SevenX Ventures: The Story Behind Matr1x Becoming the World's Top-Grossing Game NFT by Market Cap
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SevenX Ventures: The Story Behind Matr1x Becoming the World's Top-Grossing Game NFT by Market Cap
The Matr1x team, leveraging its long-term experience and insights in the shooting game赛道, identified a significant business opportunity in product positioning.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: SevenX Ventures, Arthur
Since 2021, SevenX Ventures has been a steadfast cornerstone investor in Matr1x and recently continued as a co-lead investor in its $10 million Series A funding round. Why do we have the confidence to back Matr1x across multiple rounds? Beyond the team’s demonstrated ultra-fast learning ability, their commitment to decentralization, professional expertise, and the significant commercial opportunities they’ve identified through deep insights into the FPS gaming sector have deeply impressed us. In this article, we’ll share the reasons why Matr1x stands out.
SevenX is currently focused on the Web3 gaming space because games represent one of the most promising blockchain application sectors capable of breaking into the mainstream and bringing massive new users to blockchain. Unfortunately, in the evolution of Web3 gaming so far, we've seen more and more products remain confined within the Web3 niche, failing to attract mainstream gamers. The core reason? Most Web3 games simply don't meet the high expectations of traditional game players.
From Researching the FPS Market to Discovering an Entrepreneurial Opportunity
Why does SevenX believe Matr1x can attract a large number of gamers? It starts with their origin story. The core Matr1x team was previously working at a major tech company on a top-tier shooter title when, during market research, they noticed an unusual data point: among all FPS games, one product stood out with exceptionally high revenue. That product was CSGO. They found that despite having roughly the same number of concurrent users as CrossFire, CSGO's ARPU (average revenue per user) was 100 times higher. Moreover, CSGO’s monthly payer rate was 50%, compared to just 1% for CrossFire—nearly a 50-fold difference. This gap cannot be explained merely by differences between PC and mobile platforms or regional spending power disparities.
This prompted them to dive deeper into understanding why CSGO’s monetization was so successful. They discovered the key lay in its business model design. Unlike typical shooters that sell weapon skins directly through official stores, all weapon skins (items) in CSGO are obtained via crate openings and can be freely traded on secondary markets using real money. CSGO’s primary revenue comes from selling keys for opening crates and transaction fees on trades.
Why are users so willing to spend money in CSGO? The core reason is psychological: when opening crates, users aren’t just consuming—they feel they have a chance to profit. Since every in-game item can be sold for real money, players perceive true ownership over these virtual assets. As such, they treat CSGO items as investments rather than consumables, making them naturally more willing to spend.
From CSGO to Revolutionizing the Shooter Genre Through Decentralization
After studying CSGO, the Matr1x team identified a massive untapped opportunity: there had never been a mobile game offering a similar business model where users truly own their in-game items and can freely trade them. The ethos of blockchain decentralization, along with technical standards like ERC-721, perfectly aligned with this vision—sparking the idea behind Matr1x.
How big is this opportunity? Let's estimate the market potential based on Matr1x Fire, which targets the same audience as CrossFire. CrossFire generates annual revenues of $187 million. Conservatively estimating that Matr1x Fire could achieve a 30x increase in ARPU through its Web3-powered business model (compared to the 100x difference between CSGO and CrossFire), it could reach projected annual revenues of $5.61 billion. This would be five times the revenue of PUBG Mobile—the highest-grossing shooter mobile game in 2022. And this figure only accounts for Matr1x Fire. Matr1x is also preparing to launch a series of Web3 shooter titles, including battle royale gameplay. Using the same methodology, Matr1x’s total addressable market in the mobile shooter genre could reach $11.2 billion (PUBG Mobile revenue) × 30 + $5.61 billion = $392.1 billion—almost equivalent to the entire global shooter mobile game market. With user numbers potentially reaching millions, Matr1x could become blockchain’s long-awaited killer application.
Matr1x believes the revolutionary potential of Web3 business models extends far beyond shooters. Starting with their strongest domain—mobile shooter games—they aim to expand into other genres such as SLG, MMO, and party games, evolving Matr1x into a platform capable of delivering multiple hit titles. Ultimately, leveraging a portfolio of successful games, Matr1x aims to grow into the largest Web3 entertainment platform, rivaling today’s industry leaders.
The Story Behind Matr1x NFTs Becoming the World’s Top-Market Game NFT Series
Great journeys begin with small steps. On the path toward this ambitious future, Matr1x has already achieved remarkable milestones. To date, the total market cap of Matr1x’s NFT collections has reached $110 million, making it the highest-valued game-related NFT series globally. This achievement cannot be attributed solely to product quality or positioning. From SevenX’s perspective, the core driver has been the team’s genuine commitment to decentralization. We’ll illustrate this with concrete examples.
At the foundational level, Matr1x has set a vision to bring happiness and security to users—a principle reflected consistently in their actions. Their NFT launches and operations serve as a perfect embodiment of this philosophy.
Even before launching any NFTs, the team clarified their purpose: it wasn’t about raising funds, but about enabling early ecosystem participants to grow alongside the project by owning valuable assets. These early holders would share in the team’s growth journey. Despite facing controversial moments—such as maintaining low prices for initial NFT sales even amid high community demand—the team remained committed. They gave away all founding NFTs (YATC) for free to contributors, and priced the Matr1x 2061 series at just 0.1 ETH, while comparable projects with similar hype were charging 2–3 ETH for genesis NFTs. During bear market conditions, we investors asked them: why not seize the opportunity to generate revenue from NFT sales? The Matr1x team firmly replied that their goal was never to profit from users, but to reward those who believed in them early. The results proved them right: by prioritizing user value, users reciprocated with stronger support.
Another striking fact: the team revealed that Matr1x currently has nearly 1,000 NFT holders—and the founder personally knows almost every single one. How? Through extensive AMAs and offline Matr1x Fire tournaments, actively listening to user feedback and suggestions. They treat each NFT holder as a shareholder, sharing project updates and strategic visions openly. When founders genuinely treat NFT holders as partners instead of “yield farms,” users feel it. Matr1x exemplifies how to deliver true user happiness and security: by sincerely valuing every individual in the community. In return, users choose to stand behind the teams they trust most. We believe this is the essence of decentralization—and the core reason Matr1x has become the world’s highest-market-cap gaming NFT series.
In summary, the Matr1x team has not only leveraged their professional expertise in shooter game development to build what is now a leading Web3 mobile shooter, but also capitalized on years of industry insight to identify a massive commercial opportunity. From this starting point, many more games and ecosystem projects will emerge. Their authentic dedication to decentralization convinces us that Matr1x has a tremendous chance to spark a decentralized revolution across the broader entertainment industry. Let’s all look forward to the success of this transformation.
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