Play-To-Earn (P2E) gaming, once blockchain gaming’s most promising format, is currently suffering a crisis of confidence. 

The rise of the P2E space is due to a convergence of many different trends. Cryptocurrencies exploded in popularity in the early 2020s. With their presence in the mainstream, many players entered what had previously felt like the Wild West. The corresponding rise of NFT gave the space the technology to push earning and collectibility in new directions.

DeFi platforms have also increased the utility of in-game currencies and items, as they can be traded and used outside of the game. But today, P2E currently looks to be in a very bad way.

Some of the industry’s brightest stars are in seriously bad health. Axie Infinity, for a long time the world’s most popular P2E title, is one such example. According to ActivePlayer.io, the last 30 days have only seen approximately 430,000 players. Which represents the game’s worst month since October 2020. The game’s native token is also down approximately 93% from its all-time high in August 2020. 

Play-To-Earns Look Like Ponzinomics, Say Critics

One of the space’s fundamental problems is that many P2E players logged in to make money. When the likelihood of good returns evaporated, so did many of the players. When you remove the earning potential, many games aren’t that fun, either.

Damian Bartlett, the Team Lead for W3E, the world’s first Web3 LAN gaming tournament,…