Over 20 blockchain games have raised more than $100 million this year—what new projects are worth watching?
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Over 20 blockchain games have raised more than $100 million this year—what new projects are worth watching?
As the crypto environment gradually improves and capital and traffic begin to flow in, GameFi's popularity is steadily rising.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Mia, ChainCatcher
As BTC briefly surpassed $57,000, the global cryptocurrency market cap reached a peak of $2.24 trillion, marking a new surge for the crypto industry since November 2021, with substantial capital beginning to flow into Web3.
The blockchain gaming sector—the dark horse that previously gave rise to viral hits like Axie Infinity and STEPN and led the 2021 bull run—is now attracting a fresh wave of users and institutional investors in this current bull cycle.
According to RootData, over 20 blockchain games have announced funding rounds since January 2024, raising more than $100 million collectively.
GameFi Market Warms Up, Active Players Surge
The blockchain gaming sector experienced explosive growth in January this year. According to the latest report from Footprint Analytics, the average number of active users in the Web3 gaming space increased by 54.67% compared to the full-year average of 2023. In January alone, the average number of active users rose 14.42% month-on-month from December last year. Meanwhile, the total number of blockchain games grew from 2,081 in January 2023 to 2,877 in January 2024, indicating a significant increase in active users and accelerating expansion of the Web3 gaming market.
Additionally, a recent report from OKX Ventures highlights that as macroeconomic conditions gradually improve and capital and traffic begin flowing in, interest in GameFi continues to climb.
Currently, blockchain games have an average of 2.21 million daily users and $4.66 million in daily trading volume. In terms of player market share, Ronin leads with 610,000 players—over 100% month-on-month growth and accounting for more than 29%. By daily trading volume, the top three games are Axie Infinity, Treasure DAO, and Gods Unchained; by number of players, the top three are Carv, MotoDEX, and Pixels.
Institutions Actively Investing, Aiming to Become the Next Animoca
Beyond user growth, enthusiasm from capital markets toward blockchain gaming is also heating up. As RootData shows, over 20 blockchain games have announced fundraising since January 2024, with total funds raised exceeding $100 million.
The crypto fantasy sports platform Monkey Tilt topped the list with $21 million in funding, followed by 3A game SkyArk Chronicles and game studio Overworld, which raised $15 million and $10 million respectively.
Key investment and financing details are as follows:
From late January to early February, the investment and financing market showed a significant uptick, further proving growing interest. These funded projects span game developers, individual game titles, and gaming guilds. Animoca Brands, known for its early success in blockchain gaming investments, once again emerged as one of the most active participants, investing in four blockchain gaming projects including Matr1X, Ultiverse, Pixelmon, and AOFverse.
Today’s blockchain gaming funding landscape has evolved from the 2021 era when Animoca Brands dominated, into a diversified ecosystem where multiple institutions are now involved. Binance Labs, Foresight Ventures, and Hack VC have all entered the space, reflecting increasing attention and rising热度 in the blockchain gaming sector.
Notably, SkyArk Studio—the developer behind the Binance Labs–backed 3A game project SkyArk Chronicles—aims to replicate the success of Hong Kong unicorn Animoca Brands by building an ecosystem to incubate crypto projects and leveraging its proprietary resources, aspiring to become the next Animoca Brands.
With the recovery of the crypto market and continuous improvements in industry infrastructure, more innovative projects are expected to emerge, driving higher-quality developments in gaming and fueling explosive growth across the entire GameFi sector. The increasing activity and diversification in blockchain gaming investments are injecting new vitality into the field, breaking the previous dominance of a few major players.
In terms of overall token prices within the blockchain gaming sector, gains have slightly lagged behind broader market rallies, suggesting the sector is still in the early stages of an upward trend. Notably, established GameFi tokens such as Ronin (RON) and SLP have seen around 30% gains over the past 30 days. As the saying goes, "speculate on new, not old"—Binance's recent listing spree of new blockchain gaming tokens further underscores this sentiment.
Recently Highlighted New Blockchain Gaming Projects
Pixels (PIXEL)
Earlier this month, Binance Launchpool announced the addition of Pixels (PIXEL), creating a significant stir. Its price surged from an opening of $0.04 to $0.69—an increase of over 1,500%. The token has since stabilized around $0.56, showing a relatively flat and steady trajectory rather than the extreme volatility some investors anticipated. This "wealth creation effect" has once again pushed Binance Launchpool’s popularity to new highs.
Following the Binance Launchpad announcement, Pixels disclosed a strategic funding round of $4.8 million, with investors including Framework Ventures, Collab+Currency, and Yield Guild Games.
Pixels describes itself as a social, casual, open-world Web3 gaming platform launched in 2021, designed to let users build their own games while natively integrating existing digital collectibles. Last year, Pixels migrated from Polygon to the Ronin network—a custom Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain developed by Sky Mavis, the team behind the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity. As a result of Pixels’ rising popularity, the RON token has also seen a steady price increase over recent months.
Portal (PORTAL)
Portal is the 47th project to be featured on Binance Launchpool, following the previous gaming newcomer PIXEL.
Portal positions itself as a cross-chain gaming platform aiming to onboard more players into Web3. Key features include one-click login via Portal Passport, seamless payments, and a unified management system for in-game assets such as NFTs and account abstraction. It supports cross-chain operations and seamless integration across ecosystems.
Portal Coin is the native utility token of the Portal gaming platform, serving as a bridge between Web3 games and players. It can be used for governance, in-game transactions, and other platform activities.
Portal revealed that it has completed a new strategic funding round with participation from Michael Bouhanna, Vice President and Head of Digital Art & NFTs at Sotheby’s; Max Crown, Co-founder of MonnPay; @9gagceo, CEO of 9GAG; GiulioX, CEO of Pixelmon; and Kalos, Co-founder of Parallel.
According to Binance Research, PORTAL has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with an initial circulating supply of approximately 167 million, including 50 million allocated to Binance Launchpool. Based on PIXEL’s launch market cap of $300–400 million, PORTAL’s valuation could reach around $2.20 per token. AEVO data shows that the current futures price for PORTAL is nearing $3.
Matr1X (FIRE)
According to official disclosures, the Web3 entertainment platform Matr1X has raised a total of $20 million, with participation from OKX Ventures. Additionally, its Web3 mobile shooter game Matr1x FIRE announced a strategic investment from Animoca Brands on February 21. The game’s native token FIRE has been listed on Bitget, surging from an opening price of $0.05 to $3. The token currently trades around $1.20.
Matr1x FIRE is the first mobile shooter game under the Matr1X brand, aiming to become the Web3 equivalent of CS:GO. It emphasizes classic shooting mechanics and fair 5v5 competitive gameplay, similar to CS:GO, CrossFire, and Call of Duty Mobile. Players can earn NFTs and tokens through gameplay.
Matr1x announced it will launch the Web3 Asia Esports Championship in March.
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