Play-to-earn crypto games have exploded in 2021 and will continue to gain traction in 2022. These games allow players to earn real-world income by exploring the metaverse and completing missions and quests.
However, one of the biggest problems is finding a game that helps you earn for more than a short period.
Well, we’ve hunted and found five of the best play-to-earn crypto games in 2022 for you.
The Best Play to Earn Crypto Games in 2022
- Silks – A Web3 fantasy game set in the real world of thoroughbred horse racing
- Axie Infinity – A popular P2E game to battle little NFT monsters
- My Neighbor Alice – A light-hearted farming and building game
- The Sandbox – A Minecraft-styled metaverse created by users
- Star Atlas – An MMRPG space exploration metaverse
A Closer Look at the Best Play to Earn Crypto Games
1. Silks
Silks is the world’s first derivatives-based play-to-earn metaverse that mirrors the real world of thoroughbred horseracing. It is a virtual world where players can experience the thrill and responsibility of owning a thoroughbred racehorse and earn from the economy surrounding horse racing.
Using derivatives, Silks bridges the gap between the real world and the crypto/NFT world. You might have heard of derivatives in the Bitcoin Futures market. These are trading vehicles used to track the actual price of BTC to allow traders to utilize leverage and speculate on the price of Bitcoin without owning the underlying asset.
The concept is relatively similar to the derivatives in Silks.
The derivatives part of the ecosystem works by taking real-world data of living thoroughbred racehorses and linking them to NFTs on the blockchain. The data inputted into the NFTs include the purebred bloodline, training progress, and racing results.
If the real racehorse wins its races or breeds offspring, your Silk Horse derivative NFTs will earn rewards.
The diverse metaverse of Silks contains the following types of NFTs;
- The Racing Silks avatars
- Silks Horses
- Silks Lands
- Silks Stables
The Silks Avatars are digital uniforms that represent the identity of the individual racehorse owners in the metaverse. Every player must acquire a Silks Avatar NFT to get started in the metaverse.
The Silks Genesis Avatars were launched in April 2022 and quickly became an all-time top#15 best-selling Ethereum Sports NFT on OpenSea. The Silks Genesis Avatars became popular as top investment firms and NFT communities, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders, quickly bought them up. The NFTs were also ranked in the Top 50 Gaming NFTs by Nansen.Ai.
In response to the incredible demand, Silks has decided to release another 5,000 Genesis Avatars to the public, with the first mint expected to go ahead on July 29th, 2022. In this mint, every Avatar purchased will also automatically receive a claim for a one acre land parcel in the Silks metaverse, so long as they hold their Avatars for at least 45 days.
The Silk Horse NFTs are the 1:1 replicas of real-world thoroughbred racehorses. If the NFT attached to your racehorse wins, you earn in-game rewards in $STT. In addition, you are also rewarded if the racehorse breeds offspring in the real world.
The Silks metaverse is 202,500 acres of virtual land that horse owners can purchase to house their horses. In addition, landowners can earn rewards by staking their horses on the farm.
The Silk Stables are used to house the horses. Users can earn through these stables by taking care of other players’ Silk Horse NFTs.
On top of all this, players can earn $SLK by verifying real-world horse racing and breeding data in a mining process. The real-world horseraces are logged through the miners onto the blockchain and are verified through a consensus. Miners are incentivized with a $SLK reward to participate honestly.
The great thing about investing in Silks NFTs is that horse racing does well in all market conditions – even during recessions. This makes Silks a great hedge against upcoming market conditions. According to the Silks whitepaper, almost $11 billion is wagered on horse racing each year, and the industry is currently having a record year in terms of horse Sales prices and prize purses at the races.
Overall, Silks is an excellent skill-based game that promotes collaboration between the NFT owners to optimize rewards and offset risk. You will need knowledge, skill, and a little luck to earn solid returns in this game. Join their Discord to take part in the conversation and learn more.
2. Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is perhaps one of the most popular play-to-earn games in the cryptocurrency space. The game had around 2.7 million daily active users at the start of January 2022. Even during the 2022 bear market, when returns started to fall, Axie Infinity managed to hold on to almost 800,000 daily players.
Launched on the Ethereum blockchain by Sky mavis in March 2018, Axie Infinity is a metaverse that allows users to earn a source of income through playing inside the metaverse. Similar to the Pokemon games from yesteryear, users on Axie Infinity collect little digital NFT pets which can be bred, trained, and battled against other players to earn money in the game.
In the battle, players go head-to-head in a 3v3 Axie Infinity fight. Using a turn-based action-styled version of gameplay, the two battlers fight it out to see which pet monster comes out on stop.
The stats of each individual Axie monster judges the winner in each battle. The four primary key stats in Axie Infinity are;
- Health
- Skill
- Speed
- Morale
Players can improve these stats by completing the daily missions in the metaverse created by the team. Alternatively, players can purchase items from the marketplace to enhance their chances of winning battles.
Players earn a token called Small Love Potion (SLP) when they win battles or complete the daily missions in the metaverse. They can use SLP to buy NFT items on the marketplace or sell them for AXS tokens.
Overall, Axie Infinity is an excellent play-to-earn game that has provided a reliable source of income for millions of players over the past two years.
3. My Neighbor Alice
My Neighbor Alice is a charming NFT metaverse play to earn multiplayer builder game.
The metaverse offers a similar gameplay style to the Farmville games seen during the early days of Facebook in 2008.
In the game, players start by buying plots of land to farm and build on. They begin with small fields that can be customized, cultivated, and farmed to earn in-game money.
Players can customize their land by using NFTs purchased through the NFT marketplace. Anything that is used to customize the farm is an NFT, which includes items such as;
- Trees
- Plants
- Flowers
- Crops
- Animals
- Furniture
Players can also use the Game Builder and NFT Creator to create personalized NFTs to use on their farms or sell in the marketplace.
There are many ways to earn a source of income in the game. One of the main methods is farming. Users must plant crops, keep them well-watered, and harvest them to sell. If that seems too difficult, you can rent out your land for other players to farm on.
Another method of earning in the game is using NFT animals’ special abilities. For example, harvested cotton can be spun into a thread through specific skills of some animals. Other animals can weave the thread into fabric and dye it with custom colors. Players can sell these items on the marketplace for a higher value.
Once a player has started to customize and cultivate their own farm, they can visit their neighbors’ farms to socialize and play games together. In addition, users can participate in fun daily activities to earn additional in-game rewards.
4. The Sandbox
The Sandbox is a creative game where players can make the metaverse using ready-made preset templates created by the team.
Similar to the Minecraft games, The Sandbox aims to lower the barrier of entry to the metaverse industry for non-tech savvy players.
Players can buy land in the metaverse to create User Generated Content and earn inside the game.
The team has created a suite of tools to simplify the process of creating User Generated Content and make it accessible to everybody, regardless of previous coding experience.
One of the popular tools to create content is called VoxEdit. It allows players to develop NFT items, called ASSETs, without knowing how to code. Players can create anything from plants to decorate land, to highly-detailed spaceships using their lego-like block building infrastructure. There are five main categories of ASSETs that players can create using VoxEdit;
- Entities – These are non-playable characters (NPCs), such as dogs, dragons, or farmers.
- Equipment – Objects that help players complete quests, such as weapons or armor.
- Wearables – Items to customize avatars such as sneakers and clothes.
- Art – Objects with a decorative function, such as statues and paintings.
- Blocks – Objects such as water and lava to change surrounding environments.
These ASSETs created in VoxEdit can then be converted into NFTs and sold on the marketplace for $SAND tokens.
Another tool to create User Generated Content is The Sandbox Game Maker. It allows players to create gaming experiences on their plots of land without needing any coding experience.
Using the Game Maker, players can create 3D games they can host on their land for other players to experience. For example, a player could create an online Dodgeball experience and charge other users to play and enjoy the experience.
Other types of gaming experiences created by users include;
- Action games
- Adventure games
- Puzzle games
- Social hangout spaces
- Theatre/movie experiences.
The marketplace is also a great platform to earn from by buying and selling in-game NFTs for a profit. Top brands such as Adidas and Snoop Dogg are already creating assets in The Sandbox, and flipping these NFTs can bring substantial gains.
Other methods of earning money on The Sandbox are renting your land to allow other players to host experiences or selling the land for profit when it rises in value over time.
5. Star Atlas
Star Atlas is a multiplayer online RPG NFT metaverse game. Set in the year 2620, Star Atlas allows players to explore the depths of outer space and discover new planets with hidden NFT treasures.
In the game, players can choose to join one of the three main factions that are competing for resources across the universe;
- Extraterrestrial aliens
- Sentient Robots
- Humans
Players can choose to build civilizations on these newly discovered planets or dominate other planets through war or politics.
There are many different methods of earning in the game through the various features of gameplay. As Star Atlas is built using Unreal Engine 5, the mechanics of gameplay rival top-tier games such as Call of Duty or Fortnite.
Some of the features of gameplay include;
- Strategy and space exploration
- Player-vs-player (PvP) fights for territory control
- Building space stations and ships
- Creating alliances with other players
- Player vs. Environment (PvE) missions
- Vehicle and fleet control
One of the main methods of earning is through player-vs-player (PvP) combat. In this gameplay style, players are Playing-for-Keys (PfK) of different NFTs used in combat. It is a high-risk, high-reward method of earning, where you put the full value of your NFT ships on the line as you fight to see who wins. Of course, the loser must hand their NFTs to the winner.
All of the NFTs found in the gameplay can be flipped for a profit in the universal marketplace.
Conclusion
To conclude, all the P2E games on this list will provide you with hours of fun and real-world earnings.
In our opinion, Silks is the best P2E game by far due to its unique derivatives economics that pays rewards from real-world horseracing events. This will guarantee earnings for the long-term if you pick your NFTs and horses wisely.
