Right now, my X feed is full of people who are giving up on Web3 gaming. I get it.

Over $12 billion of venture capital funding has gone into it since 2020 and they haven't seen the sort of breakout success that many expected.

Right now, my X feed is full of people who are giving up on Web3 gaming. I get it. Over $12 billion of venture capital funding has gone into it since 2020 and they haven't seen the sort of breakout success that many expected.output: Many of the best-performing Web3 games, such as Axie Infinity, Cryptokitties, and YGG, have reached impressive heights, acquiring millions of users and generating significant revenue. However, even these games haven't achieved anything close to mainstream scale compared to popular Web2 games.

Token prices have also taken a hit, with a deep bear market wiping out a large portion of the market cap that was generated during the bull market. Several promising studios, such as Blockchained and Mobox, have had to shut down their games due to a lack of funds to continue development.

The constant mentions of "pivoting" and "winding down" in recent months, as well as the exhaustion evident in the tone of crypto Twitter, speak to the difficulties faced by Web3 gaming teams in sustaining their games and engaging users over the long term.

Measuring Web3 gaming by token prices alone is like calling the internet a failure because of the dot-com crash—it ignores how far the technology has come and where it's headed. It's missing the real story.

At its core, Web3 gaming is about giving players real ownership—not just of the in-game items that they buy and earn, but also their identities and achievements. In traditional games, players invest time, effort and money into digital assets that ultimately belong to the publisher. Web3 changes that. By putting assets on-chain, players can truly own what they earn—whether that's tradeable items like weapons or land, or non-transferable badges of reputation, guild history, or verifiable skill. It's not just about buying and selling stuff—it's about agency, persistence, and getting proper recognition for what you've built and what is really yours in the ecosystem.

The concept isn't new. Players have wanted more control over their in-game assets for years. Look at the massive markets for CS:GO skins or World of WarCraft gold. But until now, those economies have been fragmented, restricted, or at risk of being shut down if a centralized publisher decides to close it or change the rules. Web3 makes these economies open, interoperable, player-owned and player-driven.

This ownership has always been the foundation of Web3 gaming, and play-to-earn was an experimental model that showed the potential for virtual economies on blockchain. Now, the industry is evolving with a stronger focus on sustainable economies and better tokenomics, deeper gameplay, and long-term player engagement.

But if you're comparing Web3 gaming to Web2 gaming, you'll be disappointed. Traditional gaming has had decades to fine-tune game design, build massive player bases, and develop business models that work, while Web3 gaming is still in its experimental phase. Sure, billions of dollars of investment can speed things up, but throwing money at a brand new category doesn't magically buy it a track record or instantly create new games that people love.

I've been making games for over 20 years and I have seen every major shift get dismissed before it took over. Nobody believed mobile gaming could compete with PCs or consoles until it became bigger than both. Free-to-play was called a scam until it made more money and reached more players than ever before. Esports was a joke until stadiums sold out and prize pools hit millions. Digital skins were "worthless" before they became a multi-billion dollar market.

And now, Web3 gaming is at that same inflection point.

When I first heard about blockchain in 2018, everyone I knew in FinTech was talking about it. So of course I thought it was boring and I ignored it. It wasn't until I learned about CryptoKitties that I actually took notice. When I saw people collecting, trading and actually owning these cute on-chain cats, that's when I got excited because I knew they weren't like other in-game assets. CryptoKitties were digital things that no one could take away from you. As someone who's spent their life grinding in games, and their career convincing others to grind the same — without really getting anything for it — that idea of digital ownership gave me a whole new way to think.

So I went all-in on blockchain games. But 2018 and 2019 were really tough times. Pretty much no one else cared back then. There was no support, no real funding, no clear idea of what these games could be beyond speculation, and (outside of a handful of believers) there was very little conviction. The market was in a deep bear cycle, and many teams either gave up or ran out of money before they