Investments in Blockchain Games

VCs pour $7.6 billion into blockchain-based games and metaverse projects

Blockchain gaming is becoming an increasingly popular area for investment, with the total capital raised in the space growing exponentially in recent years. The total capital raised in 2019 was $27.7 million, which increased to $191 million in 2020. In the following year, the total investments in the blockchain gaming space reached $3.7 billion. In 2022, the total capital raised reached a staggering $7.6 billion, which clearly indicates that interest and confidence in the space is growing.

This trend is reflected in the significant investments made towards blockchain gaming in 2022, with three standing out in particular. The first is the $725 million Ecosystem Fund announced by Flow, the Web3 platform powering next-generation games, apps and digital assets including NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day, on 5 May. The Ecosystem Fund is designed to provide existing and future developers with support in building applications on the Flow blockchain through investments, FLOW token grants and in-kind support.

The second significant investment is the inaugural $500 million developer and venture investment fund launched by Immutable, an Australia-based web3 gaming firm, on June 17. The capital will be used to fund projects building web3 games and NFT-focused companies on its layer-2 Ethereum-focused platform, Immutable X.

The third significant investment is a tie between Yuga Labs and Polygon, both of which raised $450 million in funding. Yuga Labs, which closed its Series Seed funding round on March 22, plans to use the funds to scale its rapidly growing team and attract the best talent across creative, engineering and operations functions. Polygon, on the other hand, raised its $450 million in a new venture financing round on 7 February, with participation from Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, SoftBank, Galaxy Digital and other investors. This was the first time many of these investors have made a bet on an Ethereum scaling solution, or broadly on the blockchain infrastructure play, according to Web3 Signals, a website that tracks venture investments in the crypto space.

Out of the $7.6 billion moving into the blockchain gaming space in 2022, blockchain gaming infrastructure made up 33.5% of the total invested. Individual gaming projects or metaverse worlds received 27.3%, while guilds and incubator programs got 19.1%.

The strong funding into infrastructure projects highlights that the industry will build a strong foundation. Blockchain gaming will need to onboard millions of players through user-friendly experiences. And of course, gamers will want high-quality games that aren’t lesser versions of what they already play on their PC, PlayStation or mobile phones.

All in all, these significant investments demonstrate that blockchain gaming is becoming an increasingly popular area for investment and the industry is showing strong signs of growth. With major players in the venture capital and blockchain industries investing in blockchain gaming, it’s clear that the industry has a lot of potential for future growth.

Source: DappRadar x BGA Games Report – 2022, Dappradar & Blockchain Games Alliance