Will GameFi Be a Growth Driver for Polygon?

At one point in January, Sunflower Farmers was Polygon’s top game, with 4.594 million users. Taking up more than 70% percent of the chain’s resources caused  Polygon to become congested and gas costs to soar 50-fold.

But, unlike other GameFi recent projects, this was anything but an overnight success story. 

On Jan 09, 2022, Sunflower Farmers confirmed it was hacked. Most of the users were bots. Since then, the project has been in maintenance mode as it seeks to optimize the game before launching a beta of its second version in 4 to 8 weeks.

The incident sparked discussions about Polygon’s network stability and gas fees, as well as concerns about the rocky development of GameFi on Polygon.

GameFi Development on Polygon

As a sidechain of Ethereum, Polygon’s EVM compatibility and low fees give it significant advantages in fostering a GameFi ecosystem. In total, there are 80 GameFi projects on Polygon, behind Ethereum and Binance.

The top 3 GameFi protocols on Polygon by users are:

• Arc8 is a mobile e-sports gaming platform that allows users to play games against opponents, and earn GMEE tokens.Arc8 has a great gaming experience.

• REVV is a play-to-earn racing game with its own token, REVV. Players can buy NFT cars or win them in races.

• Pegaxy is sci-fi themed horse racing game that has attracted many users with its sci-fi style and excellent game system. Users can buy or rent PEGA (which are horses) to race.

Pexagy accounts for nearly the entirety of Polygon’s GameFi trading volume.

Will GameFi Be a Growth Driver for Polygon?

GameFi-driven growth may still have a long way to go.

1. Optimize GameFi Projects to Attract More Users

At the moment, successful GameFi projects are either DeFi plus NFTs or gamified DeFi.

For example, Axie Infinity distributes revenue to players through NFTs, while DeFi Kingdoms has DeFi at its core, allowing players to experience DeFi in the form of a game. Both of these models have proven successful.

GameFi projects on Polygon lack organic integration with either DeFi or NFTs, leaving them with much room for improvement in terms of revenue incentives, decentralization, and player participation.

2. Leverage ecosystem incentives

As a chain that vigorously develops NFT and GameFi projects, BSC has launched the Most Valuable Builder (MVB) II program, regularly holds hackathons, “Learn & Earn” events, and more. Through these, BSC has launched and supported several GameFi projects, including CryptoBlades, MyDeFiPet, MOBOX, and X World Games.

Polygon has also established Polygon Studios, determined to expand its GameFi and NFT footprint. The studio invested in the GameOn project last December to support its development of NFT-based games, which could be a good start.

3. Reflections on the Direction of Industry Chain Development

As an EVM-compatible chain, BSC is compatible with Ethereum while actively expanding its ecosystem landscape. It has incubated many promising projects like Pancakeswap, Venue, and Medx. Likewise, it has also spared no effort in the GameFi field.

Polygon, which is also compatible with Ethereum, has attracted headline projects such as Aave and Curve, but Ethereum is still the main position for these projects.

Aave on Polygon, for example, has been fluctuating in the $2 billion range without regaining its peak after falling from $3.8 billion to $2 billion starting in June 2021.

On the other hand, Polygon established Polygon Studio to lead the development of NFT and GameFi.

Polygon still seems to be figuring out whether to focus on becoming the top Ethereum-compatible chain, or to enter the NFT and GamFi fields to develop its own ecosystem.