On the Eve of a Web3 Gaming Boom? Top Players That Have Cleared the Ten-Million-Dollar Funding Threshold
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On the Eve of a Web3 Gaming Boom? Top Players That Have Cleared the Ten-Million-Dollar Funding Threshold
This article compiles approximately 30 game studios and over 70 Web3 games.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by Karen, Foresight News
The hype around Play-to-Earn blockchain game Axie Infinity and Move-to-Earn game STEPN has faded, but the imaginative possibilities they sparked continue.
Web3 gaming is considered one of the most promising areas for mainstream Web3 adoption, capable of delivering breakout applications that offer players true ownership and economic incentives, opening up new frontiers for the gaming industry.
Foresight News has conducted a comprehensive review of Web3 games that have raised over $10 million in funding, compiling approximately 30 game studios and more than 70 Web3 games spanning genres such as MMO/RPG, card games, metaverse building, and competitive titles.
According to Foresight News' analysis, about 60% of these well-funded Web3 games secured financing in 2022. Several studios have raised hundreds of millions of dollars, including Mythical Games, Dapper Labs, Animoca Brands, while major traditional developers and publishers like Nexon have also entered the Web3 space, launching a $100 million Web3 fund.
It should be emphasized that large funding rounds do not guarantee success. The Web3 gaming industry as a whole faces numerous challenges and uncertainties, including technological maturity, business model sustainability, and game quality.
Many projects have stalled this year, and some have decided to abandon Web3 altogether. For example, football game GOALS, which raised $15 million in seed funding, later dropped its crypto/NFT concept; Irreverent Labs' NFT rooster fighting game MechaFightClub has been indefinitely suspended after a year; chess game Immortal Game, which raised $15.5 million, announced this year it would discontinue development of its Play-to-Earn and NFT collectibles features.
Of course, developing high-quality games is not something that can be achieved overnight—it requires continuous investment, experimentation, and optimization. We need to allow Web3 gaming more room and time to grow.
Web3 Game Studios
Dapper Labs
Founded in 2018, Dapper Labs has raised $612.5 million across seven funding rounds according to Crunchbase data, with investors including prominent firms such as a16z, Union Square Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Coatue.
The viral CryptoKitties (allowing users to buy, breed, sell, and collect virtual cats) was initially a project launched by software development firm Axiom Zen before Dapper Labs spun off from it.
Dapper Labs is also behind NBA Top Shot (an NFT marketplace capturing NBA highlights), NFL All Day (enabling users to purchase and collect digital football highlights from the NFL), UFC Strike (featuring collectible digital moments and fighters from the Ultimate Fighting Championship), and the Flow blockchain.
Public information shows that since November last year, Dapper Labs has undergone three rounds of significant layoffs to streamline operations. However, the company continues to expand—announcing in November 2023 a partnership with Disney to launch Disney Pinnacle, which will feature Disney characters, Pixar icons, and heroes and villains from the Star Wars galaxy as tradable digital badges.
Mythical Games
Headquartered in Los Angeles and founded in 2018, Mythical Games’ team includes veterans from Activision Blizzard and Yahoo. In November 2018, the studio completed a $16 million Series A round led by Galaxy Digital’s EOS VC Fund (at the time, Mythical Games planned to launch new products on EOS).
In September 2021, Mythical Games raised $75 million in growth equity funding led by WestCap, with participation from influencer investor Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerFund, 01 Advisors, and existing investors Galaxy Digital, Alumni Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, and Stuck Capital. Later that November, the company closed a $150 million Series C round led by a16z, reaching a valuation of $1.25 billion.
In June 2023, Mythical Games secured an additional $37 million in an extended Series C round led by Scytale Digital, with participation from ARK Invest, a16z, and Animoca Brands.
Highly favored by investors and having raised nearly $300 million, Mythical Games has also expanded through strategic acquisitions, acquiring the metaverse streaming platform Polystream, NFT marketplace DMarket, UK-based video game studio Shortround Games, and CV/ML provider Arcuity.
Mythical Games has launched titles such as football competition game NFL Rivals, multiplayer world Blankos Block Party, the Mythical Platform, and Mythical Marketplace. After acquiring DMarket in January this year, Mythical launched Mythical Marketplace 2.0 (the NFL Rivals marketplace), built on Mythical’s Layer 1 EVM blockchain and powered by its native ecosystem token MYTH.
Currently, NFL Rivals allows players to collect digital cards of top athletes in American football competitions and climb leaderboards. As of writing, NFL Rivals has surpassed 1 million downloads on Google Play and ranks seventh among free sports games on the Apple Store. The game scores highly in smoothness, graphics quality, gameplay, and realism.
Moreover, the Mythical Platform serves as a full-service system enabling developers and publishers to build or integrate blockchain-based Play-to-Earn economies into their games.
Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands is advancing digital property rights through NFTs and gaming, with a portfolio including original titles such as The Sandbox, PHANTOM GALAXIE, Life Beyond, and Crazy Defense Heroes. Its subsidiaries include The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, educational content platform TinyTap, music metaverse gaming platform PIXELYNX, WePlay Media, Gryfyn, and Web3 streaming platform Azarus.
According to Crunchbase, Animoca Brands has cumulatively raised $856 million. It is also one of the most active investors in the Web3 gaming space, having made over 400 direct investments or investments through Animoca Ventures in the Web3 sector, including Yuga Labs, Polygon, Consensys, Fireblocks, OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Yield Guild Games, and Alien Worlds.
Besides Animoca Brands, venture capital firms such as Foresight Ventures, Binance Labs, and a16z are also very active in the Web3 gaming space.
https://www.animocabrands.com/
Fenix Games
In November 2022, Web3 game publisher Fenix Games announced it had raised $150 million from investors including Phoenix Group and Dubai-based Cypher Capital, with plans to acquire, invest in, and publish blockchain games.
Fenix Games stated its executive team comes from companies such as Activision/Blizzard, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse, with CEO Chris Ko previously serving as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Investment at Mythical Games and earlier holding positions at Electronic Arts (EA).
Compared to other Web3 game publishers or studios covered in this article, Fenix Games has not released many updates post-funding. However, Immutable announced in June this year a collaboration with Fenix Games to support and launch Web3 games, though no further progress has been disclosed since.
CCP Games
CCP Games focuses on virtual worlds, founded in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1997, and launched the massively multiplayer online game EVE Online in 2003. It was acquired by South Korean developer Pearl Abyss in 2018.
In March 2023, game publisher CCP Games completed a $40 million funding round led by a16z, with participation from Makers Fund, Bitkraft, Kingsway Capital, Nexon, Hashed, and others. The funds will be used to develop a new AAA-level blockchain game set in the EVE Online universe. CCP Games’ total funding has exceeded $106 million.
Nexon
Nexon is a leading South Korean game developer and publisher that launched a $100 million Web3 fund in December 2023 to support its blockchain gaming ecosystem MapleStory Universe and related IPs. Nexon also announced plans to integrate MapleStory Universe with Polygon Supernets by March 2024.
Sky Mavis
Founded in 2018, Sky Mavis is the publisher of Axie Infinity, which once surpassed Honor of Kings in daily revenue. The company aims to create economic freedom for gamers by developing games owned and governed by gaming communities. Sky Mavis’ first game, Axie Infinity, ignited the Play-to-Earn craze, and the company also operates Ronin Network and the NFT marketplace Mavis Market.
In May 2021, Sky Mavis raised $7.5 million for Axie Infinity, backed by Mark Cuban. In October of the same year, it secured a $152 million Series B round led by a16z, with participation from Accel and Paradigm.
In March 2022, Ronin Network's validator nodes were compromised, resulting in losses exceeding $600 million in cryptocurrency. Subsequently, Sky Mavis announced a $150 million fundraising round led by Binance, with participation from Animoca Brands, a16z, Dialectic, Paradigm, and Accel, intended to compensate affected users and restore funds to the Ronin Bridge. However, Binance later stated it would no longer lead the $150 million round. In July this year, Tech in Asia reported that Sky Mavis managed to raise only $11 million of the announced $150 million.
Xterio
In August 2022, Web3 game developer Xterio completed a $40 million private sale via SAFT at a $300 million valuation, led by FunPlus, Makers Fund, FTX Ventures, and XPLA, with participation from Animoca Brands, HashKey, and Foresight Ventures.
In July 2023, Binance Labs invested $15 million in blockchain game publisher Xterio. As part of a long-term strategic partnership, Binance Labs will support Xterio’s development, and Xterio tokens will be issued on the BNB Chain ecosystem.
Xterio also launched a game-focused marketplace called "Xterio Marketplace" in October 2023.
Proof of Play
In September 2023, Proof of Play completed a $33 million seed round co-led by a16z and Greenoaks, with participation from Mercury, Firebase, Zynga, Alchemy, and individual investors including AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Twitch founder Justin Kan, and YGG CEO Gabby Dizon.
Proof of Play’s CEO Amitt Mahajan, who created FarmVille and previously held executive roles at Zynga, later founded Toro (acquired by Google). FarmVille attracted over 300 million players and was Facebook’s top-ranked game ever. After FarmVille shut down permanently in 2020, Mahajan became convinced that blockchain-based games represent truly permanent games—where players’ achievements, character upgrades, and collected loot are permanently stored on the blockchain.
Proof of Play positions itself as both a game studio and technology company aiming to create fun, accessible on-chain games while developing novel technologies to make on-chain game development easier for everyone.
Proof of Play’s first game, Pirate Nation, is a fully on-chain RPG where players assemble pirate crews, battle fantastical creatures, and compete for leaderboard dominance. Currently, access to the beta version requires a code, and the demo testing remains relatively simple. Based on screenshots shared by players on X (Twitter), Pirate Nation delivers acceptable graphics and sound effects, though gameplay depth appears limited.
Argus Labs
Argus Labs is a Web3 game studio that closed a $10 million seed round in June 2023 led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Robot Ventures, Anagram, Dispersion Capital, Web3 infrastructure company Alchemy, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. Simultaneously, Argus Labs unveiled World Engine, a Layer 2 blockchain designed specifically for blockchain games, although it has not yet launched.
World Engine helps game developers build and customize open, interoperable game worlds. Through World Engine’s Layer 2 sharding architecture, each game can have its own horizontally scalable blockchain. This sharding design is a key innovation inspired by server architectures in computationally intensive massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, allowing developers to distribute game loads across different shards.
Argus Labs’ founder and CEO Scott Sunarto contributed to 0xPARC’s Dark Forest for about 12 weeks in 2020. Currently, Argus Labs’ game Dark Frontier is in internal testing.
Note: Dark Forest is a decentralized real-time strategy game built using zero-knowledge proof technology zkSNARKS, inspired by science fiction writer Liu Cixin’s representative work "The Three-Body Problem."
Mayhem Studios
Mayhem Studios is the Web3 gaming arm of India’s leading mobile esports platform Mobile Premier League (MPL), which has raised over $370 million cumulatively. MPL previously launched Good Game Exchange (GGE), an NFT marketplace for games.
In April 2023, Mayhem Studios raised $20 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Steadview Capital, Truecaller, and others. Mayhem Studios’ first mobile game, Underworld Gang Wars, is a battle royale title set in an Indian gangster backdrop.
https://twitter.com/mayhem_studios
Immutable Games
Immutable Games is the Web3 game development and publishing arm of Immutable, having released tactical card game Gods Unchained (GODS) and RPG Guild of Guardians (GOG).
https://www.immutable.com/play
Faraway
In November 2021, Faraway completed a $21 million Series A round led by FTX and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from a16z, Solana, Jump Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Pantera Capital. Faraway developed Mini Royale: Nations, an open-economy shooter game, and partnered with Novel Labs to develop Serum City, an Ethereum NFT game based on Yuga Labs’ metaverse.
Ultiverse
Ultiverse is leveraging VR and NFTs to build an AI-driven gaming world. Ultiverse has raised a total of $18.5 million, with investors including Binance Labs and Defiance Capital.
Projects under Ultiverse include Terminus, a decentralized virtual metaverse platform built on Unreal Engine 5 on BNB Chain; Endless Loop, a Play-to-Earn game; Moonlight, a 3D avatar NFT series; and Meta Merge, a universe combining AIGC, NFTs, DeFi, and gaming.
In December 2023, Ultiverse launched Bodhi, an AI-powered open metaverse protocol, listing rpggo.ai as Bodhi’s first strategic partner.
Matr1x
Matr1x plans to build its brand through high-quality games and IP collaborations from its own and partner studios, global esports championships, online communities and DAOs, NFT marketplaces for in-game items, and blockchain infrastructure such as DEXs, wallets, and DID.
In November 2023, Matr1x completed a $10 million Series A-2 round led by Folius Ventures, co-led by SevenX, with participation from ABCDE Capital, Jambo, Initiate Capital, and Find Satoshi Lab. Subsequently, OKX Ventures also invested in Matr1x.
MATR1X FIRE is Matr1x’s first shooter game launched on Polygon. According to its official website, Matr1x is preparing to launch two more games: Matr1x War and Matr1x Evolution.
Intella X
Intella X is a gaming platform jointly launched by Polygon and South Korean online game publisher Neowiz Corporation, bringing some of Neowiz’s popular game IPs into Web3. Intella X will distribute a share of all generated revenue to contributors in its ecosystem, enabling users to contribute and earn rewards within the platform.
In January 2023, Intella X announced it had raised $12 million, with participation from Polygon, Animoca Brands, Magic Eden, Planetarium, Big Brain Holdings, Crit Ventures, JoyCity, Pearl Abyss, XL Games, Wemix, and Global Coin Research.
Roboto Games
In November 2022, game studio Roboto Games completed a $15 million Series A round led by a16z, with participation from Ancient8, Animoca Brands, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Harrison Metal Capital, Makers Fund, Merit Circle, Transcend, and several angel investors.
Roboto Games believes adding digital asset ownership options in games gives players more choices. The longer lifecycle of game code and data will also bring greater value to asset holders than we’ve seen before. Roboto Games’ title Foragers and Fighters features character collection and optional digital asset ownership, along with strong support for a thriving user-generated content (UGC) ecosystem.
Thirdverse
Thirdverse is a Web3 and virtual reality game studio that completed a $15 million funding round in November 2022 led by MZ Web3 Fund, with participation from 8DAO, B Dash Ventures, Double Jump.tokyo, Fenbushi Capital, Flick Shot, Holdem Capital, Kusabi, OKCoin Japan, Yield Guild Games, and OKX Ventures. In November 2023, Thirdverse successfully raised an additional $8 million through a third-party allocation of new shares, bringing its total funding to $38 million.
In 2022, Thirdverse also established SWORD PTE. LTD., a subsidiary dedicated to Web3 games.
Catheon Gaming (CATHEON)
In October 2022, Catheon Gaming, the Solana-based P2E game SolChicks developer, raised $55 million in November 2021 through the sale of chicks tokens. However, ZachXBT later revealed that Catheon Gaming did not disclose to the community a $20 million treasury loss during the UST collapse in May. Besides being a game publisher, Catheon Gaming has also launched a game storefront.
Revolving Games
In September 2022, game publisher Revolving Games raised $13.2 million in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, Polygon, Dapper Labs, and Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games. Revolving Games’ total funding now stands at $25 million.
Current games under development include Battlestar Galactica, a strategy MMO developed in collaboration with Gala Games and NBCUniversal, and Skyborne Legacy, an RPG game built on Polygon.
Gunzilla Games
Game studio Gunzilla Games announced in August 2022 a total of $46 million in funding, led by Republic Capital, with participation from Griffin Gaming Partners, Animoca Brands, Jump Crypto, and angel investors and advisors including Twitch co-founder Justin Kan.
Gunzilla Games developed the battle royale game Off The Grid and is also creating GUNZ, a player-first 3A blockchain game.
Metatheory
Metatheory is a tech-driven entertainment company founded by Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, focused on building Web3 games, interactive content, social experiences, and other community-driven ventures. In April 2022, Metatheory completed a $24 million Series A round led by a16z, with participation from Pantera Capital, FTX Ventures, Breyer Capital, and Merit Circle.
Clockwork Labs
Clockwork Labs is a blockchain gaming studio and the developer of BitCraft, a town-building game focused on creating massive multiplayer games that encourage social interaction and cooperation among players. BitCraft blends elements from survival, sandbox, RPG, city-building, and strategy games.
In June 2022, Clockwork Labs completed a $22 million Series A round led by a16z.
Mighty Bear Games
In July 2022, game studio Mighty Bear Games raised $10 million through a token sale, with participation from Mirana, Sfermion, Spartan, Dune Ventures, Sanctor Capital, Folius Ventures, and Polygon. One year later, in July 2023, Mighty Bear Games partnered with TreasureDAO to launch the battle royale blockchain game Mighty Action Heroes on Arbitrum.
MetaKing Studios
In May 2022, game studio MetaKing Studios completed a $15 million seed round with participation from Makers Fund, Bitkraft Ventures, Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, WW Ventures, Spartan Group, and Huobi Ventures. MetaKing Studios’ Blocklords is a medieval-themed massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.
https://www.metakingstudios.com/
Joyride Games
Web3 game development platform Joyride Games completed a $14 million funding round in March 2022, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, Solana Ventures, Dapper Labs, BITKRAFT Ventures, SuperLayer, Modern Times Group, and Mirana Ventures.
Lava Labs
Founded in 2019, Lava Labs completed a $10 million Series A round in March 2022 led by Swiss investment firm Dialectic, with participation from Merit Circle, Dragonfly, DeFiance Capital, Animoca Brands, and others. Lava Labs is the publisher of A Far Away Realm, a game combining arcade and shooter elements.
double jump.tokyo
In April 2022, double jump.tokyo raised 3 billion yen (approximately $24 million), led by Jump Crypto, Amber Group, and Jafco, with participation from Dentsu, Wemade, and Distributed Capital.
https://www.doublejump.tokyo/en
Cometh
In May 2022, Web3 game studio Cometh completed a $10 million seed round led by White Star Capital, Ubisoft, and Stake Capital. At the same time, Cometh launched its second blockchain-based video game, Cometh Battle.
Ex Populus
Ex Populus completed two funding rounds totaling $11.5 million in 2021, with investors including Animoca Brands and Akatsuki Inc. Ex Populus is currently developing Final Form, a card game, and LAMOverse, an action shooter game, both to be released on XAI.
Gamefam
Gamefam is a metaverse game developer and publisher aiming to create interconnected experiences with gaming communities and brands. In March 2022, Gamefam completed a $25 million funding round led by Konvoy and Play Ventures.
Public Chains / Networks
In Web3 gaming, Immutable, Polygon, Oasys, Ethereum, Flow, Arbitrum, BNB Chain are the most commonly used networks and public blockchains. These networks offer Web3 game developers diverse options to meet various needs.
Immutable, founded in 2018, owns the NFT trading card game Gods Unchained and ImmutableX, a gas-free NFT scaling solution for Web3 games built using StarkWare technology. Through its NFT game development studio Immutable Games Studio, Immutable advances the NFT ecosystem. Immutable has raised a total of $279.8 million, completing a $200 million round in March 2022 at a $2.5 billion valuation led by Temasek, with participation from Mirae Asset, ParaFi Capital, Declaration Partners, Tencent Holdings, and others. The team claims over 200 Web3 games are committed to building on its platform.
Oasys is a gaming-dedicated blockchain jointly launched by Japanese gaming giants Bandai Namco and Sega. Compatible with EVM and using proof-of-stake consensus, Oasys raised $20 million in July 2022 led by Republic Capital, followed by a strategic round at the end of 2022 with participation from Galaxy Interactive, Nexon, Jets Capital, and ChainGuardians.
Web3 Gaming Guilds
Yield Guild Games (YGG), Merit Circle (MC), GuildFi (GF), YGG sub-DAO "W3GG" (formerly YGG SEA), Avocado Guild (AVG), Ready Player DAO, BreederDAO, and other once-popular play-to-earn guilds are now at a turning point, facing both opportunities and challenges.
Card Games
Mahjong Meta
In August 2023, Web
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