The DappRadar Blockchain User Behavior Report focuses on gaming this time around. In this report, we analyze global trends, including demographic and connectivity analysis, all for gaming dapps and the users within them.

The following reports are part of a new series of blockchain user behavior reports. A suite of reports from DappRadar, designed to provide users with a different perspective on the blockchain industry, combining traditional behavioral financial analysis with blockchain metrics and indices. The document analyzes trends from the perspective of the blockchain industry, but also identifies patterns in the DeFi, NFT, and gaming spaces separately.

By analyzing different indicators, we aim to understand the main patterns and trends that have occurred in the blockchain industry in the last month. At the same time, we sought to identify who are the main users of blockchain and support the narrative that has recently formed around blockchain-based games driving usage within the industry.

main revelation

main revelation

Interest in the industry is shifting towards gaming, with the number of unique active wallets connected to gaming dapps growing 64% month-over-month, while unique wallets for DeFi and NFT grew only 3% and 6% over the same period.

The United States has the largest blockchain audience with over 121,000 users, and Asian countries also have a strong presence.

Millennials (25-34 years old) are the most important group of blockchain users, with 37%, followed by Generation Z (18-24 years old) with 27%.

In August, 75% of DappRadar's users were men, however, women are beginning to make their mark within the blockchain industry.

Games and NFT dapps each generate about 41% of clicks, while DeFi only accounts for 18%; back in June, DeFi accounted for 54%, while games and NFT combined accounted for 46%.

Table of contents

Table of contents

Industry Demographics

Support the growth of games and NFTs

Making money from games is not just for emerging economies

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the way of the future

Industry Demographics

The blockchain industry continues to grow every month. In August, an average of over 2 million unique active wallets (UAW) interacted with smart contracts per day.Compared with the figure in July, this figure has increased by 18%, and the year-on-year increase is as high as 883%.

To gain insight into industry behavior patterns, we analyzed 884,000 users who connected to DappRadar between August 1 and September 12. As in previous months, the US is the main audience with more than 121,000 users, with four Asian countries (Philippines, China, Thailand, and Indonesia) trailing behind. The total number of users in the above four Asian regions plus India and Vietnam exceeds 262,000. Other countries with relevant audience numbers are Brazil (+35,000), UK (28,000) and Russia (27,000).

Next, let’s analyze the age range of our audience. Unsurprisingly, Millennials are the leading age group, followed by Gen Z. In August, 25-34 year olds accounted for 37.34% of our traffic, while 18-24 year olds accounted for 26.88%.

On the other hand, it is interesting to note that the 45 to 54 age group increased by 30% from the previous month, while the 65+ age group increased by 33% from the previous month. It is absolutely encouraging to see the increasing rate of participation of non-digital natives in the industry.

Additionally, by analyzing our 240,000 users, we found that 75% of our users are male and 25% are female. The blockchain industry attracts three times more men than women, although the difference has decreased slightly since May.

Finally, according to DappRadar's July web data, 50.8% of our users connect via computers, while 48.3% connect using smartphone devices. These figures differ from those shown last month, when smartphones were the preferred choice.

While the geographic chart shows roughly the same regional concentration, the remaining indicators have changed slightly from the previous month. As expected, users aged 18-35 dominate, however it is encouraging to observe higher growth in the older age group. It's also worth noting that the difference between men and women is decreasing slightly over time.

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Supporting the growth of games and NFTs

When analyzing the three main blockchain industries in detail, we can again support the argument driven by gaming and NFTs usage. Since the gaming monetization movement and the NFT space started heating up in early July, most of the attention has been on this side of the chain.

In order to get a more concise analysis, focusing on the most important domains of the blockchain, we categorized users by each domain. In this way, we can identify trends based on the behavior of our audience.

Continuing the July trend, we observed a continued increase in interest in blockchain games. Additionally, NFT-driven traffic has also increased regularly since July due to the huge interest in supporting NFTs. We can also observe a clear decline in the previous dominance of DeFi.

In May 2021, 55% of DappRadar’s audience interacted with DeFi dapps, while the other 45% was split evenly between NFTs and games. Fast forward to August, and the numbers have changed dramatically. DeFi dapps now account for about 18% of traffic, while games account for 45% and NFTs are close to 41%.

Blockchain games have a great intersection with the NFT space, as items and even playable characters in blockchain games are represented by these unforgeable tokens. Therefore, analyzing the NFT space adds another layer of analysis from a gaming perspective.

August was the best month ever in the NFT space. The United States, the country with the most interest in NFTs, is also seeing growth in its NFT audience by a large margin. The United States represents one of the most important markets in the world with a huge demand for sports, collectibles and memorabilia. Thailand, India and the UK round out the list. The Philippines is also one of the leaders,Most of its traffic comes from Axie Infinity.

Also, Russia, a very important market, seems to be less interested in NFTs and gradually shifting towards games, while maintaining their high interest in DeFi dapps. The whole world seems to be playing blockchain games.

Additionally, we performed an independent active wallet (UAW) analysis by separating the wallets connected to each dapp type. The analysis revealed that the increase in game items was disproportionate. Gaming apps attracted 63% of wallets in August compared to July’s numbers, averaging over 747,000 UAW per day. To put that in perspective, DeFi is growing 3% per month, while NFT UAW has only grown 6% over the same time frame.

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Axie is not only Filipino

By now, chances are you already know about the huge success of Axie Infinity in the Philippines. The game's money-making app has become a topic of national concern as a different source of income for its players.

Interestingly, the Philippines is not the country with the highest hit rate on Axie Infinity's website, this place belongs to Thailand. This may be due to the fact that the app has created such a high level of loyalty in the Philippines that some Filipinos are only interested in playing the game.

In addition to Thailand, the United States, China and Brazil are also the countries with the highest hit rates for the Axie Infinity app.

These five countries are also the hit rate leaders for Splinterlands. The app saw a massive 554% month-over-month increase in usage, attracting more than 187,000 UAWs in August, making it one of the most played games in the industry.

Furthermore, we observed an interesting finding when analyzing the regions where gaming DApps dominate. On the one hand, emerging economies are closely tied to gaming revenues, as revenues in their respective gaming currencies exceed their respective local currencies.

For example, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as Venezuela and Cuba, have around 60 percent of their audience focused on gaming. While in African countries such as Nigeria, Gambia and Western Sahara, the gaming dominance exceeds 57%. In the Middle East, such as Iran, Jordan and Palestine, gaming audiences more than doubled in August compared to July figures.

On the other hand, it will be interesting to see countries in Europe and North America starting to turn their attention to the blockchain-based gaming space. Almost half of the Austrian audience is engaged with dapps that play to earn money, while 40% of Spanish users replicate this behavior.

Countries like Iceland, Sweden, Canada, and Andorra more than doubled their respective gamer audiences, while Germany, Italy, and Norway saw at least a 67% increase in gaming enthusiasts.

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Game cases of BSC and other public chains

In our August industry report, we highlighted the case for BSC as the most used blockchain. The Binance-branded network attracted nearly 1 million unique wallets in the last month, nearly 40% of which came from a gaming DApp.

Looking further at the category of BSC, we still observe the dominance of DeFi wallets, with approximately 425,000 unique wallets connected to DeFi dapps, and 279,000 interacting with BSC games. However, analysis of monthly trends complements the game's report.

DeFi users on BSC, including leading dapp PancakeSwap and a few other interesting projects, only saw a 10.1% increase in usage in August compared to July. On the other hand, BSC Gaming saw a 152.8% increase in unique wallets during the same time period.

The case of Ethereum is no exception.The leading blockchain in terms of total value locked saw its DeFi usage drop by 17% month-over-month.A total of 59,000 unique wallets were connected to Ethereum’s DeFi applications in August, compared to 71,000 in July. Ethereum-based games saw a 17% increase in usage over the same period.

Blockchain-based games are undoubtedly attracting more users. Splinterlands, a trading card game running on the Hive network is another example of user engagement. The gaming dapp attracted an average of more than 183,000 unique wallets per day during August, a 544% increase from July’s figure. This engagement is supported by measuring click-through rates. In August, nearly 10,000 hits were recorded relating to Splinterlands. This figure represents a 174% increase month-to-month.

In summary

In summary

Behavioral analytics helps identify and understand underlying patterns in consumer behavior to better understand their rational decision-making. From the analysis of DappRadar’s traffic sources, it is confirmed once again that the United States is still the largest market in this industry. Meanwhile, several Asian countries continue to participate in the industry.

As expected, millennials and Gen Z lead the way in blockchain development, although recent findings among older age groups do encourage wider adoption. We're also excited to see an increase in female audience participation month-over-month.

August was a record month for NFTs. However, recent analysis confirms that play-to-earn games are driving usage. DeFi summer feels like a distant memory as traffic is being dominated by games and NFTs.

In terms of games, old Defi players are also participating. Nevertheless, observing European and American countries, such as Nordic, Germany and Canada, people are more and more fond of playing blockchain games, which is definitely positive news for this field, especially in terms of more people entering the game .

The next few months will be particularly important for the blockchain-based gaming space. With expansion looming, big venture capital groups have approached some of the leading projects. While existing projects such as Axie Infinity further enhance their game mechanics, high-profile projects such as Illuvium or Star Atlas are also preparing for launch in 2022. The field of gaming will become one of the real cornerstones of the blockchain industry.

Original link: https://dappradar.com/blog/blockchain-user-behavior-report-games-perspective