Axie Infinity dominated the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market within the blockchain gaming universe in 2021. The play-to-earn game where users have their cute little Pokemon-inspired pets battle each other saw $3.5 billion in NFT transactions over last year — that’s four times more than its closest competitor, NBA Top Shot.
Developed in 2018 by Vietnamese video game developer Sky Mavis, the game includes creatures called “Axies” that players can collect and use to complete daily tasks, duel with other players, and more. Each Axie is an NFT minted on the Ethereum blockchain. When players complete tasks with Axie, they can earn Smooth Love Potions (SLP), which can be sold and exchanged for cash on cryptocurrency exchanges, thereby generating income for players. Overall, Axie Infinity accounted for 19 percent of the estimated $17 billion in total NFT transactions last year.
Axie Infinity saw a huge surge in popularity last November, especially among players in developing countries, where playing Axie Infinity could make more money than minimum wage jobs. However, players have complained to developers that their earnings have declined as SLP prices have dropped 67.5% over the past year.
Part of the reason for the price drop is a rise in token inflation as more players join and play the game. As of this writing, there are nearly 2.7 million monthly Axie players, up from just 1 million in March last year. But from July 2021 to the present, the circulating supply of SLP has increased from 541.7 million to 5.13 billion.
Axie Infinity (AXS) is an NFT-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, which uses the Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies AXS (Axi Infinity Shards) and SLP (Smooth Love Potion). As of May 2021, it is the most expensive NFT collection ever.
AXS is a trading and fighting game that allows players to collect, breed, raise, battle and trade creatures known as “Axes” (characters based on Axolotl), which are known as NFTs. is digitized. New players need to buy at least three axes to start playing. As of September 2021, most players were based in the Philippines.
The game uses a “pay-to-earn” model (also known as a “pay-to-play-to-earn” model), where participants can earn a token that can be traded in the form of an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency. Trading is done on Binance. Players can also exchange in-game assets in the form of NFTs. Axie Infinity allows users to cash-out their tokens every fourteen days. This model has been described as a form of gambling.
Game cryptocurrency is the main daily income for some people in developing countries.
