Surpassing the overall sales of $3 billion, Axie Infinity gained an unbelievable increase in trades this year. Sky Mavis created the blockchain game Axie Infinity. But analysts at Naavik also explained that in their recent study, they have noticed a sudden fall in the daily earnings of Axie Infinity players. Naavik is a research, advisory, consulting firm. ‘Scholars’ are these players.
Many of the earnings even went below the minimum wage line of some countries. This is particular in the Philippines where most Axie Infinity scholars invest in the network. So they can earn for their daily living generally. This is due to the challenges brought about by the pandemic.
About Axie Infinity
Sky Mavis developed the blockchain game Axie Infinity in 2018. Sky Mavis’s headquarters is located in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Axie Infinity’s design is based on the Ethereum. Currently, among all the video games hosted in a distributed ledger board, it is one of the most popular. According to the recent reports from Dappradar.com, the blockchain-based game received $3.23 billion worth of NFTs or non-fungible tokens. Sky Mavis also recently revealed that they will be launching a native decentralized exchange for Axie Infinity called Katana.
The Analysis
Lars Doucet, a Naavik researcher reported that Axie Infinity have been showing a good state of growth in this year’s first half. However, when it comes to the daily earnings of the regular players, it is significantly shrinking. Doucet, together with Aaron Bush, Anthony Pecorella, Abhimanyu Kumar, and Jimmy Stone conducted a study about gaming platforms on NFT.
The study they published discusses Axie Infinity being a provider. A provider of either “infinite opportunities” or “infinite problems” through Twitter posts and threads. In the example by Doucet, an Axie Infinity player or what is called a ‘scholar’ in the Philippines received lesser earnings after months of outstanding growth. Scholars are Axie Infinity players that could not also afford to buy a minimum of three Axies. Axies and pokemons have similarities. However, axies are NFT-based virtual creatures. Players need these creatures for them to participate in a game. Scholars loan these Axies from sponsors who also receive a portion of the earnings.
According to a survey conducted by the Naavik team, the majority of scholars who play Axie Infinity originate from low-income areas. They make “earning money” their primary reason for completing Axie Infinity daily duties and adventures, which is why people consider Axie Infinity as work rather than a game. Though the Naavik researchers do not believe this is a bad concept of the blockchain-based game. It does impact how people see Axie Infinity in comparison to other virtual games.
