TOP 5 Play-to-Earn (P2E) Apps

Making money in blockchain games has become mainstream. We’ve previously covered the differences between GameFi projects and classic video games. Now, we want to take a closer look at some Play-to-

Earn sector products.We reviewed the most popular P2E games to explore their gameplay mechanics and understand how and how much you can earn by playing them. We estimated the popularity of blockchain games based on the number of unique active wallets (UAW) involved in a particular P2E game between November 1 and December 1, 2022. The data was based on the DappRadar service.

Alien Worlds

Alien Worlds (AW) is a Metaverse where all items and characters are NFTs. The point of the game is to capture lands and get resources. Unlike other Metaverses in the GameFi segment, AW doesn’t involve free movement in the Metaverse space. The game character serves only a decorative function and doesn’t affect the gameplay.

The game is created by the German company Dacoco GMBH on the WAX blockchain and has a cross-chain bridge with BNB Chain. The AW Metaverse has over 3 million registered users, with more than 333 million transactions in November 2022. The project’s UAW during that period reached 712.27K, and $1.89 million was blocked in the game’s smart contracts.

Game Mechanics

To start playing the game, you need a WAX cloud wallet and at least 7 WAXP (~$0.5) in your account. Registration can be done via Google, Facebook, Steam, Discord, Twitter, and other social media accounts.

Once registered, users can mine in-game tokens — TLM. This requires selecting a planet and a specific plot of land on it. Additional benefits in AW will help to get:

Tools. Shovels, drills, excavators, and other equipment will help you mine tokens faster and more efficiently.
Minions. They can help to get tokens and affect the outcome of battles with other players.
Weapons. Fighting in interplanetary competitions allows you to earn extra tokens.

Project Tokenomics

The game’s native token Trillium (TLM) is ranked 329th by CoinMarketCap and 369th by CoinGecko. It has a market cap of about $49 million. TLM was priced at $0.015 on December 1, 2022.

The token is listed on many major crypto exchanges and is most actively traded on Binance, paired with USDT and BUSD.

How to Earn

To make money in Alien Worlds, you can:

Sell NFTs. All items within the AW Metaverse are tokenized and can be sold; for example, on the Atomic Hub. Some users earn by speculating on NFT items.
Mine TLM. Token mining involves visiting the game periodically to collect “crops.” On average, you can earn around $30 per week just by mining TLM using proper inventory. However, a lot will depend on the current price of TLM and the player’s persistence.
Send NFTs to staking. Users can send their NFTs to staking via another blockchain game on the WAX network, R-planet. Though this method was quite profitable at first, R-planet was forced to significantly reduce staking yields in 2021 due to the “massive influx of Alien Worlds NFTs.”
Rent land. Users can let other players mine TLM on their land. The tenant will pay a commission specified by the landlord. Earnings can be quite high, but they depend on the plot being exploited this way.
Complete missions. There are quite a lot of game quests, each of them starts at a certain time and involves a particular difficulty level, duration, and remuneration.
Participate in battles. PvP in the Metaverse happens at any time. You can be rewarded for participating in battles with NFT items or TLM tokens. However, PvP is only available to players who have minions and weapons.

Benji Bananas

A multiplayer action game in which players control a monkey named Benji and go through various jungle challenges to earn bananas and other benefits. The original version of Benji Bananas is a free-to-play game for PC and mobile devices, but there’s also a P2E mode.

The project was created by Hong Kong developers Animoca Brands. Benji Bananas runs on Ethereum and has a cross-chain bridge with Polygon. The classic version of the game has been downloaded more than 50 million times on Google Play. In November 2022, users of the P2E version of Benji Bananas conducted over 1 million transactions. The UAW of the project during this period was 503.07K, and the total amount of locked funds in the game’s smart contracts reached $29.89 million.

Game Mechanics

If you want to make money in Benji Bananas, you have to download the classic version and also buy Benji Bananas: Membership Pass, an NFT of the ERC-1155 standard. Next, connect your MetaMask wallet to the game or log in with your Coinbase account. Benji Pass should be in the wallet. The app also requires connecting Apple or Google accounts to it and passing KYC.

Benji Pass can be purchased on OpenSea, LooksRare, and Rarible marketplaces or Coinbase and X2Y2. Membership is between $15 and $60.

The game’s mechanics are simple: control a character, level up, collect resources, and get a native token PRIMATE for success.

Project Tokenomics

The PRIMATE native token is ranked 1131st on CoinMarketCap and 1464th on CoinGecko. The market cap is just over $2 million. PRIMATE’s price was $0.015 in early December 2022.

The token is listed on many large exchanges and traded most actively on SushiSwap with USDT and APE. Developers assure that players can easily exchange PRIMATE for ApeCoin tokens and join the ApeCoin DAO ecosystem.

How to Earn

Distribution of PRIMATE tokens is realized depending on the number of participants in a season and the total declared amount of remuneration. That is, all rewards will be distributed among all participants at the end of the season, which usually lasts two weeks. So, the fewer the players, the higher the reward. The maximum possible number of players in a season is 5,000.

The distribution of rewards is based on:

how many bananas the user collected in total during the season;
the average amount of bananas collected per game;
the total distance that the user’s game character traveled during the season;
the average distance per game;
the maximum passed distance for all seasons;
the number of levels (worlds) completed in a season;
achievement multipliers.

Users can increase their season rewards if they have PRIMATE in their wallet connected to the game or have more than one Benji Pass.

Aside from participating in seasons and completing the game, users can earn money by:

reselling Benji Passes;
renting them.

Splinterlands

A multiplayer card game based on NFT collections. The game is about collecting a unique set of character cards and characteristics and using their combinations to fight other players. There are two types of cards in the game:

Monsters. Creatures for PvP battles with six different features;
Summoners. Cards that determine one of the seven classes and affect all monsters in the game.

The project was developed by Matthew Rosen and Jesse Reich in 2018 on the Steem blockchain. The game was originally called Steem Monsters. In 2020, the project was renamed and shifted to the Hive blockchain. Splinterlands also has a cross-chain bridge with WAX.

The project’s UAW in November 2022 was 319.65K, and the total amount of locked funds in the game’s smart contracts was $60.36 million. Players conducted over 53 million transactions in November 2022.

Game Mechanics

There’s no need to buy any starter packs to begin the game. Registration is enough, after which new users will be able to try the mechanics of the game using standard cards. However, earning crypto in the free version is impossible.

To start participating in battles, the victories of which bring profit in tokens, it’s necessary to purchase a Spellbook. This is a key that confirms the ownership of the account. The Spellbook costs $10.

After that, the player can participate in battles, earning cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Project Tokenomics

There are three in-game tokens:

Credits. An in-game token that can’t be sold on the external market, it’s only used to buy card sets. However, you can purchase it for crypto via the app’s interface.
Dark Energy Crystals (DEC). A native in-game token that is credited for participating in battles and tournaments. The token is available for resale. The DEC is priced at $0.0007 as of December 1, 2022. It’s used before buying or renting NFT cards.
Splintershards (SPS). Governance tokens that can be earned for winning ranked battles and used as a vote in the project’s DAO. Having a rare card in your collection will also allow you to get extra SPS for holding it. The token is ranked 459th by CoinMarketCap and 689th by CoinGecko statistics. The SPS price as of December 1, 2022, is $0.037, with a total cap of ~$29 million. The token is most actively traded on LBank and Huobi and paired with USDT or wrapped tokens WETH and WBNB.

How to Earn

There are several ways to profit from the game:

Participating in battles. DEC tokens will be awarded for winning.
Selling NFT cards. The most expensive card in the game was Land Region Claim, which sold for $706,000 in October 2021.
Renting cards to other players. The owner earns a DEC token by renting NFT cards to others. The tenant will pay an average of 0.5% of the value of the rented card per day.
Participation in tournaments. Aside from the opportunity to get new cards and earn DEC, you’ll also receive SPS for participating in tournaments. Some tournaments have a prize pool of up to $2,000.
Completing quests. DEC will be awarded for completing the daily quests.
Taking part in seasonal leagues. Rewards for participating and winning these battles can range from 8 to 50 DEC.
SPS staking. You can stake tokens for passive income through the management tab. The yield of staking is approximately 33% per annum. There’s no minimum deposit period for SPS, but it takes four weeks for withdrawals.

Trickshot Blitz

A pool game simulator based on the Flow blockchain. This multiplayer competitive pool game is available on iOS and Android and allows you to earn rewards for beating other players. Trickshot Blitz differs from similar games by its high-quality graphics and advanced functionality.

The project’s UAW in November 2022 was 277.88K — users conducted more than 4.5 million transactions during this period.

Game Mechanics

The game was released on August 15, 2022. The developer is Joyride Games Inc. Users must register in the game and link a Joyride Wallet or MetaMask to receive tokens. It’s still in beta mode and isn’t available in China, Canada, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and some other regions.

Trickshot Blitz is about defeating your opponent in a classic online billiards game. Each match lasts no more than four minutes — each participant has two minutes to hit. The player who scores more balls in the pocket within the allocated time wins.

The game has various mechanics that affect the income:

Trick shots earn bonus points;
Bonus points are awarded for shot accuracy;
The order and color of the balls you score affect the reward;
Trick shots earn an additional 100 points;
Scoring a crown ball triples the points.

Project Tokenomics

The native token Rally (RLY) is ranked 406th by CoinMarketCap and 461st by CoinGecko. It has a market capitalization of over $36 million. RLY is priced at $0.01 as of December 1, 2022. The token is most actively traded on Coinbase paired with fiat: USD, EUR, and GBP.

How to Earn

There are several ways to earn RLY in the game:

Winning a match against another player. The app automatically picks up an opponent equal in level. Users get tokens for the victory. The higher the level, the more coins you can earn. For example, winning Starter Kit will only bring you 5 RLY, Ace Amateur — 18 RLY, and Apprentice and Heavy Hitters — 120 RLY and 180 RLY, respectively.
Completing challenges. Taking special challenges can earn RLY and special tickets that allow you to participate in closed tournaments and earn even more coins. Challenges can be daily, with 24 hours to complete; seasonal, lasting a week; and special, held at a specific time.
Referral program. Additional coins are awarded for inviting friends to the game.
Watching ads. Each viewed commercial brings tokens.

The game also has several boosters, which are awarded to users after completing a certain stage or when upgrading to a higher level. Activating these boosters will give players temporary advantages. For instance, doubling the experience gained (XP Boost) or doubling the coins earned (Coin Boost).

Upland

Blockchain game Upland is a Metaverse with the mechanics of a classic economic simulation like Monopoly based on Google Maps. The project is developed on the EOS blockchain network. The idea is to manipulate virtual real estate, corresponding to real houses and landmarks in U.S. cities.

The project’s UAW in November 2022 was 149.7K, and the total amount of blocked funds in smart contracts is $50,300. In this period, Upland users conducted over 6.33 million transactions.

Game Mechanics

The game was created in 2018 by Uplandme Inc. headquartered in Silicon Valley. A beta version of the game became available in 2019, and in early 2020, the app was officially released for iOS and Android.

To start playing in Upland, you need to register via email. After registration, new users receive 4,500 UPX to their virtual game account, which can be spent on NFT real estate purchases. There are also several promo codes to get 50% off the first in-game purchase.

The point of the game is to buy and then resell, or rent virtual real estate.

Project Tokenomics

The game’s native token UPX is only an in-game currency and isn’t traded externally. According to the project’s roadmap, the team’s preparing to integrate an option to use cryptocurrency assets in the game in early 2023. However, there are no plans to list UPX on crypto exchanges.

UPX has a fixed rate — 1,000 UPX equals 1 USD. Buying or selling tokens is still possible only through PayPal in U.S. dollars. The fee for such transfers is 5% of the amount.

How to Earn

Upland offers several ways to make money:

Renting NFT real estate. The rent is charged every three hours and averages 10% per month of the property’s value. However, the percentage can be higher if the player acquires additional benefits or multiple buildings nearby. On average, an investment in a single plot pays off within 11 months.
Daily bonuses. Users receive extra UPX for logging in regularly. The more often players enter the app, the more bonuses they get. So, visiting the game for seven consecutive days will bring the user 775 UPX.
Completing missions. Additional bonuses are awarded for certain actions in the game. For example, possessing three or more buildings on the same street will bring the user a new status and increase the profitability of the rented areas.
Selling digital properties. It’s possible to resell some plots for profit because their location can be very important for other users. There’s a special market of NFT plots in the game, where users can communicate with each other and negotiate the sale or purchase of certain areas. You can offer real estate for sale for UPX and dollars.
Opening new territories. The virtual world of Upland can be explored, and new areas that other players don’t yet own can be found. UPX will be awarded for activity in searching for new territories. Users can also find “treasure” as NFT cards or additional tokens.

Upland developers have released several collections of NFT cards in cooperation with Blockchain Heroes on the WAX blockchain network. The cards have no direct impact on the gameplay but are highly liquid on the Atomic Hub platform.

The project team announced several important updates in 2023 that could potentially increase the game’s appeal. For example, these include the possibility of joint ownership of the plot by several users or adding new types of commercial facilities, such as farmland.

To summarize, let’s note that the top 5 P2E projects doesn’t include such large and popular games as Axie Infinity (UAW in November 2022 — 110K) or Gods Unchained (UAW — only 12.5K). It’s all about the fact that the entry threshold for projects is too high, which affects the payback period of the investment. Security problems also influence their popularity.

In total, the monthly UAW figures of some of the projects from our top 5 fell during the specified period. For example, Trickshot Blitz lost 64% of UAW, and Splinterlands lost 12%. At the same time, Alien Worlds’ UAW nearly doubled over the period, increasing by 43%.

According to DappRadar, there are about 2,000 different GameFi apps based on 47 various blockchain networks that allow you to earn money playing video games. And while only one in ten players is interested in making money playing games, the P2E gaming sector has become a major source of income for many people.

Author: Nataly Antonenko