How Do Play-to-Earn Games Really Work?

The emergence of Play to Earn (P2E) games has made gaming more fun and added more variety for a lot of people. This is a way of playing and trying to earn cash while you play but how does it work and which games should you try?

What P2E Games Can You Play?

The number of different ways of playing and earning money has grown and added new genres and gameplay. Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, and Alien Worlds are a few of the top titles in the category right now. They all work in different ways, as some are fighting games, others involve collecting cards to progress through the levels, and so on.

The Sandbox is an adventure set in the virtual world of the metaverse rather than being an individual game. You won’t be aiming to reach set goals or missions; you can build up digital assets like land and buildings as you play this title. A variety of tokens are used for you to gain cash in different aspects of the game, so set up a wallet to manage your cash before you get started.

Phantom Galaxies is a planned P2E game that’s based in outer space and will let you whizz cross the universe in spacecraft and take part in space battles across a huge open world. Players can create avatars and upgrade the mechanics of their crafts as they progress, so it seems to promise a high degree of flexibility.

Expect to see the selection of P2E games continue to grow as more new releases hit the market. It’s a fast-growing part of gaming and it’s easy to see why, as developers create an in-game economy that encourages people to make money and grow the value of their tokens as they play.

Are They Different from Gambling Games?

Don’t confuse play-to-earn games with gambling games that you can now play in online casinos for real money. These are completely different types of games that appeal to people for different reasons, such as trying to win a jackpot on a single spin. If we look at online pokies for real money, we can see that these are games of chance with a random outcome. Titles such as Dragon’s Scroll and 8 Lucky Charms offer you the chance to place a bet and then spin the reels to see if you get a winning combination of symbols. Many different themes are used, from pirates to Vikings and so on, so it should be easy to find games that appeal to you.

Other casino games such as roulette and baccarat also have a random outcome on every play, so we can’t classify them as being part of the play-to-earn genre. You might win a large amount on a single spin of the roulette wheel, or you could play numerous hands of baccarat without getting any wins.

How Do You Earn Money?

There’s no single way of making money from play-to-earn games, as they involve different types of gameplay and reward mechanisms. What these games have in common is that you get some sort of reward for playing them. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are often used to ensure that assets are genuine and can’t be altered.

The Axie Infinity gameplay is a good example as you create and train NFT-based monsters to lead them into battle against others. The best way to make money is to create a powerful character and then sell it to the highest bidder. This list of the most expensive gaming NFTs to date reveals that the Mystic Axie sold for over $1 million, so serious money can be made after you’ve spent a lot of time on it.  

What about God’s Unchained? The Citadel of the Gods card sold for 42 ETH just about a year ago, which was worth a cool $76,000 at the time, making it the biggest sale to date. With only seven mythic cards like this in the whole game, it is unlikely that you’ll ever get such a high-value asset in your collection, but you might be able to sell other cards for reasonable amounts of money.

You’ll normally only make smaller amounts of money by carrying out regular tasks such as mining new assets or undertaking training and taking part in battles to boost your existing assets. It’s not a plan to get rich instantly, although you might get lucky and earn a high-value token at some point.

Should You Try P2E Games?

These games are fascinating but are unlikely to make you rich no matter how long you spend on them. The way that the rewards work means that you have to grind through many hours of repetitive gameplay to achieve some fairly modest rewards so it’s not like working as a freelancer and finding paid jobs online with good salaries or rewards.

P2E games have become particularly popular among players in developing countries, who see them as providing a clever way of making a reasonable living while playing. However, some titles have a high entry barrier, as you need to invest in tokens or other assets to get started and that isn’t easy for everyone to do.

If you find a P2E game that you enjoy playing, earning money is going to be a pleasant bonus. However, if the gameplay doesn’t excite you in any way, it could quickly turn into an unenjoyable grind long before you make any serious cash.