- Crypto metaverse game Axie Infinity's NFT collection is the first to reach $4 billion in sales, CryptoSlam data showed.
- The game, where people play to earn NFTs, has surged in popularity and its NFT sales outstrip those for CryptoPunks.
- Global NFT sales hit a record $7 billion in January, even as cryptos slumped as investors shunned risky assets.
Axie Infinity NFTs have hit $4 billion in all-time sales, according to data from Cryptoslam, as play-to-earn crypto games continue to grow in popularity.
The trading of NFTs between players on the blockchain-based video game topped $2.5 million in the past 24 hours alone, the data showed Tuesday.
"@AxieInfinity just hit $4Bn traded NFTs between players. It's the most traded NFT collection ever!" Aleksander Leonard Larsen, the cofounder and COO of the company, tweeted Monday.
Larsen said that usually, game developers take 100% of proceeds from sales, but Axie's business model is different, with 4.25% of each trade going into the Axie token treasury.
In Axie Infinity, developed by Vietnamese startup Sky Mavis, the gameplay involves people using NFT characters called axies, inspired by Pokémon, to battle against others. Axies are NFTs that can be earned through playing, then sold or bought.
Its total sales volume is almost double that of the second-place NFT collection, CryptoPunks.
A rare Alien NFT marked the Larva Labs collection's most expensive sale at almost $24 million last week. But even with that, the all-time sales volume for CryptoPunks stands at $2,064,107,500, compared with Axie's $4,001,976,814.
Crypto metaverse game Axie Infinity took off in 2021, as play-to-earn games surged in tandem with prices for digital currencies. Its axs token rose by 18,000% over the course of the year.
While cryptocurrencies have slumped in the early going of 2022 as casual investors abandoned the assets, NFT sales have climbed. In January alone, global NFT sales reached $7 billion — an all-time high for a single month, more than double the previous record of $3 billion for August last year.
Meanwhile, the market value of all digital currencies has fallen 22% since the beginning of January, to $1.7 trillion at last check Tuesday.
Over the past 30 days, Axie Infinity has had an average of 2.7 million active players, gaming statistics company ActivePlayer has estimated. The Ronin-based game recently released updates that will expand its prize pool to $6 million, which is likely to drive more growth.
The upfront cost of playing in the Axie Infinity metaverse is higher than on typical gaming platforms. However, as the game is based on a play-to-earn model, the potential gain for the player is greater.
Players must have three axie creature NFTs for the game, initially bought on the Axie Infinity marketplace, The cheapest axie was priced at $24 at last check Tuesday, making the cost of entry $72.
They can then pit their axies against others to earn Smooth Love Potion — the games' play-to-earn token — which are used to create more axie NFTs, to sell or to do battle. The highest price for a single NFT to date was 300 ether, currently worth almost $800,000, according to CoinMarketCap data.
—Axie Infinity🦇🔊 (@AxieInfinity) November 6, 2020