Best Play to Earn Games for NFT and Crypto [Gamefi Review]

If you are looking for the top play to earn (P2E) games, you have come to the right place. We have compiled a list of all the best nft games available in various cryptocurrencies. Many of these games have slightly different mechanics to earn income. Some of them need an initial investment to get in, while others are free to play. Keep in mind that most of the time, the rewards you get are usually in the form of cryptocurrency or an NFT.

The biggest thing that separate traditional games from blockchain play to earn games is that you are rewarded for your time and effort. However, some people may look to exploit the system, causing big pump and dumps, which is something you definitely want to be aware of when it comes to P2E games.

Below is a the top 10 P2E games we have compiled for you to help you make a decision whether you would like to invest in them or not. The list will change as we continually update as new games with potential come out.

Top 10 Best Blockchain NFT Games

Defi Kingdoms

DeFi Kingdoms is a cross-chain, play-to-earn MMORPG built on a strong DeFi protocol. The game features DEXs, liquidity pool opportunities, and a market of rare, utility-driven NFTs, which all together create a beautiful, immersive online world in the incredibly nostalgic form of fantasy pixel art. DeFi Kingdoms lives on the Harmony and DFK Chain blockchains.

Defi Kingdoms is the first game to incorporate Defi and gaming elements together in crypto. They also started their collaboration with Avalanche and more have partnerships to come. You can collect some cool pixel heroes that have specific professions that you can do to help you gain more in game currency. If you do not want to play the game, you can just invest in their Defi elements such as staking JEWEL or participating in the liquidity pools to earn decent APRs.

Their community is also very active and do giveaways weekly in the discord channel to encourage players to participate. It is growing rapidly and will continue to do so as they expand to other networks.

Crabada

Crabada is an Undersea world filled with fierce fighting Hermit-Crabs called Crabada. Crabada can be bred, and used in games to earn cryptocurrencies with real value. Rediscover the prosperous ancient Hermit-Crab Kingdom once ruled by Crustaco, King of the Crabada. Recruit loyal followers to your cause. Harvest precious resources from mines, and breed new warriors for your army. Loot enemies or humble miners unaware, claiming your rightful share of their riches.

The game is quite simple. So if you are into idle games in the traditional gaming scene, this one will peak your interest. Your crabs can be rented out to other players to earn in game rewards if making money is your thing. The fun part is creating a strong team of crabs to defend your mine or try and loot other players with your team.

The barrier of entry to the game is quite high though, so it may not be for players who would like to play on a budget.

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is a game universe filled with fascinating creatures, Axies, that players can collect as pets. Players aim to battle, breed, collect, raise, and build kingdoms for their Axies. The universe has a player-owned economy where players can truly own, buy, sell, and trade resources they earn in the game through skilled-gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem.

There are and will be many varied games experiences for Axies. Many of them will have players compete with each other using complex strategies and tactics to attain top rankings or be rewarded with coveted resources. Others will have them complete quests, defeat bosses, and unlock in-depth storylines.

One of the biggest attractions of the game is that you can farm Smooth Love Potion (SLP) to earn an income from their PvP system. The game is quite popular in developing countries, as it has helped the locals earn a decent living from just playing the game. The barrier of entry is low, although trying to compete in the highest levels will require quite some investment.

The team, Sky Mavis, is always trying to improve their in game economy. They developed their own sidechain, Ronin, to avoid the high transaction fees on Ethereum, which is bad for high volume transaction games. As they are the first blockchain game to gain huge popularity, a lot of pressure is on the team to keep it stable as its success or failure will determine the direction of gamefi.

Bomb Crypto

The Bomb Crypto is a Bomb game experiences to NFT collectibles on the blockchain by BCOIN. Players can collect, fight monsters and trade them for real money. The Bomb Crypto game is in the Play-To-Earn genre, where players manage a group of bomb heroes of cyborgs programmed to search for BCOIN and fight monsters. Each bomb hero has different stats, if you’re lucky you can find bomb heroes with good stats to sell or upgrade them to increase performance and combat ability.

One of the biggest attractions of the game is the treasure hunt mode, where you deploy your bombers to help you earn BCOIN. The time investment isn’t very high and requires very little maintenance aside from letting the program run on your browser or mobile phone. The adventure mode is where you take a more active approach where you need to control your bomber to fight bosses to earn extra rewards.

This gives the player a choice to be as active or passive as they want, depending on their time availability. The downside of the game is the volatile price of BCOIN, which can make or break your investment if that is what you care about the most.

Gods Unchained

Gods Unchained is a free-to-play trading card game where players compete in epic duels using fantasy cards.
The game is built to fundamentally change how games work; using Ethereum technology to bring true digital
ownership to players, as well as provide the means to earn items that actually matter.

Helmed by Chris Clay, former game director of Magic: The Gathering Arena, Gods Unchained provides a dynamic and competitive experience with a strong focus on strategy. Over 3 years of engineering and development has been put into Gods Unchained by a talented team with career experience from gaming giants such as EA Games, Riot Games, Wizards of the Coast, and more.

The $GODS token is designed to be the core currency of Gods Unchained, fuelling the ecosystem that
empowers players to earn and sell Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

One of the key attractions of Gods Unchained is that it is entirely free to play. It is possible to climb up the high ranks of the arena purely on skill. However, you will need to dedicate a lot of time to do so. Since this is a card battle game, your primary goal is to create a deck that suits your playstyle and adapt as you challenge other players in ranked matches.

The game is very beginner friendly and they give you a “Welcome Set” to help you get going. Eventually, you will earn some income in the form of their currency GODS, flux and cards as prizes. There are quite a few playstyles such as control deck, mid range, aggro, combo and so on. Try them to see which one suits you the best.

Every weekend, players are rewarded  with core packs and packs from the latest set based on their rank plus number of wins in their first 25 matches. Although rare, it is possible to get Legendary packs.

Townstar

Townstar is a play-to-earn farming game by Gala Games (co-founder of Zynga Games). Players build their Town to produce resources that can earn them Town Coin, which is the game’s cryptocurrency. It is built on the Ethereum network.

In the game, your main goal is to get 1000 stars as part of the daily quest. Upon quest completion, players receive 1 Town Coin as a reward with real monetary value. This can be done by producing resources in a Town. You then sell the resources to the nearest city. You can play this on your desktop or mobile phones, which is a key attraction in having a growing player base.

The graphics resembles much of Farmville and the game actually requires you to strategize the most effective way to earn resources. You can compete with other players in contests to earn more in game currency. There is a long waiting time for buildings to finish as you progress through the game, so that can halt your progression if you don’t plan carefully.

Thetan Arena

Thetan Arena is an e-sport game based on Blockchain technology. You can gather your friends, form a team, battle with others and earn token rewards with just your skills. Thetan Arena’s gameplay is designed to revolve around the combination of your personal skills and teamwork. Challenge yourself with various game modes: MOBA & Battle Royale.

One of the main attractions of Thetan Arena is that you can join for free and play to earn. While you may not make a lot from zero investment, it does give you some in game cryptocurrencies. The fun part comes when you do invest in getting some heroes and try and earn the investment back and more. Skill and teamwork is definitely required in this game. You cannot pay your way to victory here.

Learning the key mechanics of the game will be easy if you have played the mobile game Brawlstars before. Each hero has a different playing style and the goal is to find one or two that fits your playstyle. You also get to pick to sub skills to give you an advantage on top of the hero’s special. The Thetan Arena team are also trying to balance the game and that will always be a tough task, especially when money is involved.

Decentraland

Decentraland is a user-owned, Ethereum-based virtual world where you can play, explore, and interact with games and activities. You can also purchase parcels of land on which to build your own environments, marketplaces, and applications. Decentraland’s three native tokens — MANA, LAND, and Estate — all play a unique role in furnishing the Decentraland economy. The platform is governed by its users through the Decentraland DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization.

The key attraction for players is that they can buy a virtual assets and grow them as a business. For example, you can build buildings or attractions on virtual plots of land. Then, users can earn income or sell to others for a profit. The social aspect of the game is what makes it interesting, since it is basically Minecraft but you actually get to build something cool and earn income on the side. Aside from buying/selling land, you can create art or clothing and sell for a profit. Playing in the casino (for gambling degenerates) or working as a freelancer (modeling, coding, creating videos, marketing etc.) are ways to earn income as well.

The barrier of entry is relatively low. So unlike some games where it will cost you thousands to get in the door, Decentraland works for both with high and low budget players.

Splinterlands

Splinterlands is a unique digital trading card game that allows players to truly own their cards and other in-game assets. Thanks to web 3.0 technology powered by the HIVE blockchain, each card in Splinterlands is a non-fungible token owned by a player. That means that players can do anything they want with their cards, including battling for rewards, holding as collectibles, trading on the peer-to-peer market, combining to level up, or even burning to obtain Dark Energy Crystals, the official in-game cryptocurrency of Splinterlands.

While Splinterlands is free to play, you cannot really start earning until you actually unlock the Summoners Spellbook ($10 USD). That would be the minimum investment for you to start earning. Since this is a battle card game, you have to choose which element Summoner you want as they have their own buffs and debuffs. Some examples are life drain, heal, increase attack power, decrease attack power, decrease hp and so on. After that, you want to choose your monsters of your Summoner element and neutral monsters.

The primary goal after is to build a card line-up that suits your own playstyle and go from there. As you progress, you will learn more about the card mechanics and all the card abilities that may or may not help your deck.

Chikn

Exclusive to Avalanche🔺, chikn is a permanently expanding NFT and Gaming ecosystem. Built on the stability of our original Tri-Token architecture, chikn is designed to create a perpetual value-loop and liquidity growth. Not only for chikn, but also for all future NFT projects & play-to-earn games to launch on chikn.farm.

Chikn is one of the fun idle games that you can play and earn income at the same time. The premise of the game is very easy. Buy a chikn, lay some $egg. Stake your $egg, farm some $feed. $feed your chikn, make it Biggr. Biggr chikn lay more $egg, repeat. $EGG is the governance and utility token of the Chikn ecosystem. $EGG is the fuel for the upgradable NFT revolution on Avalanche.

This game does require some investment to get started and is not free to play. Since they only have 10,000 Chikn NFTs, it is valuable to own them so they can help you lay eggs. Prices are subject to market volatility, so investing for a longer period of time will reduce the risk since you are earning in game currency to reduce your cost basis.

The game doesn’t require much time, so it is perfect for busy people that just want to play some idle game to kill time and perhaps earn income on the side.

NFT Game List

Here is a list of some upcoming decent games with potential that are already out or is planning to be out that you could follow.

Pegaxy

Pegaxy is a play-to-earn PVP style horse racing game where players compete for top 3 placement against 11 other racers. Each race has randomised elemental variables which include wind, water, fire, speed and more. Using strategic upgrades, food and skill, players must place in the top 3 to earn the platforms utility token, VIS (Vigorus).

If you ever liked horse racing in the real world, this game will be the one that you want to pay attention to. You get to race horses, be a horse breeder and trading horses all in one game. There are global competitions that you get to participate in “The Grand Dash”.

This competition takes place over 12 months, concluding in December, in which the top 12 racers of every class (60 total/month), compete in a series of events until the top 15 racers are identified at the Grand final in December (top 3 of each class). The top 15 will receive generous PGX rewards.

DogeDash

DogeDash is a Mario Run inspired game where anyone can earn coins through skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem. The aim of the game is simple. Dash as fast as you can through all of the 10 levels whilst collecting coins along the way. Successful players who complete all levels will be rewarded with the collected coins direct to their wallets. Simple.

Aside from its similarity to Mario Run, this is a also very casual play to earn game that resembles Flappy Bird on mobile as well. The only difference is that you can earn some income off it. It is also a good introductory game for people that are starting to get into crypto to get used to using their digital wallets and connect to start playing.

Compared to other games, the barrier of entry to this game is super low. Setting up Metamask is all you need. No need to do any buying or transferring of cryptocurrencies on various platforms.

Illuvium

One of the most anticipated AAA game that people are really hype for. This have been developed for quite a while and it will take time to get it to a public release.

You take the role of a survivor of a transport vessel in an intergalactic space fleet, investigating a perplexing distress beacon. When you finally reach the origin of the call, you discover a ruined planet, possibly the mythical cradle of your race’s civilization.

Crawling free from the wreckage, you discover majestic beasts, some with near godlike power. Could this be what caused the downfall of this planet? Luckily, your race has begun to master the same energy that the Illuvials harness, and you are able to capture and control the deity-like fauna into slivers of crystal called Shards, mined from the planet’s surface. To uncover the mysteries of the planet, you become a Hunter, traveling across the land subduing and capturing Illuvials, and trying to unlock the Obelisks that keep most of the world closed off.

The graphics are breath-taking and it really puts you in fantasy world. The battle system is a grid based strategy game that your character and monsters can participate in. Your monsters will be in card form and you will see them get deployed into the battlefield to take out potential enemies.

MetaGods

MetaGods is the world’s first Play-To-Earn 8-bit Action RPG built on the blockchain. Trade and play with generative NFTs to vanquish dangerous monsters. Thrive in the biggest digital economy – and prepare for the most epic boss fight in the history of the metaverse.

This is the blockchain version of the Steam equivalent,  Realm of the Mad God . If you were already into pixel art shooter type games, then this game will draw you in. It has similar mechanics. You control a character with a special gun or weapon and you crawl dungeons to find loot and kill bosses that are trying to destroy you.

The cool thing they are allowing you to own land in the game that will allow you to collect loot taxes when players are fighting in the land you bought. You can be as active or passive as you want to be.

ERTHA

ERTHA is Heroes Of Might And Magic game-type inspired economic, social, MMO game based on exploring and investigating the world, levelling up, choosing specialisations, and increasing the strength of your character, company and country. The game is designed to replicate a real-life environment, simulating the actions that people have to perform to earn a living. Ertha’s globe consists of 350,000 HEX land plots, which can be purchased as an NFT.

If you played Age of Empires, Warcraft III and the HOMM series, then this game might peak your interest. While it won’t have the magical battles, it will have the same resource mechanics you see in these strategy games. You get to role play what you want. They even have land sales that you can buy from the real world map itself. It will be interesting to see how they manage the economy in game, granted they are trying to simulate what happens to the real world.

FAQs

What is Blockchain Gaming?

A blockchain game (also known as a NFT game or a crypto game) is a video game that includes elements that use cryptography-based blockchain technologies. Blockchain elements in these games are most often based on the use of cryptocurrency or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which players can buy, sell, or trade with other players, with the game publisher taking a fee from each transaction as a form of monetization.

The key attraction of blockchain gaming is rewarding players financially instead of what used to be exclusive to the corporate and businesses. A slice of the rewards are given to players, making it a win-win for both the creators and also the players. Although blockchain games have started to exist since 2017, it was not until 2021 where the scene started to come to life. Axie Infinity was the first game to breakout and become well known in the crypto world.

In traditional gaming, video game makers monetize their game by selling in game items, skins or customizations in exchange for cash. Because of this, grey/black markets have emerged as a result, where you can buy them from a 3rd party place. That is illegal in certain countries as it is seen as gambling.

Blockchain gaming bypasses that by directly allowing users of the game to buy in game items with cryptocurrencies. Since people are going to do it anyway, so why regulate it so hard?

This is where the criticism comes in about Blockchain gaming industry. Due to money being involved, it can be exploited easily as the cryptocurrency can easily have big gains and big dumps. This volatility has caused many to lose their money. However, blockchain gaming is also a direct competitor of traditional games. If this industry grows and succeeds, the market share of traditional gaming will go down, or perhaps go extinct or is forced to go into blockchain gaming.

Since this is still a growing industry, it may take many years before it becomes mainstream. Just take a look at video games back in the late 90s. It was something that was frowned upon as it was seen as a time waster and had a negative stigma to it. Fast forward to the 2010s, gaming is widely accepted and the eSports industry is huge and has fans that can rival traditional sports like NFL or NBA.

What is an NFT?

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded. Types of NFT data units may be associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and audio. Because each token is uniquely identifiable, NFTs differ from blockchain cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.

In the gaming space, the NFTs in this case would be a character, item, land, art or audio.

NFT ledgers claim to provide a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership, but the legal rights conveyed by an NFT can be uncertain. NFTs do not restrict the sharing or copying of the underlying digital files, do not necessarily convey the copyright of the digital files, and do not prevent the creation of NFTs with identical associated files.

NFTs by nature is very speculative. They can go up or down in value very quickly, making it hard for some investors to stomach. Jack Dorsey’s first twitter post was sold for $2.9 million. Since the concept is very new, many people tend to stay away from it. That is a good approach. Think about when the internet started to rise in the 90s. Sending an email to someone online instead of sending an actual written letter sounded absurd if you told your grandpa about it. Fast forward, to the 2000s, almost the majority of the world uses the smartphone and connect through texts.

We as humans are afraid of what we don’t know. It is human nature. These type of technology takes time to be integrated and accepted.

Fungible vs Non-Fungible

To understand NFTs, we will need to differentiate Fungible and Non-Fungible. For example, a fungible token can be exchanged without any particular changes. Bitcoin and Gold are fungible assets. They have the same market value since there is not a 1st edition of Bitcoin/Gold or the 69th edition.

A non-fungible token, on the other hand cannot be exchanged with another. Each one is unique and the equivalent in the real world would be a piece of art, antiques, classic stamps and so on.

For example, if you were to buy one of the heroes in Defi Kingdoms, you would own a unique hero that can farm items to help you earn $JEWEL, which is a fungible token that you can sell it for income.  In Gods Unchained, you can earn Legendary cards and those are extremely rare. Getting one of those cards can be sold in the marketplace for a lot of money.

It is not any different from owning a signed football of Cristiano Ronaldo with him posing in the picture. Some people will value that and want to own it.

Full Ownership of Your Assets

When you buy an NFT in a game or a cryptocurrency, it belongs to you. Nobody can take them away from you. Sure, the game or cryptocurrency may go bust and become worthless, but the assets will always belong to you.

The other cool thing is if you decide that you want to sell your NFT of a specific game and buy something else, you totally can. In traditional gaming, the things you buy are worthless and cannot be sold (unless you access black markets, which is usually illegal). When the blockchain gaming industry expands and various blockchain games start collaboration with each other, you can start to move your NFT from one to another.

What is a Metaverse?

A metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. In futurism and science fiction, it is often described as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets.

In the blockchain gaming scene, the metaverse is usually a fantasy world with characters, items and social interactions all intertwined together. If you are already a gamer, you are in this type of environment. Playing RPG games, action, first person shooter or any game that is multiplayer online is basically the ecosystem. I believe blockchain gaming is the next generation and we are transitioning to it.

On this website itself, it represents me and my partner’s vision of how this industry will expand and grow. We will be here to see it through. We built this site to help new users and recommend the top games to play.

How does Play To Earn (P2E) Gaming Work?

Play2Earn (play-to-earn) games refer to the concept of gaming in which a platform provides its players with a chance to earn any form of in-game assets that can be transferred to the real world as a valuable resource.

It is amazing where gaming has evolved. We went from game consoles, arcades, computers and then mobile. Now we moved into the metaverse and the concept of play to earn is the newest evolution.

The biggest thing about P2E is it gives players a chance to generate revenue by participating in the game. Players create value for other gamers and developers by engaging in the in-game ecosystem and earn assets for their contributions. Instead of just giving it to the business, it is shared with the community.

Anything that is new and innovative always has its dangers. Scams, pump and dump schemes will always be present when something new emerges. We will try our best to weed out games that aren’t good or are shady to prevent users from participating in a potential scam.

Why should I try P2E Gaming?

I think many are sceptical about this since it is so new and it does not help that cryptocurrencies have a bad reputation of scams and pump and dump schemes. P2E basically combines gaming, strategy, finance, investing, trading and learning about token economy all in one.

Just like in traditional investing, it takes time to research and proper risk management to succeed. It is no different in this space. If you were already interested in traditional investing, this industry should peak your interest. The only difference is that you have the option to now find games you are interested in and can have fun with AND potentially own assets that could produce income for you.

By trying it out, you will know immediately if this is something you like or it maybe too stressful for you. It doesn’t hurt to try and the barrier of entry is low for most games.