Crypto video game 'Pixels' says it hit 1 million daily active users

The developer behind the web3 video game "Pixels" said the title has surpassed 1 million daily active users, a significant milestone considering currently most crypto-based video games are lucky if they have tens of thousands of daily users.

"While this is a major milestone, Pixels CEO and Founder, Luke Barwikowski, thinks the best metric for success in Web3 is the ratio between PIXEL spent to PIXEL distributed. In the last 30 days 4.4 million PIXEL have been spent," the company said in a statement.

That amount of PIXEL (4.4 million) is worth about $1.6 million, according to CoinGeck0. PIXEL was trading at $0.36 as 11:32 a.m. EST, also according to CoinGecko.

Blockchain-based gaming remains a nascent sector both within the world of crypto and gaming writ large. Bigger-budget projects, which aim to eventually publish games that rival — at least in terms of quality — the blockbuster, AAA titles like those from the "Grand Theft Auto" and "Call of Duty" franchises are on the way. But their success, and whether they will ever attract millions of users, is far from guaranteed. 

So far, the only crypto game to grab headlines and attract millions more users has been "Axie Infinity," which fell out of favor after a hack and crypto prices plummeted ahead of the downturn. Like "Axie Infinity," "Pixels" also runs on the Ronin blockchain. Both games also rely less on impressive graphics and gameplay while instead focusing on providing players an opportunity to earn crypto.

In the case of "Axie Infinity," the title attracted a large number of users in the Philippines during the pandemic. Many people there attempted to use the game to supplement their existing income. A recent article in The New York Times said there has recently been a resurgence of crypto gaming in the Philippines.

Token Terminal data shows that Ronin's daily active user count has steadily risen since the end of last year, but it is unclear how much of that rise is attributable to "Pixels."

Ronin DAUs. Image: Token Terminal.

A spokesperson for "Pixels" pointed to a post to X from an analyst that said of the 18 million visitors to the game's website in April, 18% were from the Philippines. Brazil, Thailand and Indonesia separately each accounted for about 9% of traffic, the post also said.

"Pixels" announced in February it had raised $4.8 million and that its backers include Animoca Brands and Sky Mavis, the company behind "Axie Infinity."