Axie Infinity is known for its influx of players during the initial hype phase. However, taking a look into Axie’s top national player base unveils information that can tell a lot about the past and current state of GameFi.
Axie infinity is now currently known for its impressive numbers in both the influx of users and the massive income gained through its in-game economy. One of the game’s largest player base is the Philippines, an archipelago situated at the heart of East and Southeast Asia. Philippines reportedly had the biggest share in user population, having about 35% of its player base coming from the Filipino population.
Of its 2.5 million users, close to 900,000 are from the Philippines. There is no doubt that this game has definitely hit a good nerve when it comes to the Filipinos. However, Axie Infinity was released in 2018, yet the numbers only shot up in the years 2020 until this year.
The Pandemic and National Policies
Like the rest of the world, the Philippines was one of the countries that felt the brunt of the COVID-19 Pandemic. During the pandemic, the country experienced it lowest unemployment rate and with COVID restrictions prohibiting people to go outside, it was looking grim for the layman in the Southeast Asian third world country. The reality was especially worse with rural areas of the country.
As such, Filipinos were looking for online sources of income to pass the idle times they were forced to spend inside their homes. Considering the love of many locals to video games, many landed on Axie Infinity as a legitimate source of income. It only took a few successful investors for the word to spread quickly, especially since roughly 80 million Filipinos can freely access Facebook.
Soon, as many as 520 P2E guilds were made to support the players and with 2 Million users interacting with the crypto wallet Metamask, making the country one of the top nationalities to interact with the application. Some users have decided to quit their day jobs to pursue Axie full-time, in hopes of continuing their income online.
What the Future Holds
Currently, Axie Infinity’s in-game economy has also felt the effects of the bear market as well as the repercussions of a flawed tokenomics in their digital economies. Philippine Axie users who were misled into investing large amounts of money, ignorant of market principles that most people in the industry are aware of, felt betrayed and are left salvaging what they can of their income.
But what’s interesting in their local scene is how Filipino guilds reacted to the current state of the markets. Popular national guilds opted to shift their focus from procuring players from a purely monetization stance to a “play games but you can earn as a sideline” stance. This stance is similar to the overall shift of GameFi from a “Play-to-Earn” to a “Play-and-Earn” stance, manifested in their in-game economics design and marketing.
Edmond is a passionate writer for Video games, GameFi and Web3. He has worked for top GameFi companies and video game/crypto news websites.
