The newly launched Axie Infinity Merch Store offers an array of products— from plushies to hoodies and figurines. The merch store grants a select group of NFT owners commercial rights, allowing Axie NFT owners to produce and sell their own goods.
Sky Mavis enabled a fraction of NFT owners, particularly those who possess Mystic and Origin Axies, with commercial rights. This allows them to not only create and sell merchandise, but also explore innovative projects such as cafes, comics, restaurants and toy lines with their own Axies. While gaming products still need to adhere to the official Axie Builders program, this is indeed great news for Mystic and Origin holders as well as the whole community.
However, it’s important to remember that, at least for the time being, Axie marketplace data shows that only 5,000 out of the 12 million total Axie monster NFTs — or less than 0.04% of all Axie NFTs — have had their commercial restrictions lifted.
Axie Infinity mentioned that they will allocate 20% of the net profits to the Axie Community Treasury which will turn the store into a community-owned enterprise. This also empowers the creative potential, allowing enthusiasts worldwide to craft their Axie merchandise.
Axie has also recently partnered with Grab, a popular platform in the Philippines which is the Uber counterpart in the country. This does not come as a surprise, seeing as the majority of the users of the popular Web3 game come from the Philippines. The partnership allows users to access the Axie Merch store through the Grab app and also rewards them with points and discount codes
Customers have the option of paying with fiat money or cryptocurrency, and Sky Mavis is offering a free Axie NFT to the first 5,000 purchasers in addition to a chance to win one of three Mystic Axie NFTs.
Axie Infinity saw a massive spike in player activity in 2021, with millions of active players and over $4 billion in NFT trading volume making it by far the most popular NFT game to date. Early in 2022, the play-to-earn game’s momentum significantly subsided, but Sky Mavis is still expanding the Axie ecosystem and growing its Ethereum sidechain network, Ronin, which has recently seen a rise in adoption.
Final Thoughts
Axie merchandise provides an opportunity to introduce our loved ones who may not be gamers but have expressed interest in joining the Axie nation and becoming Lunacians. For a time now, the majority of the community has been asking for an official merch store and now Sky Mavis has delivered. Axie Infinity might have quieted down in the past year but with the market starting to shift, Axie might once again rise as the top NFT game.