In an era where the GameFi industry is big money for creators, the blockchain technology brought to us has certainly been a positive development in the crypto world. The global GameFi market was worth USD 18.49 billion in 2024, and is expected to rise to USD 23.51 billion in 2025. The GameFi industry offers more Play-to-Earn, Click-to-Earn, and Move-to-Play models than ever before, in addition to Pay-to-Play and Free-to-Play models.
Source: Businessresearchinsights
A lot has changed since then, and many players are now crypto investors looking to capitalize on the booming market and earn rewards ranging from tokens to NFTs.
Play-to-earn games in 2025 are booming. Powered by AI-enhanced NPCs, dynamic NFTs, and a greater range of compatible ecosystems than ever before, the P2E world is now hotter and more inclusive than ever. The global market for Play-to-Earn NFT gaming is projected to increase from $1.35 billion in 2024 to $7.66 billion by 2033, expanding at a CAGR of 21.3% between 2025 and 2033.
Blockchain games have been gaining significant attention lately. China has the largest gamer population in the Asia-Pacific region with 664 million players. Play-to-earn games are particularly popular in India, where 34% of respondents say they have tried them. Hong Kong, meanwhile, is the second highest with 29% of respondents who claimed that they play for a living.
If you're searching for the next big thing in Play-to-Earn gaming, it’s time to discover the new way to play, where fun matters most, and earning is just part of the fun.
Yet the industry is still in its infancy compared to its global presence and development. Here are some of the key challenges NFT and P2E games are facing:
1.Lack of Developer Experience
Game quality has become a key factor in the blockchain gaming market, and a developer's background plays a major role in that. Many developers don't have direct experience with the technology, as it's traditionally much more complex and unique to navigate, operate, and build on than traditional coding for Web2 games, because it needs to combine lots of elements (payments, transactions, external apps/wallets, etc). This may cause problems with game stability, balance, and sustainability.
2. Poor Onboarding for Gamers
Blockchain is still unfamiliar to the majority of players. For example, most games require players to connect a wallet before they can do anything. Many aren’t just inexperienced with it, they’re skeptical about it. So onboarding is doubly important. Without a smooth introduction, the technology itself can become a barrier to play.
3.High Entry Barriers
Many play-to-earn (P2E) games require users to buy expensive NFTs just to get started, which pushes potential players away before they even try the game. As a result, many promising projects fail to attract a broader audience simply because the entry process feels more like an investment than a game.
4.Unstable Game Economies
NFT and Play-to-Earn games usually experience much greater volatility compared to traditional games. As a result, many of these projects have short lifespans. With so many titles vying for attention and a relatively small active player base, combined with high entry levels, new games often struggle to gain traction and fade quickly.
5.Lack of Engaging Content
Most P2E games are more about investment mechanics than the actual game. This goes against the decentralized ideals of Web3. Many titles don't feature in-depth storylines or content that grabs users and keeps them interested over a long period. As a result, most updates don't land as expected with playerbase, due to different focus and loss of vision.
6.Poor User Experience
Most P2E projects fail to provide the user with an intuitive and seamless gameplay experience due to a lack of developer experience with blockchain technology. Onboarding is often complicated, involving wallet connections and crypto knowledge even before players can start. Together with the high cost of entry, such as expensive NFTs, this makes games feel more like financial platforms, rather than fun experiences.
These issues are compounded by unstable game economies and a lack of compelling content, which causes many projects to lose players quickly. Instead of focusing on engaging storytelling or refined gameplay, too many P2E games prioritize token mechanics and speculative rewards.
Although many projects put great efforts into solving these common problems, only a few, or rather, a few, manage to solve them efficiently. Let's look at the successful example of P2E game Chainers, how they coped with these challenges:
1.Lack of Developer Experience
The team behind Chainers combines expertise in gaming, blockchain, and creative content production. Their goal isn’t to chase trends, but to create a product people genuinely enjoy playing. From visual design to mechanics, Chainers is built with care and long-term thinking.
2.Barrier to Entry Still Too High
Chainers removes this friction entirely. The game is free to play from day one — no need to invest upfront or figure out how to buy tokens just to begin. Players can collect and upgrade characters through gameplay and later mint NFT assets as they play in one click. This makes the experience feel natural, especially for users transitioning from Web2 gaming.
3.Unstable In-Game Economies
Chainers is focused on building a stable, community-driven ecosystem. Rather than relying solely on token speculation, the game rewards users for participating in meaningful in-game activities, from creating assets to contributing to the community. The economy is designed to evolve with player behavior, and adapt around the product itself, regardless of market`s conditions.
4.Not Enough Content to Keep Players Engaged
This new P2E game takes a different approach. The first-ever Web3 multiplayer shooter game centers around an open world with thousands of unique NFT characters and fully customizable 3D environments. Players can decorate their own spaces, interact with the community, and engage in artistic endeavors, such as building, chatting, and even participating in online events. This steady stream of content encourages long-term engagement rather than short-term speculation.
5.Frustrating User Experience
Chainers eliminates these pain points. There’s no need to connect a wallet to start playing, and all features are accessible from the browser, no downloads, no crypto knowledge required. Signing up is as easy as clicking through with a Google or X account. Plus, no need to create tokens, manage wallets, or write down seed phrases. For players who want to mint or trade NFTs, the process is fast and simple, with minimal steps.
Addressing the biggest weaknesses of the current P2E model, Chainers is setting the bar high for industry standards on what gamers should expect from a P2E game in 2025, leaving behind the old tale that such games are underdeveloped and starting the to blur the lines between Web2 and Web3 gaming with seamless Web3 elements integration into a player-first, fun, true gaming experience for its players.
Imagine opening your eyes on Planet X, which is your home. You look around and see dense forests and an untouched world. Further, in your armor, made and then upgraded from materials you’ve collected and taken from your prey, walk out to work your farm, growing food to meet the needs of the village and the economy as a whole. Your scouts venture outside the map to discover rare resources and new locations in your group’s region.
Source: Medium
As night descends, the arena comes alive with challengers, and you engage in intense battles where your talent and your NFTs determine if you walk away the victor or the defeated. Around you, other players trade gear and resources in real time, feeding a living economy. The world reacts to the collective actions of its players, towns expand, new quests surface, and the story unfolds through the community input.
While not all of these features are live yet, the Chainers team is actively developing them to bring this vision to life.
Source: Usethebitcoin
Chainers, established in 2023, provides a multi-genre gaming universe that emphasizes fun gameplay by incorporating entertaining, story-based mechanics into the Web3 realm. Every item in the game, whether it’s a weapon or a piece of armor, a plot of land, or a resource, is an NFT that players own outright. Unlike independent game economies, Chainers interconnects all of its games into the same economy where one game’s activities affect the value and growth of the entire economy.
Players participate in numerous activities such as farming, exploration, animal grooming, and fighting.
Key numbers:
Source: Chainers
Key Innovations:
Seamless Web2 to Web3 Onboarding.
Creating wallets with one click and options to purchase in fiat remove the blockchain barriers. Users are introduced gradually to NFT ownership and Web3 functionalities with numerous educational content and onboarding materials available, to ensure everyone has all the information they need to succeed in the Chainers Universe.
Community-Governed World Building.
The fan base actively contributes to the story and world development, so the game world is evolving. The game features and roadmap as well are being built and prioritized based on community feedback and suggestions, with an open line of communication between the players and the developers, ensuring the final product is nothing less than what players expect and want to see.
The reaction to Chainers in the crypto community from players and experts has been great. The game enjoys a solid rating of 4.3 out of 5 on Trustpilot, which speaks to how much users enjoy playing it.
Source: Trustpilot
Chainers is often featured in videos of popular YouTube channels from all around the world, some of them with millions of subscribers, that review the unique characteristics and latest game updates.
The Chainers community members on X are active and supportive, fostering user interaction and an inclusive environment for all players. Devs are constantly coming out with new patches and updates that keep people interested and playing.
Source: X
Leading crypto media such as Cryptopolitan, Hackernoon, Dappradar refer to Chainers as “The Future of Web3 Games,” recognizing it as a promising example of how blockchain gaming can develop.
The real challenge for Web3 games is to make the gaming experience indistinguishable from the best Web2 games, while adding value through ownership and tokenomics. Chainers.io is something experts refer to as a project that actively addresses these dimensions, developing new ways of playing and allowing players to shape the game.
Chainers embodies the traditional gaming spirit coupled with the value-added elements that blockchain brings, like transparency, asset ownership, and a real economy, all of which surpass Web2 games. Unlike other Web3 games that too frequently settle for little more than tokenomics and NFTs, Chainers provides quality gameplay and unique artistic design, bringing Web3 gaming closer to the level of 'everyday' Web2 products.
Enter Chainers to take control of a fantasy world unlike any other, where decisions influence the world, challenges build your power, and imagination becomes your reality. Now’s your opportunity to be a part of an exciting synergy between old school gaming and Web3 innovation.
The first users to support the platform will benefit from several unique privileges, such as exclusive NFT drops, early access to new games and features, and a voice in the future of Chainers. As an early bird, you will play a key role in shaping a unique community-driven universe, and your participation and feedback will steer the game’s development.
1.Pop your starter booster to get your first Chainer and customisation.
2.Get into the Chainers Hub and start exploring, leveling up, and communicating.
Chainers is a constantly growing game, and there are a lot of mini-game genres, new gameplay modes, and user-generated content. This is only the beginning of the universe created for players and by players. Your story starts here.
Note: The information presented in this article is for informational purposes only. Some features and functionalities described, including certain gameplay modes, mechanics, and ecosystem tools, are currently under development and may not yet be available in the live version of the Chainers game.
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