Axie Infinity is considered by many as one of the most popular play-to-earn games out there. It had a few million daily active users (DAU) especially when it reached its peak popularity last year with around 2.7 million DAU. However, for the first time in eight (8) months, this number has now dropped below 1 million DAU. Last May 9, the DAU was now only at 926.8k, which is the lowest it has reached in months.
Axie Infinity is a blockchain NFT game that was initially launched in 2018 but reached its peak of 2.7 million DAU in November 2021. This is mainly due to the large value of its in-game token Smooth Love Potion or SLP at the time which peaked at around US$0.399. However, the price of SLP started to dip since then which recently hit an all-time low this May which could have contributed to the downturn of users.
Fans also speculate that the dip in Axie Infinity’s Daily Active Users is also connected to recent updates and changes made to how players can earn SLP. As the dev team of Axie was looking to find ways to combat the inflation and oversupply of SLP, made some updates such as halving rewards, removing quest rewards, and even removing SLP rewards in Adventure mode altogether.
The crashing value of SLP, the reduced rewards, and the overall devalued prices of NFTs have dismayed many players, especially those who made some huge investments in the game. Many investors and Axie managers have quit and even scholars who were in it for the money have started to quit as well. The $625 million Ronin hack also did not help in persuading players to keep playing the game.
For the most part, confidence in the game is pretty low even for the most ardent supporters in the Axie community. There was speculation that the introduction of the long-awaited Axie Origin game and updates being released for Axie Land would increase enthusiasm for the game again, but so far, many remain skeptical.
The Sky Mavis team remains optimistic, however. Axie Infinity founder Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zirlin says their player base has indeed gone down this week and that it’s natural to have fear of what’s coming next for the game. However, he assured fans and the community that “we’ve been here before and know what to do.”
There doesn’t seem to be any signs of recovery in the number of Axie Infinity’s Daily Active Users but there are hopes that the new updates for Axie Origin and the introduction of the game to mobile users will help boost confidence in the current player base to bring back players that may have taken a break.