2025-12-30 05:20:54

2025 is a bit of a cold year for the blockchain gaming industry.

According to the latest data, this year's GameFi funding has dropped to between $232 million and $427 million, a decline of over half compared to $1 billion in 2024. It's worth noting that in 2022, funding was still at $5.3 billion, and this rapid decline is quite alarming.

Why is this happening? The reasons are actually not complicated—after the capital enthusiasm waned, the "play-to-earn" model relying solely on token incentives started to reveal its flaws. Market research shows that the failure rate of native Web3 games reaches 80% to 93%, meaning that eight or nine out of ten projects can't survive. The problem of rampant bot accounts has made things worse, and true player retention remains bleak.

This reality is forcing the entire ecosystem to change its approach. Funds and developers are shifting their focus to the Web2.5 model—strengthening the core gameplay and fun, with blockchain features becoming supportive rather than the main selling point. This shift actually offers some hope: when games no longer attract players solely by "making money," but instead rely on genuine gaming experiences, it may mark the true beginning of maturity for the blockchain gaming industry.

View Original

This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.

9 Likes

Reward
9
5
Repost
Share

Comment

0/400

LiquidityWhisperer

· 8h ago

80% failure rate? Ha, I saw that coming a long time ago. Projects that rely solely on coin price support are just castles in the air. Bots are everywhere, so what user retention are we talking about? It's just self-deception. That said, the shift from Web2.5 is somewhat interesting. Fun games are the real key.

View OriginalReply0

CodeZeroBasis

· 8h ago

The funding cut in half... has been obvious for a long time. The token incentive model is indeed no longer workable.

View OriginalReply0

RektRecovery

· 8h ago

i called this collapse back in '23 tbh... told everyone the tokenomics were unsustainable dogshit but nobody listened lol

Reply0

ChainPoet

· 8h ago

Funding cut in half, failure rate 93%, this is the reality, brother. Where's the promised play-to-earn? Turns out it's all robots and rug pulls. Actually, it's not surprising; without good games, there's no future, right?

View OriginalReply0

MEVHunterLucky