Polygon Emerges as Second-Largest Blockchain Gaming Network

Polygon, a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, has emerged as the second-largest blockchain gaming network with 138,081 unique active wallets (UAWs) engaging in games in March, according to the "Blockchain Games Report" published by decentralized application (DApp) analytics platform DappRadar. The number of UAWs engaging with games on Polygon rose by 53% from February, placing Polygon well ahead of third and fourth-ranked Hive and BNB Chain at 84,000 and 80,000 UAWs, respectively. However, Wax remains the leader with 314,000 UAWs.

The report stated that "Polygon, a blockchain previously known for DeFi DApps, overtook Hive this month and secured the second spot. This is a positive sign for Polygon, as it is now gaining recognition as a gaming blockchain." Polygon's surge in user activity was primarily due to Hunters On-Chain, a game by BoomLand that has seen a UAW increase of over 17,000% in the past 30 days alone, according to DappRadar data.

Launched in January, Hunters On-Chain is a Web3 adaptation of BoomLand's mobile game Hunt Royale. It is a free-to-play role-playing game with nonfungible token (NFT) integrations and a similar look and style to Minecraft. On March 9, the game saw an all-time high UAW count of around 55,300. Although it is unclear what specifically drove the surge in interest for the game last month, anticipation for an in-game NFT sale on March 31 may have been a contributing factor.

The report also noted that all "on-chain gaming activity decreased by 3.33% in March to 741,567 daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW), still, games make up 45.6% of the DApp industry activity in Q1 2023."

Polygon has been gaining bullish momentum in the past few months, particularly with regard to NFTs, gaming, and the metaverse. Polygon Labs, the team behind the network, has notched a long list of big-name partnerships, including Warner Music, Starbucks, Adidas, Reddit, and Adobe, to develop and host NFT projects.

The team successfully launched Polygon's open-source Ethereum Virtual Machine equivalent zero-knowledge rollup on March 27. It is touted to allow DApps to scale through transaction batching, unlocking higher performance while reducing gas fees to conduct transactions on the network.

In summary, Polygon has established itself as a prominent player in the blockchain gaming space with a significant user base and a growing list of partnerships. With the launch of its zero-knowledge rollup and the continued development of its ecosystem, Polygon is poised for continued growth and adoption in the NFT, gaming, and metaverse spaces.