NFT video game Splinterlands has broken its own records for active players. Numbers for Splinterlands users topped 500,000 in a single week for the first time since the title launched.
A total of 520,000 active wallets signed in to the game during the week ending 17th October 2021. The increase in players was in part driven by the new Chaos Legion expansion, which took place this past weekend. Collectively, these players accounted for a staggering 23million transactions.
Every new card pack has acted as a boon to Splinterlands’ popularity. However, this latest add-on is particularly appealing. The new series of trading cards — backbone of the actual gameplay — guarantee all players at least one Rare card. Additionally, Chaos Legion, like previous expansions, offers an opportunity for players to try out new characters.
Will Splinterlands Users Stay at the Same Level?
In a single phrase; almost categorically ‘No’. For one thing, gaming platforms usually expect a spike in activity when they introduce new features or expansion packs. Secondly, no gaming platform on the planet plans for flatlining user numbers. Simply put, we expect Splinterlands users to grow in the coming weeks and months.
Whether Splinterlands’ numbers can and will continue to grow as they have in the past eight weeks is another question altogether, though. Back in July, the game was registering between 50,000 and 100,000 active wallets each week. In August this jumped significantly, thanks to the launch of the SPS governance token and staking mechanism.
In order to acquire one of the new Chaos Legion packs, players must stake SPS tokens. In return, they receive vouchers, allowing them to buy new card packs at $4 each. If that sounds steep, consider the fact these new cards effectively guarantee gamers will receive at least one valuable card for their investment.
Splinterlands and Blockchain Gaming
While the numbers for Splinterlands users look impressive, they represent a fraction of the overall blockchain gaming activity. Albeit a sizeable fraction and a key driver behind sector growth.
In Q3 this year, playable platforms on ‘the chain’ attracted more than 1.5milliom active users each day. When it comes to daily users on Splinterlands, September recorded an average of 245,000 unique wallets per day, a 3,267% increase on the last quarter.
However, the landscape remains filled with obstacles for this nascent end of the games scene. Last week we reported on how Steam, one of the world’s largest video game marketplaces, had banned all blockchain games and titles that allow the exchange of crypto, including NFTs. Nevertheless, with titles like Axie Infinity seeing user numbers grow by 92%, clearly the demand is there.
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