Web3 Games Become the Traffic Driver for TON, Public Chains Compete in the Gaming Sector

Author: flowie, ChainCatcher

Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher

Since March, the price and market value of TON tokens have almost steadily increased. As of May 22, the market value of TON is approximately $22 billion, an increase of over 155% since early March.

The continuous growth of TON's market value is significantly attributed to its ecosystem mini-games like Notcoin and Catizen.

According to Jack Booth, Marketing Director of the TON Foundation, Notcoin's user base grew to 35 million in almost three months. The Notcoin token, NOT, was recently listed on exchanges like Binance and OKX, reaching a market value of $820 million within just one hour.

Another TON ecosystem mini-game, Catizen, disclosed that as of May 17, Catizen had attracted nearly 6 million players, with daily active users approaching 500,000, on-chain users reaching 260,000, and on-chain transaction volume exceeding 2 million.

Web3 games, as one of the entry points for mass adoption, have always been an area that major public chains cannot ignore. Currently, TON has gained considerable traffic through Web3 social mini-games. Which other public chains have active game users, and which public chains are actively expanding their gaming sectors?

Ronin Still Leads, Klaytn's On-Chain Active Users Surge

According to DappRadar data, the number of daily active wallet addresses for Web3 games in April reached nearly 3 million, a record high. The two major public chains, Ronin and Polygon, still carry most of the active volume.

Ronin, an EVM-compatible game-specific chain built by Axie Infinity's development team Sky Mavis, has gained a leading position mainly through the hit Web3 game Pixels. Its daily unique active wallets (dUAW) in April exceeded 790,000, a 45% increase compared to March.

Currently, Ronin has partnered with several globally renowned game studios, including Directive Games, Bali Games, and Tribes Studio.

Polygon, once one of the most popular public chains for games, had over 557,000 dUAW in April and hosts well-known games like Matr1x and QORPO WORLD. However, Polygon still faces the issue of Web3 games migrating off-chain.

Since Pixels migrated from Polygon to Ronin at the end of last year, the card game Zoids Wild Arena TCG by South Korean game developer ACT Games also moved from Polygon to Ronin.

In January this year, the game Crypto UnICOrns announced its move to Arbitrum's Xai network due to the surge in fuel fees on the Polygon network, which increased operating costs and affected player experience.

In March, South Korean game company Nexon revealed that the blockchain version of MapleStory Universe would abandon Polygon and switch to Avalanche.

In April, Klaytn, a public chain focused on the metaverse, GameFi, and the creator economy, achieved a 202% growth thanks to the metaverse game Another World.

Klaytn, founded by the famous South Korean company Kakao, plans to complete its merger with Line's public chain project Finschia by the end of June and launch the mainnet. The merged mainnet will be renamed kaia, aiming to create the largest Web3 ecosystem in Asia through the merger.

Multiple Public Chains Plan to Launch Web3 Game Incentive Funds

Arbitrum

In March, the Arbitrum Foundation announced a game incentive proposal: planning to invest 200 million ARB (approximately $400 million) over two years to promote its blockchain gaming projects. The proposal will open for on-chain voting on May 24.

Additionally, Arbitrum is advancing the development of Layer3 game chains. Following XAI, Polychain Monsters launched a game-specific chain based on Arbitrum Orbit through Altlayer.

Immutable

Besides Arbitrum, the game-specific chain Immutable recently announced a $50 million Web3 game reward program and revealed that its ecosystem is currently developing over 270 games, including high-profile projects like Illuvium and MetalCore.

Moreover, Immutable, King River Capital, and Polygon Labs have jointly launched a $100 million "Inevitable Games Fund," combining their expertise in gaming and blockchain to identify and invest in promising game studios and Web3 infrastructure.

Immutable is also actively building the zkEVM chain system Immutable Nexus, ensuring that games built on the Immutable chain (including Immutable zkEVM and dedicated zkEVM) achieve optimal liquidity, security, and accessibility.

Sui

Similar to the TON public chain, Sui is promoting its on-chain Web3 game ecosystem through partnerships with traditional Web2 giants.

Recently, Sui announced a collaboration with BytePlus, a subsidiary of ByteDance, focusing on gaming and socialfi. BytePlus provides services such as content distribution, personalization, and AR technology to support Sui's developers and promote the development of globally influential applications.

Additionally, five games are set to launch on Sui soon.

Starknet

In March, the Starknet Foundation announced the establishment of a gaming committee composed of six experts. The committee's task is to promote the growth of games on Starknet. The committee's roles include analysis, strategy formulation, and recommending plans to expand Starknet's gaming ecosystem, measured by metrics such as daily active users, retention rates, and revenue.

Starknet also supported the on-chain metaverse game Realms.World by donating 2 million STRK.

Manta Network

Recently, the game project Elfin, invested by Binance Labs, announced its integration into the Manta Network ecosystem, migrating 100,000 blocks of Elfin Land to Manta Pacific and donating 10,000 blocks to the Manta Foundation as user incentives.

The Elfin team plans to deploy multiple game projects on the Manta Pacific chain and build a game Layer3 based on Manta.

Linea

At the end of February, ConsenSys' Layer2 network Linea launched the Web3 game mission Linea Park, with mission partners being the Web3 task and bounty platform Layer3. Users can experience game projects and earn Linea LXP.

At the end of April, Linea announced on the X platform that during the Linea Park event, 48 million tasks were completed, with 1.48 million participating users, 7.9 million visiting users, and 840,000 certifications completed.

Saga

Saga is a modular one-click chain platform based on Cosmos, aimed at the gaming sector. Saga launched its mainnet in April, followed by its listing on Binance.

Previously, Saga announced the establishment of the Web3 game publishing department Saga Origins to release games for the Saga Layer-1 blockchain protocol.

Tabi Chain

The game blockchain Tabi Chain, built on Cosmos, launched its testnet in March this year and recently announced

an airdrop of 800 million TABI tokens to Voyager event participants, GG holders, public sale participants, Captain node holders, ecosystem project builders, and testnet contributors.

Oasys

Oasys is also a blockchain designed specifically for gaming. Recently, Oasys announced a strategic partnership with South Korean game developer Com2uS, followed by a collaboration with Metabora SG, the Web3 gaming division of South Korean internet giant Kakao.

Additionally, the famous Japanese football manga series

The blockchain version of "Captain Tsubasa" has officially launched on the game-centric blockchain Oasys. The game is developed by Mint Town, Co.Ltd. and BLOCKSMITHCo. (a subsidiary of mobile gaming giant KLab Inc.).

Nim Network

Nim Network is an AI gaming chain built on Dymension. On May 1st, Nim Network launched its mainnet, with Dymension TVL seeing a maximum daily increase of nearly 550%. Nim Network has also introduced a staking feature.

Previously, Nim Network initiated the AI Gaming Alliance, which includes Polygon's modular blockchain project Avail, the decentralized data-sharing protocol OceanProtocol, the on-chain competition platform JokeRace, and the Web3 social simulation game Today.