Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) dominated the headlines last year. It was the buzzword in the crypto space for 2021. Today, I’m going to be showing you how to make money with NFT crypto games. So, make sure you read this to the end!
According to a Bloomberg article, “Nearly $41 billion worth of cryptocurrency was sent to two types of Ethereum smart contracts associated with NFT marketplaces and collections from the beginning of 2021 through mid-December…”
The numbers are huge and the interest in NFTs does not appear to be waning. This is because NFTs has found use cases apart from digital art and many industries are adopting their use.
This article is focused on the application of NFTs to gaming which has experienced a massive boom. An advocate for NFT games, the Blockchain Game Alliance recorded an increase in membership from 102 to 300 in 2021, marking a 186% growth from the previous year.
The adoption of NFT games by gamers also witnessed a spike. In Q3 2021, the number of wallets relating to gaming activity increased by 2,453%, from 29,563 during the first week of 2021 to a whopping 754,000.
Digital collectibles are now common in games and people are making a fortune from them. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s find out what NFTs are and the concept behind them.
What Are NFTs?
A non-fungible token is a unit of data stored on a blockchain that is unique and non-interchangeable. The digital data stored in the blockchain is reproducible but cannot be interchanged.
So, let’s break that down. When we say something is non-fungible, what that means is that you cannot interchange it with a similar item. You probably have a dollar bill in your wallet right now. If I were to borrow a $20 bill from you, I could give you back any other $20 bill and it would serve the same purpose as the one you loaned me. I don’t have to give you the exact same bill I borrowed and that’s because dollar bills are fungible.
Baseball cards, on the other hand, are non-fungible. The Hognus Wagner baseball card, which is currently the most valuable in the world, is the only one of its kind. There’s no other one like it and only one person can own it at any point in time. This is exactly how NFTs work, except that now it is on blockchain.
Blockchain takes proof of authentic ownership to the next level because it provides a transparent way to confirm the true owner of any item. This way, there’s no confusion or uncertainty. Everyone can see which is the original item and who owns it. It’s all there on blockchain.
NFTs, NFT Gaming, GameFi
Gaming elements such as scoring points, rules of play, and competition have been linked to blockchain technology. Gamers can now get rewards for playing through games and it has led to the emergence of GameFi.
This combination of gaming and blockchain-powered financialization is also known as play-to-earn. And it’s quite different (read “better”) than traditional gaming where gamers accrue and trade digital assets which could be lost if the game is shut down or the publisher goes out of business.
GameFi, on the other hand, stores these assets on a distributed network that is decentralized and independent of the publisher or any organization. It also ensures that these assets can be traded for digital money. By the way, GameFi assets are typically obtained in-game and in some cases, the points earned from unlocking certain levels of difficulty.
According to Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, GameFi and NFTs are the future of the gaming industry. The union of the two presents a huge opportunity not only for the publishers but also for the gamers.
NFTs perfectly fit GameFi, allowing players to own assets, earn tokens, and trade them in open secondary markets. Some games require the player to own an NFT of a playable figure or clothing to be able to participate in the game.
In-game assets such as vehicles can be purchased as NFTs, giving the gamer ownership of the asset which can then be sold for profit. Players in NFT games pick up NFTs as a reward for completing challenges. These NFTs have utility in the gaming world and can be sold on marketplaces.
Contrary to the previous criticism that gamers face for wasting their time, it is now a very profitable venture where gamers play to earn NFT assets and sell them for profit.
How to Begin Playing NFT Crypto Games
Earning money from play-to-earn games or NFT crypto games requires certain basic necessities for the interested gamer.
The basic requirement is to have a crypto wallet that will house your funds and NFTs. it will also help you exchange the profits obtained from gaming. This wallet should be compatible with the crypto ecosystem on which the games work. For instance, games like Axie Infinity are built on the Ethereum protocol and require wallets that are Ethereum compatible e.g Metamask or Trust Wallet.
Some games do not allow new players to earn their first units of digital currency in-game. They require beginners to fund their wallets before engaging. And for some of these games, the token required cannot be obtained directly.
For example, to play the game Cryptoblades, the player needs to fill his wallet with SKILL, the game’s native token. But you can only get SKILL by obtaining some BNB first and then exchanging your BNB coins for SKILL. So, in some cases, funding your wallet will involve acquiring enough BNB to get the native token for the game you want to play.
That said, most GameFi games, though they may be free to play at first, will eventually require some investment if you hope to earn significantly from them. In most cases, you’d have to buy a character or an upgrade. And, sometimes, these assets can be quite expensive.
For example, to play Axie Infinity, the gamer needs to purchase three Axies. The least expensive Axie currently costs about $200, which means that you need about $600 to begin.
The good news, though, is that some games e.g Battle of the Guardians has the option of renting NFTs which reduces the entry barrier.
Four Ways to Earn Money from NFT Crypto Games
1. Join a Guild
GameFi has produced groups of gamers with common interests, called Guilds. These play-to-earn guilds provide a platform for gamers to rent their in-game assets for profit. This lowers the entry barrier for the new players and can help you to begin earning much faster than you would have on your own.
2. Trade In-Game Assets on Secondary Markets
Players can trade the NFTs earned from the game to other players or on markets such as Binance. The NFTs can also be used to farm crypto and new NFTs.
3. Play Multiple Games
One of the greatest benefits of NFT games is the element of interoperability. Game assets can be used in multiple games that exist in the same or interoperable blockchains and can help the gamer maximize profit.
4. Staking
Some games allow staking. Users can lock up NFTs or cryptocurrency in smart contracts to generate rewards. A good example of this is the MBOX token. When staked, users are rewarded with MOMO NFT mystery boxes which contain a random rarity NFT that can be sold on the secondary market for profit.
That said, I will now show you the most profitable NFT games that you can play right now for mouth-watering profits. Keep reading!
Best NFT Play-to-Earn Games
Several games top the list of games that gamers around the world play for profit. And the following are our top picks in no particular order:
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is arguably one of the best-designed projects in cryptocurrency. Everything from user experience to tokenomics is carefully developed and implemented. It has rapidly become one of the biggest blockchain games in the world.
It consists of millions of adorable fantasy creatures called Axies, which players can collect, raise, battle, and trade as digital pets. The game was basically built for play-to-earn and it rewards its users for their time and effort.
Players are rewarded in the form of an SLP (Smooth Love Potion). And these SLP tokens can be exchanged for other Ethereum tokens on decentralized exchanges like UniSwap or Binance.
Axie Infinity can generate substantial earnings for dedicated players. Top players earn as much as hundreds of thousands monthly, but even average players can earn $400 per month. This income is supported by a burgeoning cryptocurrency, AXS, with a market cap that exceeds $8 billion.
Forest Knight
Forest Knight was one of the first mobile GameFi games launched in September 2021. It represented a new direction for GameFi with the introduction of mobile gaming.
It is a turn-based fantasy RPG that hooks its users by giving them the chance to earn rare NFTs while they beat back the forces of evil. The game has three NFT item types which include weapons, accessories, and skins.
The game has a native cryptocurrency, the KNIGHT token which boasts a fully diluted market cap of $75 million.
CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties was the first game built on the Ethereum network. The game requires players to buy, trade, and breed cats to create desirable traits which are ERC-721 tokens that can be sold in major NFT markets like opensea.io.
The game is one of the most popular play-to-earn games. In fact, in 2017 the game’s popularity caused congestion on the Ethereum network, and this made headline news.
A CryptoKitty can either be bought in the marketplace or created by breeding two Kitties together. Players can earn rewards by creating a collection of cats. They can also take their cats once they have a collection to KittyVerse where they can participate in catfights.
But there’s more to Cryptokitties than catfights and breeding as players can also work with other players to solve puzzles and also earn from that as well.
The Sandbox
The Sandbox is a play-to-earn virtual style metaverse where players can own land, play games, or build their own game. It is a massive virtual world where players can enter either as a collector, artist, game decider, or simply as a gamer.
In the Sandbox, players are basically touring the metaverse, hopping around the virtual world from game to game. The Sandbox is built on the Ethereum network and has its own cryptocurrency called SAND.
Battle of the Guardians
Battle of Guardians is a real-time multiplayer NFT PvP arena developed on the Unreal Engine. This advanced fighting game, based on the Solana network, involves players fighting in multi-realm battles to defeat other opponents for a chance to earn rewards.
It has an in-game currency ($BGS – $FP), a marketplace, and an NFT renting option.
Wrapping Up
At this stage, we cannot say we have seen all of what GameFi has to offer.
According to Stefan Ateljevic, founder of CryptoBlokes, many people around the world are currently bringing in a side income with play-to-earn gaming, and the potential is unlimited.
Average players are bringing in a few hundred bucks per month just for playing a couple of hours per day. So, even if you already have a 9-5 job, you probably have a couple of hours to spare. And if you do, NFT crypto games are a great way to earn some decent side income while having some good fun.
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