Not to be confused with Decentraland, Decentral Games is a non-custodial casino protocol designed to function as a play-to-earn game operator within Decentraland.
On the gaming platform, ICE Poker, its Play-to-Earn metaverse poker built around “Texas hold’em,” is the most successful game on Decentral Land. In a newly published report, popular blockchain analytics firm Messari conducted a deep dive into the game’s performance in the year’s second quarter.
Has ICE poker remained icy?
Since its launch in Q4 2021, Decentral Games’ ICE Poker has staked its claim as one of the most active and fastest-growing virtual worlds-based games. However, with many play-to-earn games losing their gamers, ICE Poker’s fate appears to have been sealed.
In the last quarter, Messari found that the index for average daily active users (DAU) on the gaming platform dropped by 2% on a QoQ basis. On average, the game recorded a figure of 7,808 DAU. Following the decline in DAU on 30 March due to a software malfunction, gamers flocked ICE Poker once again to push its DAU to a peak of 11,976 on 11 April.
This is the highest figure the platform has seen since its launch. Unfortunately, this quickly dropped by 55% by the end of the quarter.
Source: Messari
An incentive that ICE Poker offers its gamers is allowing them to own wearable NFTs. They can obtain them through drops conducted on Decentral Games Marketplace or on OpenSea. They can also rent from other players. However, in the last quarter, “interactions with ICE Poker NFTs have declined,” Messari found. According to the report,
“Nearly all player interactions with ICE Poker NFTs have declined QoQ. With fewer daily active users (DAU), the number of activations fell 33% QoQ. Secondary sales transactions decreased 41% QoQ.”
In the first quarter of the year, 9,477 NFTs were minted. However, with an 84% decline in the last quarter, only 1,500 NFTs were minted.
Source: Messari
As for the revenue generated so far by ICE Poker, Messari found,
“Cumulative revenue derived from ICE Poker wearable NFTs reached over $49 million in Q2 2022. Minting has historically accounted for the majority of ICE Poker cumulative revenue and revenue growth, though upgrades have gained traction as the benefits to owners become more lucrative. In fact, almost 92% of ICE Poker revenue corresponds to mints and upgrades. The remaining 8% accounts for secondary sale royalties and activations.”
Soon-to-be deceased Decentral Games?
According to data from Token Terminal, the fully diluted market capitalization of the Decentral Games has dropped significantly in the last 180 days. As of 6 August, this stood at $77.79 million, a far cry from the $400 million it was in February.
Revenue generated by the play-to-earn platform has also dropped significantly. After peaking at a high of $6.2 million in total revenue on 9 February, a 99% decline has been recorded.
Source: Token Terminal
