During 2021, NFTs—or non fungible tokens—came to the forefront of public discourse surrounding cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Now, p2e, or playtoearn, games have seen a flurry of interest, as players are earning rewards for playing games in the form of NFTs and crypto coins that can be won, owned, and traded outside of the games by players (1).
But how does it work? Can people really make a living just by playing play-to-earn games? What games are people earning NFTs and coins on? What’s the difference between coins and NFTs? And does it cost money to get started? We’ll discuss and talk about the top 10 p2e games while also providing a play-to-earn crypto games list.
There are a number of p2e games already surging in popularity as players flock to earn as much as they can in either tokens or coins. Some games will reward players with NFTs while others will offer crypto coins, while some might offer both.
While they’re often conflated and many people use one word to mean the other, the difference between tokens and coins is fairly straightforward; they're both assets, but a coin is native to its blockchain, (think bitcoins on the bitcoin blockchain) while a token is created using an existing blockchain framework to usually serve some kind of purpose. A non fungible token, or NFT, which p2e games often offer users represent singular ownership of a specific thing, like a picture, an in-game item, or a piece of music. (2)
Depending on what your interest is in earning crypto, whether you’ll want to earn tokens or coins, and how much you’re willing to invest up front to begin playing might determine which games are the best NFT games for you. You can also expect different p2e games to have different volumes, amounts of players, and total balances.
P2E Crypto Games
There are a lot of p2e crypto games—in fact, maybe too many to list, but we’ll talk about a few that have seen lots of popularity recently. Play-to-earn games come in a lot of different forms, and they aren’t necessarily a specific format. Like other video games, there are a wide variety of different play styles to suit different players. Some of them are card-trading games, some of them are NFT farming games, and some of them are even FPS games. As NFT games continue to rise in popularity, more and more games are likely to be released.
You can expect the styles to evolve as blockchain technology improves and the popularity of p2e games rises over time. P2e games are not a new idea—people have been farming loot and selling their accounts on other games for years in other games, but the advent of games specifically designed for earnings is a relatively new thing, so p2e games in their current incarnation are only the beginning of what may be to come. (3)
There are also a variety of earning styles. Some play-to-earn games reward players with tokens, usually in the form of NFTs, while others reward players with crypto coins. Some reward players with both, so there are a lot of choices for players looking to earn NFTs or crypto coins, whether people are playing play-to-earn coin games or NFT games.
P2E Crypto List
Reviewing a P2E crypto list can help you better understand the types of games available. There are several p2e crypto coins that can be earned, playing different p2e games, and the games rely on a few different blockchain technologies. One of the most popular blockchains for p2e games is Ethereum blockchain. Another is Binance Smart Chain. There are a lot of tokens built using the Ethereum blockchain or BSC (Binance Smart Chain) and they’re popular blockchain frameworks for developers of decentralized apps, or dApps, like p2e games. (4) Some of the blockchains used for p2e game development can be found on the play-to-earn games list below:
- Ethereum
- Hive
- Binance Smart Chain
- Ronin
- Flow
- Solana
- Polygon
- WAX
- Cardano
- Avalanche
Of course, you can expect to see some of these blockchains to stick around while others may be phased out over time. There will almost surely also be more blockchains that start being used and as blockchain technology improves you can expect to see games rely on some of the same and some new and different blockchains. Some of the most popular games right now that rely on these blockchains are:
- Axie Infinity - uses Ethereum and Ronin
- Yield Hunt - uses Avalanche
- Splinterlands - uses Hive and WAX
- Bomb Crypto - uses Binance Smart Chain
- Sunflower Farmers - uses Polygon
- Crazy Defense Heroes - uses Ethereum and polygon
- Farmer World - uses WAX
- MOBOX: NFT Farmer - uses Binance Smart Chain
- Elfin Kingdom - uses Binance Smart Chain
- X World Games - uses Binance Smart Chain
P2E Crypto Coins
What kind of P2E crypto coins and P2E token can players earn playing p2e games? There are many different crypto coins that players can earn playing p2e games. Some games may offer investments up front and will have their own p2e price. Others may be free to play. As we discussed, there are two primary types of earnings players can receive while playing p2e games, and coins are one of them—as opposed to tokens, in the form of NFTs. Some of the coins that can be earned playing p2e games include the following:
- Bitcoin ($BTC)
- Trilium ($TLM)
- Ethereum ($ETH)
- Smooth Love Potion ($SLP)
- Pocket Doge ($PDOGE)
There are many different games on the market that are built in a play-to-earn model, so there are undoubtedly some we haven’t listed that can be earned. The advantage of coins over unique Non Fungible Tokens is that they’re more interchangeable than NFTs which are inherently unique, and it can be easier to get a grasp of their value. Many crypto coins can easily be traded for fiat currency, and will have accepted market values when compared to a fiat currency like the U.S. Dollar (USD).
P2E Games
As we mentioned, P2e games come in all shapes and sizes. As such, you will likely be able to find p2e NFT games that meet your needs. No matter what device you’re using, how much time you have to play, or what you can afford to invest upfront, there is likely to be a p2e game out there that will fit your requirements. That’s because just as these games rely on decentralized software, the development of them is similarly decentralized.
Of course, determining the top p2e games will depend upon your personal interests. P2e games take the form of farming simulators, space exploration games, card trading games, card combat games, and even first person shooters as well as others. People are developing p2e games for all sorts of reasons for all sorts of different players. P2e games are available for mobile devices running different operating systems including crypto games iOS and Android. P2e games also offer both NFTs and crypto coins. Some popular games that can be played on Android and iOS are:
- Axie Infinity - can also be played via web browsers
- Undead Blocks
- Dragon Verse
- Idle Mystic
- Ninnecko
- Splinterlands
- Habbo - can also be played on Mac OS
- Upland
- Turbo 84Thetan Arena
P2E Tokens
There are a large variety of p2e games that offer P2E tokens and P2E NFT that can be both used in game or traded outside of the game. There are a lot of tokens and NFTs that can be earned with p2e games. Some of the most popular games offer both coins and NFTs and NFTs can become quite valuable. (6) One reason NFTs can become so valuable is their inherent unique nature. Each NFT represents a unique thing, whether that be a real world asset like gold or a specific property, or a piece of art, or they may represent ownership of a digital item, like in a game a weapon, trading card, in-game avatar, in-game property, or even an NPC or non-playable character.
Since these items are unique and NFTs cannot be changed for one another like coins can, they can become extremely scarce and therefore extremely valuable. For example, one bitcoin is worth one bitcoin. A bitcoin is no different than any other bitcoin. But, if you own an NFT that represents ownership of a certain piece of art, or an in-game item even, you are the sole owner of that NFT. It isn’t the same as any other NFT, and it cannot simply be switched out for another.
Best crypto Games
There are, as we’ve mentioned, many crypto games available to play now, but which ones are the best crypto games? We’ll talk about some of the best play-to-earn games that you can play right now. There are free crypto games and crypto games that require an upfront investment. Still, some others are free to play at first but may require an investment later to earn more. We’ll start with some of the most popular play-to-earn NFT games that users are playing right now. (5)
Splinterlands
Splinterlands is free to play, and it’s quite popular. Splinterlands is a card trading and battling game. Players can compete to earn cards and trade them in game.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is one of the most well-known play-to-earn games out there right now. Players battle creatures that are like Pokemon, called Axies and while it isn’t free to play (users must first buy 3 Axies to get started) many people love the game, and report making significant earnings playing.
The Sandbox
As its name suggests, The Sandbox is like other sandbox games that players might be familiar with, but is designed as a metaverse experience where players can build their own gaming experience and earn crypto while they do it. Players can upload in-game assets and sell them as NFTs to earn revenue. (7)
Sunflower Farmers
Sunflower farmers is another very popular token earning game right now. Players can farm sunflowers (as the name suggests) and earn tokens called Sunflower Farm Tokens, or SFF which can be traded for fiat currency.
Resources
(1) https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2021/12/13/play-to-earn-gaming-is-driving-nft-and-crypto-growth/?sh=49d917fbc2dc
(2) https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/06/09/are-nfts-the-new-crypto-a-guide-to-understanding-non-fungible-tokens/?sh=6173ebe73d95
(3) https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2022/01/25/does-blockchain-herald-the-dawn-of-a-new-era-for-gaming/?sh=a3e70c668272
(4) https://dappradar.com/rankings/protocol/binance-smart-chain/category/games
(5) https://dappradar.com/rankings/category/games
(6) https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/nfts-redefining-digital-ownership-and-scarcity
(7) https://www.sandbox.game/en/about/