Investor funding in web3 games drops 71% amid macro headwinds: DappRadar
Blockchain gaming funding plunged in Q1, with total investments falling 71% quarter-over-quarter, data shows.
Web3 gaming took a hit in the first quarter as global markets faced pressure from trade wars and rising geopolitical tensions. Data from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar shows that web3 gaming investments fell by 71% quarter-over-quarter to $91 million, though deal count grew by 35%.
Blockchain gaming recorded 5.8 million daily unique active wallets in Q1, down 6% from the previous quarter, according to the data. Despite the drop, Sara Gherghelas, DappRadar’s blockchain analyst, says opBNB remained “firmly in the lead as the most used gaming blockchain this quarter.”
It wasn’t just gaming investments that cooled — metaverse activity slowed too, with NFT trading volume dropping 28%, Gherghelas said. Even so, infrastructure remains a top priority for investors. Key rounds this quarter included $20 million for MARBLEX, $13.5 million for Beamable, and $10 million for The Game Company, all focused on building tools and backends for scalable gameplay.
The DappRadar analyst notes that the majority of funding this quarter “went into infrastructure-focused projects, which reinforces a long-standing truth in web3 gaming: strong infrastructure is essential for scalable, high-quality gaming experiences.”
And while overall activity and capital inflows “dipped due to broader market headwinds,” Gherghelas says the “increased number of deals, ongoing development of infrastructure, and the consistent performance of top games” still demonstrate signs of a “resilient and evolving ecosystem.”
As crypto.news reported earlier, the broader NFT market didn’t fare much better in 2024. Trading volume fell to $13.7 billion, down from $16.8 billion in 2023 — the lowest since 2020, while trading activity declined 19%, and total NFT sales dropped to 49.8 million from over 60 million a year earlier.
