93% of blockchain games are dead. What happened and what’s still standing

A few years ago, NFT games and “play-to-earn” were sold as the future of gaming. Today, a report by the firm Caladan, based on an analysis of more than 3,200 GameFi titles, shows that about 93% of projects are effectively dead. Below you’ll see what went wrong, some concrete examples and the few games that are still actually played.

The numbers

Since 2020, between $12 and $15 billion has gone into blockchain games. Annual funding fell from about $4 billion in 2022 to roughly $360 million in 2025, and the average token price is about 95% below its 2022 peak. The report doesn’t explain exactly what “dead” means, so the percentage shows the trend, not an exact figure.

Examples of projects that collapsed

• Axie Infinity: it reached about 2.8 million daily users, then dropped to around 99,000. It has since partly recovered: daily active wallets grew by 55% in the third quarter of 2025, but that is far from the peak numbers.
• Hamster Kombat: from 300 million users to around 12 million in just six months.
• Pixelmon: it raised $70 million in 2022, but four years later it had no public game.
• The Sandbox: it received $93 million from SoftBank, but never went beyond a few thousand daily on-chain users.

Why they failed

Many projects sold tokens first and only then tried to build a game. The money came from investors, not players, and when the hype faded there was nothing left worth playing. Some projects were also outright scams.

What is still standing

The games that survived have one thing in common: they are good games before they are investments.

• Off the Grid: a AAA-style battle royale available on Steam and consoles, where the blockchain features stay in the background.
• Gods Unchained and Splinterlands: card games that have been active for years, built around gameplay.
• Pixels: it peaked at about 1 million daily players and holds steady at around 180,000.

Be careful with these games

The numbers above show that the risk is real. Before you spend money on a game with NFTs or tokens, keep a few things in mind:

• Ask yourself whether you would enjoy the game without the rewards. If not, it’s probably not worth it.
• Be cautious when a game promises guaranteed earnings or passive income.
• Check that the game already exists and has players, not just a promise and a website.
• Don’t invest money you can’t afford to lose. Some projects were outright scams.
• Don’t rely on the price of a token or an NFT: it can fall close to zero.

Play for fun, not as an investment. This is not financial advice.

Sources: CoinDesk, BeInCrypto, Plisio.