Yat Siu says blockchain gaming is more than the low number of users suggests

by Arthur · October 24, 2022

In blockchain news today, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu says that while on-chain transaction metrics are an important metric to consider when addressing player engagement across blockchain games, the measure is not the best.

Bloomberg first reported Sius’ comments on Sunday, October 23, citing comments from an interview ahead of Hong Kong Fintech Week.

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The observations also come days after a report that some of the top blockchain gaming platforms such as Decentraland (MANA/USD) and The Sandbox (SAND/USD) recorded very low numbers when it comes to daily active users.

Other metrics tell a better story

According to Siu, the blockchain transaction metrics, which include such data as sales of NFT lands in the metaverse, do not reflect the broader outlook regarding user engagement.

He noted that in the case of The Sandbox for example, the number of 500 daily active users does not reflect the fact that there are more NFT holders who want to use their assets in the game than those who want to sell them.

In his view, there are other metrics to consider, including jobs created and revenue generated across platforms like The Sandbox. He says these metrics provide a more accurate measure of player engagement than just the daily number of active users.

He pointed out that The Sandbox has over 200,000 monthly active users, with individual landowner wallets pegged at $500,000 to $2 million.

So looking at daily transactions on the chain alone is like claiming that the number of people trading on Wall Street is equal to the population of the United States.

Earlier this month, The Sandbox CEO Arthur Madrid commented that “on-chain transactions do not mean users,” with the gaming platform noting growth across various metrics.

Some comments about Web 3 metrics:
= Web 3 player worth more than Web 2 players engaged with a wallet, all payers VS low conversion in the “Freemium” model;
= on chain transactions do not mean users;
= NFT owners invest in an asset that will grow in value over time based Utilities; https://t.co/IIpsDjRUnm
— Arthur Madrid (@arthurmadrid) 10 October 2022

Despite the cryptocurrency market swooning in 2022, the latest report from DappRadar shows that blockchain games and metaverse projects raised more than $1.3 billion from investors in Q3 2022.

Blockchain-powered gaming activity across 50 networks showed over 912,000 daily unique active wallets in September.

Alien Worlds and Splinterlands had the most activity in terms of players, with more than 160,000 daily UAWs registered. Among the top five Web3 games, BNB-based Gameta and Polygon-based Benji Bananas also saw decent gains in daily UAW.