From General to Specialized, How Game Chain Reshapes the Web3 Gaming Ecosystem | Gate Research Institute

Abstract

• Development Background: The ecological chain of GameFi is longer than that of DeFi, from game studios to choosing public chains, to platform promotion, and then to player communities, each link is crucial. DeFi products often innovate on existing product forms, making code reuse easier. Therefore, for general-purpose public chains, quickly establishing a DeFi ecosystem is almost a necessity, while establishing a GameFi ecosystem is an option.

• Public Chain Value: Game-specific public chains can compensate for the shortcomings of general public chains in terms of ecosystem resources. Game public chains are often initiated by industry veterans who possess certain game studio resources, focusing on the experience of gamers while also emphasizing the distribution of benefits among studios and promotional channels.

• Competitive Landscape: From the perspective of daily active addresses, the Ronin public chain ranks first among gaming-specific public chains, with its daily active addresses stabilizing around 500,000 as of March 2025. In terms of transaction volume, the WAX public chain has maintained the top position for the past three months (including other general-purpose public chains), with a stable transaction count of 5 million per day.

• WAX Development Review: During the NFT boom from 2021 to 2022, the core team of the WAX public chain made a significant profit. Therefore, from an operational perspective, the team has shown obvious signs of "lying flat" in the last three years, with NFT sales for the entire year of 2024 projected to be only 5 million dollars.

• Immutable Development Review: The Immutable project has consistently adhered to a development path of "high investment and high output". From the perspective of strategic execution, the team's agile response to market changes and the efficiency of implementing leading IP blockchain transformation solutions both validate its pragmatic and efficient operational genes.

• Ronin Development Review: 2024 is a year of transition for the Ronin gaming ecosystem, with The Machines Arena, Lumiterra, and Apeiron all launching on the Ronin chain this year, showcasing impressive data performance and maintaining the popularity of the Ronin ecosystem.

• Future Outlook: From the development history of Web2 games, high-quality game studios will have the opportunity to grow into monopolistic oligarchs in the industry (such as Blizzard Entertainment and Game Science), while internet companies with strong financial power will also expand their business into the gaming field and become leaders in the gaming industry (such as Tencent and NetEase). The Web3 domain has similar situations, as Sky Mavis, with its hit game Axie Infinity, gradually advances from a game studio to a giant in the Ronin gaming ecosystem; meanwhile, general-purpose public chains like Polygon, with their strong financial capabilities, have also released several influential games.

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