You don't have to look far to find criticism about the Web3 gaming trend. In the minds of many skeptics, Web3 gaming is at best a fad; at worst, it's merely something that the Web3 community is trying to "meme into reality."
Yet, while many may still believe that Web3 gaming will never crack the mainstream, the latest data suggests otherwise. Last year, gaming made up as much as 29% of the overall Web3 industry, as stated in a 2024 DappRadar report. Daily active users grew fivefold, and there were more than 5.7 billion on-chain gaming transactions.
Given the advantages of Web3 gaming versus traditional gaming, such as the ability to own in-game assets compatible across multiple platforms, it's no surprise that an increasing number of gamers are making the switch. It's likely that this trend will continue, further signaling that this particular vertical within the blockchain space is anything but a passing fad or trend.
That said, while there are opportunities to expand this space further, various challenges remain. With this in mind, let's take a closer look at the current state of Web3 gaming and why ongoing trends, developments, and opportunities point to this space revolutionizing the gaming industry.
The Three Key Challenges Holding Web3 Gaming Back
Even as Web3 gaming continues to grow at a rapid pace, several challenges continue to hinder said growth. For starters, scalability. With Web3 games primarily being built on one of several popular blockchain platforms, increased activity has led to issues such as high transaction costs and long transaction completion times.
Regulatory concerns are also hindering the rise of the Web3 gaming space. This stems from a lack of concrete blockchain regulatory regimes in many jurisdictions. Atop scalability and regulatory challenges, there's also the matter of accessibility and user experience (or UX. Critics may be wrong when it comes to dismissing the Web3 gaming growth trend, but they are right on the money when it comes to pointing out setup complexity and inadequate user friendliness.
Fortunately, while these issues have yet to be resolved, there are several key trends and factors at play that could, going forward, help to mitigate these issues. In turn, this will help to foster continued high growth, perhaps even drive an acceleration in Web3 user adoption.
Promising Trends, Developments, and Opportunities
Although the majority of Web3 gaming is hosted/conducted on just three platforms, these are hardly the "only game in town" when it comes to providing the fast and cost-effective infrastructure necessary to develop and host such games.
However, beyond efforts from these existing platforms to increase their scalability, there are also several up-and-coming platforms that are known for their scalability advantages. A prime example is Solana, a Level 1 blockchain. Through the use of both proof-of-history (PoH) and proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain consensus mechanisms, this platform can process thousands of transactions per second versus around 15 transactions per second with Ethereum.
Given these speed and cost advantages, which have contributed to Solana being coined the "Ethereum killer," it's no surprise that experts anticipate the platform, and Solana (SOL), the platform's native cryptocurrency, to continue growing in popularity and usage over the next few years. Out of 535 users surveyed on Binance, 46.36% of them hold a very bullish sentiment toward SOL's future price predictions.
Regarding regulatory concerns, recent political developments point to a rapid implementation of a pro-growth blockchain regulatory regime, particularly in the United States. This could provide a further boost for Web3 gaming growth. As for concerns related to UX, the mainstream gaming industry's move into Web3 could lead to more seamless integration of blockchain technology into gaming, as well as improvements to user access, UX, and ease of use.
A Gaming Revolution, Courtesy of Web3
Besides transferable in-game assets, Web3 gaming could revolutionize the space in many other ways. For example, games built on Web3 have capabilities for features such as pay-to-earn (P2E) models and can be governed by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Such features could increase user engagement, which in turn could materially increase game longevity.
More than a passing fad or a "forced meme," Web3 gaming represents the future of the industry. As user adoption keeps rising and the mainstream video game industry takes notice, one should take notice as well.
