Published on: 23/02/2022

Axie Infinity earns $4 billion in NFT sales

According to Cryptoslam statistics, Axie Infinity NFTs have reached $4 billion in total revenues, as play-to-earn crypto games gain greater prominence.

The exchange of NFTs between users in the blockchain-based video game surpassed $2.5 million in the past 24 hours, according to data released on Tuesday. Its total revenue is nearly double that of CryptoPunks, the second-place NFT collection.

Axie Infinity, a crypto metaverse game, took momentum in 2021, as play-to-earn games rose in sync with digital currency prices. Its token increased by 18,000% over the course of the year.

First NFT collection to hit $4 billion in sales

Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Axie Infinity co-founder and COO, tweeted on Monday: “@AxieInfinity just hit $4Bn traded NFTs between players. It’s the most traded NFT collection ever!”

According to Larsen, many game creators keep 100% of the profits from sales, but Axie’s business strategy is unique, with 4.25 % of each trade going into the Axie token fund.

The gameplay of Axie Infinity, developed by the Vietnamese startup Sky Mavis, includes players employing NFT characters called Axie, which are influenced by Pokémon, to combat against others. Axies are NFTs that can be acquired through playing and then sold or purchased.

Moreover, according to gaming data company ActivePlayer, Axie Infinity has had an average of 2.7 million regular players over the last 30 days. The Ronin-based game just announced improvements that would increase its prize pool to $6 million, implying that it will continue to grow.

Recently, a rare Alien NFT sold for about $24 million, making it the highest sale in the Larva Labs collection. Despite this, CryptoPunks has a total sales volume of $2,064,107,500, compared to Axie’s $4,001,976,814.

Global NFT sales hit $7 billion in January

While cryptocurrency prices fell in the first few months of 2022 as new investors ditched the assets, NFT sales increased. Global NFT sales surpassed $7 billion in January alone, an all-time high for a single month, more than doubling the previous record of $3 billion set in August of last year.

Meanwhile, the total market value of all digital currencies has decreased 22% from the beginning of January to $1.7 trillion at the time of the last check on Tuesday.

Playing in the Axie Infinity metaverse has a larger initial cost than on traditional gaming platforms. However, because the game relies on a play-to-earn model, the player’s potential benefit is bigger.

Players must have three Axie monsters NFTs for the game, which must be purchased on the Axie Infinity marketplace. The cheapest was $24 at the time of the last check Tuesday, making the entry fee $72.

They can then compete with other Axies to acquire Smooth Love Potion — the game’s play-to-earn token — which can be used to produce additional Axie NFTs, sell them or conduct combat with them. According to CoinMarketCap data, the highest price paid for a single NFT to yet was 300 ether, which is now worth about $800,000 USD.

In November 2021, an unidentified bidder paid 550 Ethereum (ETH), or nearly $2.03 million, for a digital plot of land on Axie Infinity. This tract of digital land, however, is one of the Genesis plots on Axie Infinity. Only 220 of these pieces of land exist, making them exceptionally valuable.