The digital media market has had constant development, with gaming accounting for the lion’s share of market income for the past several years. In 2020 the online gaming industry experienced an estimated 21.9% growth, bringing in 21.1 billion US dollars in revenues. Because of the widespread COVID-19 epidemic, many individuals stayed home and used electronic entertainment and new media to communicate. A survey conducted by International Data Corporation found that China, South Korea, and Japan had the highest number of online gamers out of the total population, with 1 billion gamers globally. By 2025, over 1.3 billion individuals will be playing online games.

Online gaming’s recent evolution

While gaming on the internet has only just started to become popular, it has also evolved for several years. Online gaming saw significant growth in popularity during the early 2010s when casual social games like massively multiplayer online games (MMO games) evolved from the traditional PC and console-based genres of competitive first-person shooters and massively multiplayer online games (MMO games).

Since mobile connection and smartphone ownership have grown in recent years, so have the opportunities for online gaming for a wide variety of new audiences that do not need costly PCs, consoles, or memberships in order to participate in games with other people online. The emergence of cross-platform titles with a mobile emphasis is a welcome development in an age when conventional online games are losing market share to mobile-first releases. Battle royale games are now the most popular kind of game in the current gaming environment. Within months after its debut, games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), Fortnite Battle Royale, and Apex Legends drew in tens of millions of players, while Call of Duty: Warzone has attracted more than 100 million players since its release in April 2021.

Online gaming and COVID-19

According to a study performed in July 2020, one in every five new players from various nations afflicted with the Coronavirus expressed an interest in gaming as a form of social interaction. Additionally, even during the COVID-19 shutdown, players in Europe have reported feeling better and experiencing less anxiety due to playing multiplayer online games. Another study of worldwide gaming audiences showed that six out of ten people were more inclined to play online multiplayer games during the epidemic than before the survey. Casual indie games such as Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout and Among Us have soared in popularity as a consequence of the rise in the number of new players this year, according to IGN. In addition, the digital gaming site Roblox has gained popularity among young players worldwide.

Gaming & Blockchain

Once it became apparent that blockchain was relevant to cryptocurrencies and other industries, it was hailed as a game-changing technology. Currently, its applications seem to be more promising than they have been realized, and many people think it has been overhyped.

This is not the case with video games. Game development is regarded as the first genuine use of blockchain technology, and experts predict that the shift will be seismic. The gaming business might be radically reorganized, console monopolies could be challenged, a multiverse could be established, and games could become more immersive and boundary-blurring than ever before if blockchain technology were used. As gaming continues to solve its remaining challenges, it will serve as a case study for other sectors interested in using the technology on a large scale.

The use of blockchain technology in online gaming is one of the most talked-about topics. Player control over their whole inventory is a groundbreaking breakthrough that was previously unthinkable in video games. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are used to achieve this objective. In addition, the blockchain provides players with more advantages in terms of transparency and decentralization in the online gaming industry, among other things.

As a result, decentralized gaming applications are among the most widely used applications that use decentralization today.

According to the DApp Review report, 180 decentralized gaming applications (DGAs) are now active on the Ethereum blockchain, accounting for 30% of all DApps. Blockchain games are also the most popular genre of DApps on the Ethereum blockchain, ranking first in both popularity and use. According to the EOS and Tron blockchains, decentralized games are present in 17 percent and 14 percent of active decentralized applications (DApps), respectively, demonstrating the increasing demand for decentralized gaming.

Why Game DApps are becoming so popular?

According to a report from Dapp.com, the number of cryptocurrency players has risen from 166,370 in 2018 to 436,700 in 2019, nearly tripling in the last year. Several different factors, among them, cause the rise in demand:

  • Gaming e-commerce is growing
  • Items in the game belong to your real account
  • Transparency is improved
  • Getting paid out by decentralizing your earnings

More recent surveys indicate that the percentage of individuals who regularly play digital games has risen significantly, with around a third of the worldwide population now involved in online gaming. Concerning blockchain gaming, it’s evident that it has impacted getting more people involved in gaming. As gamers are typically the first to adopt new gaming technology, many are interested in new blockchain gaming experiences.

The use of DApps for game products comes mainly from authenticating the ownership of virtual goods cryptographically. In the history of online games, skins have always been included as part of the in-game economy, which has been opaque, and, historically, there has been little to no awareness about the availability of certain goods. Moreover, legacy games need players to exchange in-game assets. Decentralized systems have altered the game with blockchain, non-fungible tokens, and token fungibility.

The transparency of blockchain games is another driver of development in this gaming industry. The use of a public ledger is opening the gaming industry to new levels of transparency, making it possible for gamers to see transaction and payment records for both in-game and real-world goods.

Blockchain gaming gives players another incentive to opt for it. You might potentially receive decentralized payments as a result. Collecting crypto time is a popular way for gamers to make some money. A collection of digital collectibles (like Crypto Collectible Games) allows users to trade virtual moments for real ones. This functionality is very advantageous in today’s gaming environment.

We will get to the nitty-gritty of blockchain technology’s disruptive influence on the gaming sector by discussing some of the most notable blockchain based innovations in gaming..

The impact of stablecoins on online gaming

The game business is going through a tremendous change as a consequence of blockchain’s decentralization, asset ownership, digital item uniqueness, and transparency. However, no coin has been found that works across several platforms and even outside the game infrastructure.

Stablecoins can help solve this problem. 

Four significant benefits can be gained from stablecoins in online gaming: 

  • Currency monetization within games
  • Create an entire payment infrastructure for in-game purchases
  • Gamers have a new revenue source
  • Game developers can earn more revenue from their games

Currency monetization within games

It is rare for a game’s currency to have any worth outside of the context of the game in which it is used. The different games that gamers participate in need the maintenance of several in-game tokens. Although none of them are utilized to make real-world purchases, this is because in-game money cannot be commercialized in any way. There is currently no straightforward method for gamers to monetize their virtual money, but some may choose to sell in-game currency or goods on sites such as eBay. Stablecoin integration and the ability to monetize in-game money seamlessly are two ways to address this problem. 

Building an in-game payment system

A lot of work and time goes into building in-game payment infrastructures that enable virtual item trading, payment for virtual goods, and mass, programmed payments. Because the blockchain stablecoin technological stack is already in place, in-game payment infrastructures can now be built considerably more rapidly and at a lower cost than they were before possible.

Gamers have a new revenue source

Players may simply spend the in-game money they have earned outside of the game since stablecoins can be utilized as in-game currencies. It would make it easier for players to monetize their time, enabling them to spend more time gaming as a consequence of this.

Developers have better revenue opportunities

Blockchain technology and stablecoins make current revenue models more attractive to game developers. In an industry dominated by big game producers, increased revenue opportunities are a welcome sight for start-ups and smaller companies. 

Here are just a few examples of how enhanced revenue opportunities can be utilized:

  • Payments based on blockchain technology will make it easier and cheaper for gamers to upgrade their avatars and acquire new items. 
  • In-game economies can also be enhanced with commissions charged by game producers, which can be seamlessly and automatically processed with on-chain stablecoin payments. 

Several “gaming coins” have been developed to solve the challenges caused by the legacy in-game token ecosystem over the past five years. None of them have succeeded because adoption has been slow, prices fluctuate, and interoperability is lacking. 

Stablecoins backed by the digital dollar – are most likely to meet the needs of game developers, including global game manufacturers and blockchain gaming companies. 

Because stablecoins combine decentralization, transparency, and price stability, they are in a unique position to become the default in-game currency of the future.

Final Thoughts

Gamers and e-sports participants may take payments without worrying about border limitations when using stablecoins. While person-to-person sports have geographical limitations, virtual sports may be truly global in scope. Despite Epic Games’ promise of a $100 million prize pool for Fortnite e-sports competitions, the business faced worldwide payment issues through conventional methods. We can streamline this procedure by using blockchain technology. Gaming companies have started to take advantage of stablecoins, through a new collaboration with Prime Trust, Zytara will offer stablecoin payments to the gaming sector.

Crypto gaming businesses are bringing this and many other stablecoin solutions to the market to give their customers more security and stability. Stablecoin use will skyrocket in the gaming industry in the next