Play to Earn Games to Watch in April

With the first quarter of 2023 behind us we look ahead to April. And the web3 gaming scene, particularly anything to do with mobile gaming, feels poised to launch itself to the forefront of online video games! Here are a few games to watch in April.

I’m declaring April the Month of Mobile for web3 gaming! As always, the space is changing rapidly. And while AI is the current hot buzzword, mobile is the major impetus behind much of the current development. Mobile games also could be the gateway for a flood of new players to get involved with the blockchain space.

I expect to see a number of new mobile, web3-enabled games launched over the coming months. And if they have any sort of success at all, they will attract a growing crowd of developers to the scene. We have mints, alphas, and pre-registrations from mobile focused games such as Hunters On-Chain, Blast Royale, WAGMI Defense and Rogue Nation. Meanwhile, Gods Unchained is still smoothing out the rough edges of their mobile app and Gala Games works on bringing their newly acquired suite of mobile games into the blockchain space!

Now of course, not all games will be playable on mobile devices. But casual gaming is a huge market. One that many web3 developers are eager to acquire!

Hunters On-Chain

Despite only being available on a testnet, Hunters on-Chain has continued to hold onto a spot in the top 10 most played games for the past three weeks! With their T1 Genesis Hunter Chest sale complete, look for Hunters to push for a release soon. They also recently announced that they plan on releasing mobile versions first. Rumors have it that downloads are already available for early testers!

Hunters On-Chain is free to play. If you want to get started by playing on the testnet, you can just ask on their Discord and they will provide you with a common Hunter to use. This Hunter will also transfer over to mainnet once the game launches.

Mocaverse

Mocaverse held their first PFP mint and also implemented an experience system for their new NFTs in March. Part of Animoca Brands, expect Mocaverse to continue to find ways to bring value to their Moca NFTs. It’s rare to see a PFP collection provide utility for their NFTs so quickly out of the box. But this show of speed bodes well for the future of this collection. And since Animoca seems to have their hands in half of the web3 gaming space, this feels like a space to keep an eye on.

Voxie Tactics

The Dragonfest event kicks off in April bringing a new PvE challenge, a new Drako class, and plenty more. Voxie Tactics has also introduced and released a number of updates for their crafting / forging system. The strategy genre is very under-served in web3 gaming. Voxie Tactics already has a solid foothold. If they can continue to build on their game with additional activities, events, and UI improvements, this free to play, play and earn, fantasy-based tactical game should be around for quite some time!

Splinterlands

Recent adjustments in Splinterlands to counter bots has resulted in a significant decrease in active players for this trading card game. Now presumably, most of those were bots, so we’re not seeing a major outflux of real-life players. But the imminent release of the first phases of land gameplay (surveying should open in early April), will be a good litmus test to see how many active landowners are around.

Echoes of Empire

Echoes of Empire announced their plans to release a beta in October of 2023, and also run a playtest in April. The strategy gaming market is surprisingly thin in web3 gaming. So there is still plenty of opportunity to claim a lead role.

This Echoes of Empires playtest runs from April 19th to April 24th. This round will only be open to those holding Celestial Claim NFTs. Unfortunately, I don’t own on, so I’ll have to just get my info about the game secondhand. But I do look forward to seeing what they have to show!