NFT Game Crosses Milestone: Over $1B In Sales

An Ethereum ETH/USD-based NFT game has crossed a major milestone recording over $1billion in sales.

What happened: The play-to-earn game Axie Infinity features colorful NFT characters which gamers purchase to engage in battle with others. According to NFT analytics site CryptoSlam, the game has recorded over $1.04 billion in all-time sales with over 2.4 million transactions

Players can initially purchase the digital pets, called Axies, using Ethereum with a Metamask crypto wallet. Axies can cost hundreds of dollars apiece, and a player needs three axies to take part in the game. Successful gamers are then able to gain additional funds by winning battles. Axie Infinity has hosted 324,850 buyers and 936,065 axie owners, according to a report from Decrypt.

“It’s official,” the Axie Infinity Twitter account said on Friday. “More than 1M daily active players. Let’s keep pushing, together.” 

What Else: Developer Sky Mavis created the video game which allows players to collect profits through buying, breeding and selling axies. Each one is minted as an NFT, enabling players to verify the authenticity of the digital creature in the blockchain.

The popularity of the game has been recently spiking. Almost a fifth of Axie Infinity's sales took place in the past week and three quarters occurred in the past month. Axie Infinity’s in-game token AXS AXS/USD is currently priced at $42.53.

The second best-selling NFT game is NBA Top Shot—the basketball trading card game, which has recorded $675 million in all-time sales—and Ethereum-based CryptoPunks, has brought in $657 million.