Breaking: Axie Infinity Lost 1 Million Daily Active Users In the Last 4 Months!

Above screengrab taken from the Axie Growth Data spreadsheet 

When we last checked in with Axie Infinity, widely touted as the model of "play-to-earn", NFT/blockchain-based games, it had dropped from 1.3 million daily active users in April to under 600,000 in June. That's a huge drop, but 600K DAU is still quite impressive, ranking it (for example) in the top 20 of Google Play mobile games by daily usage. 

Since then, however, DAU rates have continued plummeting -- from under 600K DAU at the beginning of June, to under 300K DAU as of yesterday. 

If you pull back the camera to April, 16 weeks ago, the drop in usage is even greater:

At the start of April, Axie Infinity had 1,451,599 DAU.

Now in July with less than 300K DAU, Axie Infinity has roughly as much daily active users as, well, Second Life.

We know this thanks to this Axie Growth Data spreadsheet on Google that Aleksander Leonard Larsen, COO of Axie publisher Sky Mavis, shared with me in June. At the time, another Sky Mavis team member told me that the drop in usage was due to "[A] major transition period in our game, narrative, and economy, as well as it being a macro bear market."

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🏖️ #LunacianSummer🌞

We’re delighted to unveil the hottest breeding event Lunacia has ever seen!

Starting now, a variety of special summer skins can be bred through selective, sweaty Axie breeding.

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— Axie Infinity🦇🔊 (@AxieInfinity) July 14, 2022

That might be the case, but then again, Axie just had a major Summer event ("the hottest breeding event Lunacia has ever seen!") and the bear market should not have any direct relationship to actual gameplay.

On Twitter, I've seen some Axie Infinity developers protest scrutiny like this on their game, which is still technically in beta. Then again, many people have put much money into the game and its associated NFTs; even more crucially, people in the Philippines and other developing nations have come to depend on the game for their real life livelihood. 

Comments

[TonyVT Skarredghost]

Oh no, NFTs are not making their game fun! Who would have ever said that...