETH rose from the low-$1,200 zone in late December to the January high of $1,660.

The stock markets also had a positive month. Still, January’s ETH crypto price increase was more significant than in other bullish cycles from the past year, indicating renewed interest in crypto.

January was exceptionally favorable for the price of altcoins and thus the GameFi market.

For example, the prices of three leading altcoins for GameFi—SOL, AVAX, and BNB—had MoM increases (31st of the month) of 146%, 80% and 26.4%, respectively

Overview of the GameFi Market

The share of new users in GameFi decreased to 36%.

Monthly GameFi UsersFurthermore, the number of new GameFi users was the lowest since August 2021. This statistic continues a multi-month trend, indicating that people are hesitant to jump back into the GameFi space.

The number of active GameFi users increased at the end of December.

This coincided with the sharp increase in the price of Ethereum. Footprint Analytics counts an active user as a unique wallet interacting with the blockchain in the previous month. One person can have several wallets, but the calculation is still a good indicator of the amount of activity that takes place on the chain.

Overview of GameFi projects

Even in Beta, Illuvium has the third highest active users on Ethereum.

Game ranking on Eth ChainIlluvium is one of the most anticipated GameFi titles and its token (ILV) is the highest priced GameFi token.

Axie Infinity saw a growth in the market share of transactions, with the price of the token more than doubling MoM

Axie Infinity market share of transactionsAxie Infinity was the first blockchain game to gain widespread recognition over a year ago. It remains the top blockchain play by volume.

The number of GameFi users on Polygon tripled from January 1st to January 5th

Most of those wins came from Arc8 by Gamer at Polygon. Other chains, namely Hive and Wax, had 50-100% increases in MoM for this metric, albeit much more evenly.

BNB saw a decline in GameFi users in January

GameFi Active Users January Report

Overview of GameFi Investments and Funding

Despite positive numbers in GameFi, total GameFi funding was the lowest in over a year, at $20.9 million

Only three GameFi projects closed funding deals in January

These were: Intella X, Oh Baby Games and YGG Japan. IntellaX is building a blockchain wallet for games and closed $12M. Web3 game studio Oh Baby Games closed a $6 million seed round. YGG (Yield Guild Games) is one of the premier gaming guilds in GameFi and raised $2.9 million for its Japan branch.

This section is contributed by the Footprint Analytics community.

Footprint Community is a place where data and crypto enthusiasts around the world help each other to understand and gain insights about Web3, the metaverse, DeFi, GameFi or any other area of ​​the new world of blockchain. Here you will find active, diverse voices that support each other and drive society forward.