Crypto collectibles are non-fungible tokens. This means they are unique and cannot be interchanged like cryptocurrencies. Just like all new tennis balls are fungible (effectively interchangeable), until one is signed by Roger Federer, and becomes a unique collectible. At which point you can make money by selling it.
Last week we looked at gross earnings for three of the most popular Ethereum collectible games: CryptoKitties, Gods Unchained and My Crypto Heros. This week, we’re deducting how much players spent, to determine net revenues.
In each game most players spent more than they earned.
That is, they lost money.
But for the ones who did make a profit, the sums will make you want to reconsider your career choice.
One player made $700K breeding CryptoKitties (!)
CryptoKitties allows players to purchase, collect, breed and sell virtual cats on the Ethereum blockchain. Each resulting cat is unique and rivalrous, which means they can only be owned by a single user at a time.
You can’t play for free because you have to buy cats to breed them. Breeding new cats costs just the price of a transaction. You can then sell your cats for a small commission fee.
Game launched November 2017
Maximum net earnings: $698,887.
Median net earnings: $53
Average net earnings: $1,307
One user made $57K playing My Crypto Heroes.
My Crypto Heroes is a Japanese role-playing battle game that is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can play with historical inspired heroes, go on quests to find rare items, and battle against other players for rewards.
You can get started for free but the game really gets interesting once you start acquiring new heroes and accessories for them. Like the other two games you can also auction the assets you own to earn money. Unlike the other two games, players also earn referral fees.
Game launched July 2018
Maximum net earnings: $57,189
Median net earnings: $2
Average net earnings: $950
One user made 5K trading cards on Gods Unchained.
Gods Unchained is a blockchain competitive card game. Players bought the cards they needed to play the game during the beta phase of the game. As of last October they can also buy and sell cards on an open marketplace. Unlike other online card games, selling cards on the blockchain gives the player full ownership of the cards they’ve purchased, that’s the beauty of bringing a traditional card game to the blockchain.
You can play the game with the basic free pack of cards, but if you really want to win you’ll want to spend money.
Game launched September 2018
Maximum net earnings: $4,580
Median net earnings: $5
Average net earnings: $45
We expected to see more overlap between the three games.
We found only 105 players who had earned money in two different games, and none that had earned money in all three. The most common combination were players who earned money from CryptoKitties and Gods Unchained.
CryptoKitties is the most lucrative, but Gods Unchained is the most likely to generate profits.
The massive inflow of capital in 2017 allowed CryptoKitties to become the most lucrative web3 game to date. According to our data, the average CryptoKitties player earned $1,307 compared to $950 from My Crypto Heroes and only $45 from Gods Unchained.
However, if we consider the amount of people who made a profit compared to the total number of users who have tried – CryptoKitties is the least likely to generate a profit for its users.
We found that only 22.38% of users on CryptoKitties made money, compared to 41.70% on My Crypto Heroes and almost 50% on Gods Unchained.
There’s a good reason behind this too. In 2017, the median price of a CryptoKitty skyrocketed to over $25 each. Fast forward to today and the median price per kitty has tumbled down to $2.71. With CryptoKitties surging into popularity amid the ICO bubble, many holders who flooded into the market were left in the dust as the value of their novel digital cats plummeted (along with the broader crypto market).