7 of the Best Play-to-Earn Crypto Games to Invest in for 2023

In a recent report, DappRadar stated that $1.3 billion was raised by play-to-earn and metaverse games in Q3 2022 alone. This comes with almost a million daily active wallets interacting with these games. These figures show that, even since its beginning, play-to-earn gaming has been offering excellent investment opportunities that can’t be missed.

If you’re wondering where to start with play-to-earn investing, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’re going to break down seven of the best play-to-earn crypto games to invest in to get in early on the gaming revolution. Let’s explore.

1. Metacade (MCADE) – Your Best Play-to-Earn Investment

Metacade is a community hub built for the future of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming. It’s not a game itself, but Web3’s ultimate destination for finding the latest play-to-earn titles, connecting with like-minded gamers, and learning the best ways to maximise your play-to-earn income. 

Metacade’s core philosophy is to help players make the most out of P2E gaming. That’s why you’ll find reviews, game leaderboards, and alpha from industry experts that help anyone, no matter their gaming background, find their feet in this incredibly exciting industry. But perhaps most importantly, Metacade wants to help players have a direct say in the games they play.

To encourage experienced play-to-earn gamers to share their knowledge with new players, Metacade is rewarding those that post reviews, alpha, and other content with the native MCADE token for their contributions. But even if you’re a noob in the play-to-earn space, you can still earn just by sharing your thoughts on a new game you’ve been playing. 

Metacade offers multiple ways to boost your play-to-earn income, not just through sharing content and learning best practices. On the platform, you’ll find prize draws and tournaments for you to pit your skills against other Metacade players for a chance to win a big prize. If you can’t wait to start playing the latest play-to-earn titles, then you can also earn MCADE tokens for testing out new games for Metacade’s developer community. 

In 2024, you’ll even be able to find long-term work in the gaming industry with Metacade’s job board. Here, you’ll discover part-time tester roles, internships, and salaried positions with the game studios at the forefront of play-to-earn gaming. 

Once Metacade becomes a thriving community responsible for some of the best play-to-earn games on the market, the core team will step back and allow the community to take the reins by forming a decentralised autonomous community (DAO). From here, each key decision, like new features, partnerships, and leadership positions, will be voted on by MCADE holders, turning Metacade into the world’s first community-owned virtual arcade in the process. 

With its ideas around being the number one destination for everything play-to-earn gaming, community ownership, and crowdsourced game development, Metacade is poised to dominate the play-to-earn space. This leads us to crown MCADE as the number one best play-to-earn crypto to buy if you’re looking to get in early on the gaming revolution.

>>> You can participate in the Metacade pre-sale here <<<

2. Axie Infinity (AXS & SLP) – Team Battle Style Game

Axie Infinity is one of the most well-recognised play-to-earn games on the market today. Axie Infinity is a Pokémon-esque game built on the Ethereum blockchain. Players build up a team of three Axies that are used in battle against other players for the chance to win Smooth Love Potion (SLP) and Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) tokens, which can be sold for fiat. You can also earn by completing quests, defeating AI enemies in Adventure mode, and farming key resources.

Axies are stored on the blockchain as NFTs and can be bought and sold on the Axie Infinity Marketplace. Today, you’ll find Axies ranging from a couple of dollars for the most basic to hundreds of thousands for the rarest. Players can take advantage of the unique characteristics of their Axies to breed new Axies with rare features, enabling them to be sold for a profit.

Since a surge in popularity in 2021, Axie Infinity has remained one of the most popular play-to-earn games, still attracting hundreds of thousands of monthly players that transact millions of dollars every day. The game’s governance token and primary investment vehicle, AXS, is our second choice for the best play-to-earn cryptos to invest in.

3. The Sandbox (SAND)

The Sandbox is a 3D virtual world that allows players to build whatever their heart desires, like a literal sandbox. The Sandbox is split up into thousands of plots of digital land, represented by the LAND NFT. Users buy LAND and other in-game assets on The Sandbox’s Marketplace using the SAND token. This LAND is then used to build monetisable games, experiences, and social hubs for the rest of The Sandbox community to interact with.

If users want to create their own unique objects, they can use VoxEdit, a tool for designing art, cars, wearables, characters, monsters, and more. The items generated can be sold on the marketplace for a profit or used in the Game Maker, The Sandbox’s plug-and-play solution to game design. 

There are already dozens of immersive experiences to be found in The Sandbox, like Hell’s Gate, vEmpire, and Xalya Sanctuary, all built using VoxEdit and the Game Maker. For this reason, SAND is our third option for the best play-to-earn cryptos to invest in.

4. Splinterlands (SPS & DEC) – Card-based Battles and Deckbuilding

Splinterlands is a trading card game that can be thought of as the blockchain version of Magic: The Gathering. Each card is owned as an NFT and is used as part of a larger deck in head-to-head duels against other players. If you win enough games, you can climb to the top of your rank’s leaderboard to win packs of cards, which can be upgraded, sold, and even rented to other players. 

You can also earn Dark Energy Crystals (DEC), the game’s native currency, by completing quests and winning tournaments to spend on new cards. Some of these cards fetch thousands of dollars for the rarest and most powerful. Splinterlands also uses the Splintershards (SPS) token, which is a governance token that players use to vote on upcoming changes to the game. 

With over 300k active players in the past week alone (DappRadar), Splinterlands is one of the best play-to-earn games, and its SPS token is our fourth choice for the best play-to-earn cryptos to invest in. 

5. Alien Worlds (TLM) – Exploring the reaches of space

Alien Worlds is a blockchain-based game set in space. The primary objective of the game is to mine Trillium (TLM) while completing quests, battling other players, and developing your in-game land. This land is found on the game’s seven planets and can be mined for your own gain or rented out for others to mine. Each planet has its own DAO, and stakers of the TLM token can vote in weekly elections, treasury distribution, and other decisions that affect the planet’s future. 

When mining, there’s also a chance to win one of the game’s NFTs, like a tool, weapon, or minion, that can be used to get ahead in-game or sold on the marketplace. Players can also earn these NFTs by staking their TLM for a set period. The longer the lock-up, the rarer the NFT reward. 

Alien Worlds is the most popular play-to-earn game on the market, attracting about 650k active players in the past month, according to DappRadar. As the game continues to dominate, we’ll likely see TLM substantially rise in price. That prompts us to put it at number five as one of the best play-to-earn cryptos to invest in.

6. CryptoBlades (SKILL) – Raiding and Ranking

CryptoBlades is a play-to-earn game that merges traditional RPG gameplay with a crypto element. The game is set in a mystical land, and the aim is to battle other players, win SKILL tokens, and upgrade your weapons to climb the ranks. Each character has a set of attributes, like stamina and power, that give them a better chance of winning duels, but you can also purchase or forge new weapon NFTs to give yourself a fighting chance. 

Like many other RPG games, you can also team up with other players and go on raids. Raids are missions to take down one of the game’s bosses, and the higher your collective rank, the harder it will be to win. However, this also means your chances of earning some serious loot increase. Quests can also be completed to boost your rank, increasing your SKILL rewards from playing.

CryptoBlades is one of the leading play-to-earn RPG games and SKILL is our sixth choice for the best play-to-earn cryptos to invest in.

7. Gods Unchained (GODS) – Card Battles with NFTs

Gods Unchained is another turn-based play-to-earn trading card game. Each card is stored as an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning that it can be bought and sold on the game’s marketplace using the GODS token. Cards have a wide range of different attributes, giving them more rarity and enabling them to be sold for thousands of dollars at a time. 

New players are given 140 cards to start with, and through winning battles and climbing the leaderboards, can build a powerful deck to take on higher-ranked players. They can also win Flux, an in-game currency that is non-tradeable, unlike GODS. Flux is used to forge new cards and improve existing ones, which can be used to advance your deck or sold for a sweet profit. 

Like Splinterlands, Gods Unchained has gained a loyal fan base through its improvement in the trading card game genre. With digital ownership being brought into the mix, Gods Unchained has seen rapid success as one of the premier games in this genre. Therefore, GODS is our seventh choice as the best play-to-earn crypto to invest in. 

The Best Overall Play-to-Earn Crypto Project: Metacade (MCADE)

There are many excellent games on this list that are likely to do very well over the years. Games like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox have already proven that they can attract sizeable crowds with their innovative game mechanics, while titles like Splinterlands and Gods Unchained are demonstrating that improving an old format with new technology can yield incredible results. 

There’s also the risk that some of the games might fall out of favour for a wide variety of reasons. That’s why there’s no other place to put Metacade but in pole position. Metacade only relies on play-to-earn gaming growing as a whole to see success, not any one game’s performance. As old titles fade away and new titles join this rapidly-growing industry, Metacade will be there at the centre of it all. 

When you consider that, according to Crypto.com, play-to-earn gaming is expected to grow at 10x the rate of traditional gaming by 2025, Metacade is in a perfect position to deliver massive gains over the next few years as its popularity soars. And there is no better time to buy than right now. 

With the Metacade presale still in phase 1, you can pick up 125 MCADE tokens for just $1. Compare that to phase 8, where you’ll get just 50 MCADE tokens for $1. If you want to more than double your long-term returns on Metacade, then consider whether you should become one of the earliest investors in this fantastic project. It could just be one of the best play-to-earn cryptos you ever invest in.

You can participate in the Metacade pre-sale here.