Retention, retention, retention
Your weekly recap
It’s been a busy week looking at lots of numbers and plotting them on graphs.
I started off with Heroes of Mavia, the mobile strategy game that launched strongly in February 2024 and has generated over four million downloads through the app stores.
However, developer Skrice Studios is currently quoting an average figure of 74,000 DAUs, which doesn’t seem very much to me.
I suggested Heroes of Mavia has a retention issue.
And yet, it’s not game over.
Skrice has announced its roadmap for the next couple of months, which include some interesting features including PVP wagering, and a complex onchain-offchain dual listing marketplace for in-game cosmetic NFTs.
However, these seems likely to appeal to the game’s 50,000-off NFT and token holders. I’m not sure it will help much in terms of onboarding a lot of web2 gamers.
Meanwhile, over on Immutable zkEVM, Boomland has launched its 250 million BOOM token play-to-airdrop campaign for its game Hunters On-Chain.
Available via browser, or Google Play download (iOS via Testflight), Hunters On-Chain is the web3 version of successful web2 game Hunt Royale, so — unlike Heroes of Mavia — the core game and meta loops are well designed and robust.
The wider question will be whether Boomland can leverage its experience in web2 UA and the simple email sign-on UX for the Immutable Passport wallet to get a large volume of players into the airdrop and beyond.
By the way, you can check out the campaign using my referral code to give us both an XP boost.
Finally, I spent some time looking at the growth metrics for the Immutable zkEVM blockchain itself.
For, despite some impressive growth figure highlighted by co-founder Robbie Ferguson in terms of monthly active unique wallets — approaching 1.5 million — looking at the daily version of this data demonstrates a similar issue to Heroes of Mavia; it’s all about retention, or the lack therein!
Of course, the retention figures for a blockchain are always going to be less concentrated than for a game.
But with a current level of only 9% of its total wallets being active on a daily basis, it looks like Immutable zkEVM has some ways to go to demonstrate deep ecosystem value creation.
Sponsored by Hiro Capital: investing 📈 in the future 🔮 of gaming 🎮
Weekly News Roundup
BCGbiz Mavens talk sense about gaming DAOs.
Is web3 gaming on TON driving mass adoption?
Ronin announces it will let devs build zk-based L2s using Polygon CDK.
Guild of Guardians’ new NFT is live, priced $250 primary or $126 on marketplaces.
Solana gaming L2 Sonic raises $12 million token round at $100 million valuation.
WEMIX invests in PC game launcher Elixir.
Animoca invests in Saltwater to get its XR One L3 supporting Mocaverse.
Cloud service outfit Aphone launches its AppNest blockchain-native app store.
Konami’s NFT blockchain Resella is now live in Japan.
As discussed below
Additional Links
OneFootball is integrating Mocaverse’s Realm Network, launching its Football ID network, which runs alongside Moca ID and Anime ID.
AI Arena’s NRN token goes live on 24th June.
MetalCore’s MC token goes live on 28th June.
Check out the Big Blockchain Game Report Q1 2024 👀 here or 👀 via PDF.