In today’s digitized world, gaming is becoming increasingly more relevant. The average gamer spends 8+ hours per week playing in the digital realm. Competitive gaming, or ‘Esports’ is increasingly part of mainstream culture, as revenues for platforms are projected to exceed $1bn this year. As gaming intersects with crypto, we are observing a new version of the play-to-earn (P2E) paradigm – call it P2E 2.0. In contrast to previous P2E games, where only the most competitive tournament players could earn from their passion, every gamer earns by playing in the emerging crypto-powered version of P2E. The addition of crypto tokens to fundamental game dynamics is what could enable P2E 2.0 to break out to a mass audience.This is primarily achieved by connecting the economics of the game with real-world finance, and by making in-game assets own-able and transferable on a blockchain.

The pandemic significantly accelerated the P2E 2.0 movement as people were at once bored at home and often without their usual source of income – what better in that situation than an online game that not just provides entertainment, but a stream of income? This mini documentary shows how Axie Infinity is supporting or even entirely substituting the income of struggling households in emerging markets during COVID. P2E 2.0 games are onboarding an entire new class of users to crypto, and are therefore crucial for the cryptocurrency industry at large. In this piece, we’re analysing some major games that have emerged up to this point, and especially look into the mechanisms they employ.