Report shows that GameFi fundraising jumped 135 percent in August from July

Despite the crypto winter and economic crisis, investors remain bullish on the blockchain gaming industry

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

A recent report shows that despite the ongoing crisis in the crypto market, the GameFi sector remains a dominant force in the blockchain and crypto space. Gaming-related companies, such as Australia-based Immutable, believe gaming will be the leading area for blockchain-based Web3 services. They cited venture capitalists' enthusiasm and the money pouring into the sector as evidence.

So far this year, blockchain-based gaming has received $3.1 billion in investments. The sector has added $6.9 billion in funds. Further, it is predicted that there will be investments worth $10.2 billion this year. It will be a 20 percent increase over the four billion dollars in 2021. Earlier in August, 847,000 daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW) interacted with blockchain games. This was an 11 percent decrease from the previous month. However, it made up more than 50 percent of the industry's usage.

It is evident that GameFi networks have thrived despite the downturn in the crypto market. The industry is expected to be valued at $74.2 billion by 2031. Following the trend seen throughout the year, partnerships and investments in blockchain gaming continued, with another $748 million raised in August this year. This was a 135 percent increase from July. However, it was still a 16 percent decrease from June. The aforementioned report stated,

"Looking at the whole picture, we observed that 38% of the investments goes to infrastructure, 33% to games and metaverse projects, and 27% to investment firms."

Gabriel Leydon, the founder and former CEO of Machine Zone, raised $200 million, or 27 percent of the total investments. The funds were raised for a new blockchain start-up called Limit Break. Machine Zone is the mobile gaming studio behind Game of War and Mobile Strike. After the successful launch of its DigiDaigaku free-mint NFT collection, Limit Break gained popularity.

Despite the economic crisis, the Ukraine conflict, rising inflation, the crypto winter, and a new gaming slump, the increasing amount of investments in the GameFi sector indicates that major investment entities remain optimistic about the GameFi industry. Web3 teams with a compelling proposal may still receive a large funding round. Investors poured $3.1 billion into the blockchain gaming industry in the previous quarter. The total amount of investment expected in this growing industry this year has been increased by 20 percent to $10.2 billion.

It is worth noting here that sales for metaverse projects increased 38.62 percent month over month to 19,354. Meanwhile, trading decreased 28.90 percent to $22 million. Among the protocols, Ethereum's trading volume fell 14.40 percent in August. It reached $11 million. In terms of total trading volume, Ronin increased by 27.64 percent to $8.2 million. Further, Solana's total trading volume increased by 171 percent to $1.7 million.

Shashank is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

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