He described their monthly Axie winnings - around $200 - as "life-changing".Īs the number of daily active players skyrocketed in 2021, the price of Axies and SLPs also soared, raising questions about the game's sustainability. YGG alone has 8,000 scholars and a queue of around 60,000 people waiting to join its programme that offers training and mentoring to a limited number of players at a time.ĭominic Lumabi started playing Axie Infinity in June 2021 after losing his job at an advertising firm and making a failed foray into online selling Photo: AFP / Jam STA ROSAīuenaventura said many of his players were in their early 20s and from households making less than $400 a month.
"In exchange for that, we ask for 10 percent of their earnings." "We provide the players with the assets that they need to generate income for themselves," said Luis Buenaventura, who runs Yield Guild Games in the Philippines, one of the many companies offering scholarships. The owners' take can reportedly go as high as 30 percent. Those with the capital to assemble more lucrative Axie teams have set up guilds and "scholarships" - profit-sharing systems where players are charged a percentage of their earnings. However, players who spend more get better Axies, giving them a better chance of winning battles to earn SLPs and - from some activities - the game's other crypto token AXS. When AFP accessed the game's marketplace on February 9, the cheapest Axies cost $37 each, putting the cost of a basic team at $111. Owners can also breed them to create new Axies that provide more value.Īt the peak of the game's growth last year, a starter team of Axies could cost hundreds of dollars, far beyond the reach of aspiring players in poorer countries.Ĭhart showing Axie Infinity's in-game currency Smooth Love Potion (SLP) fluctuations vs US dollar over the past 12 months. Like NFT pieces of art, they are stored on the blockchain - a digital ledger that cannot be changed.Īxies can be bought, sold or rented to other players. To play the game, players first have to purchase at least three Axies.Īn Axie is an NFT - a unique, non-fungible token, with a particular set of abilities and characteristics. Some gaming industry analysts say the Axie Infinity business model is unsustainable Photo: AFP / Jam STA ROSA "They could sit at home, protected from the virus, and play a cute game and earn money from it." The pandemic was the perfect environment for this game to attract players from all walks of life, said Leah Callon-Butler, a blockchain consultant based in the Philippines. He has used Axie Infinity earnings for his sister's university fees, groceries and bills - expenses his father's struggling electrical repair business cannot cover. Lumabi plays for two hours a day in the tiny house he shares with his parents and four sisters, earning 8,000 to 10,000 pesos ($155 to $195) per month - nearly half of what he makes at his current job as a content moderator working nine-hour graveyard shifts. In Axie Infinity, players participate in battles using colourful blob-like Axies, and are mainly rewarded "Smooth Love Potion" (SLPs) that can be exchanged for cryptocurrency or cash - or invested back into the game's virtual world Lunacia. "At first, I was sceptical because I thought it was a Ponzi scam," said Lumabi, 26, who began playing last June after losing his job at an advertising firm and making a failed foray into online selling.Ībout 35 percent of Axie Infinity traffic - and the biggest share of its 2.5 million daily active users - comes from the Philippines, where high proficiency in English, strong gaming culture and widespread smartphone usage have fuelled its popularity, Sky Mavis said.Īxie Infinity is a blockchain-based play-to-earn game that exploded in popularity in developing nations such as the Philippines during the Covid-19 pandemic Photo: AFP / Jam STA ROSA
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