How Many Web3 Games Have Failed?
Around 2,127 web3 games have failed in the last five years since the GameFi niche emerged, representing 75.5% of the 2,817 web3 games launched. In other words, 3 out of every 4 web3 games have become inactive.
The average annual failure rate for web3 games has been 80.8% from 2018 to 2023, based on the number of web3 games failed compared to launched.
Early GameFi Failure Rates
After the success of CryptoKitties in late 2017, play to earn (P2E) gaming became a popular crypto narrative. As a result, 422 web3 games were launched in 2018, but 307 failed in the same year.
However, GameFi development and interest slowed amid the 2019 to 2020 bear market. Only 244 web3 games were launched during these two years. At the same time, the failure rate of web3 games rose to 94.3% in 2019 and maintained at 94.2% in 2020.
2021 recorded the lowest web3 games’ failure rate of 45.9%, on the back of the crypto bull run. This was despite the number of failed web3 games jumping to 339 in 2021, surpassing 2018.
Record GameFi Failures in 2022
The annual number of dead web3 games more than doubled in 2022, reaching a record yearly high of 742. This also marked the highest failure rate of 107.1%, even as the number of new web3 games remained high.
In 2023 to date, 509 web3 games have failed, which is equivalent to 70.7% of the web3 games launched this year. The lower failure rate could perhaps indicate a stabilization in the state of web3 gaming.
Web3 Games’ Yearly Failure Rate
The number of dead GameFi projects each year, as well as the corresponding failure rate when compared to the number of GameFi projects launched during the year:
| Year | No. Dead GameFi | GameFi Failure Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 307 | 72.7% |
| 2019 | 149 | 94.3% |
| 2020 | 81 | 94.2% |
| 2021 | 339 | 45.9% |
| 2022 | 742 | 107.1% |
| 2023 | 509 | 70.7% |
Methodology
The study examined 2,817 web3 games that were launched from 2018 to 2023 and identified how many became inactive, based on Footprint Analytics data as of November 27, 2023. Web3 games, also referred to as GameFi projects here, were defined as inactive when their 14-day moving average number of active users fell by 99% or more from peak.
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Curious to find out more about our previous research studies & statistics? Check out this one we did on dead coins.