The concept of Play-to-Earn games in Metaverse is a fairly new approach that combines entertainment and the opportunity to earn real money. The boom of P2E games was directly related to the development of blockchain technology and NFTs. So, the meaning of P2E games is as simple as it is: you need to complete tasks and receive rewards in the form of cryptocurrency or NFTs.
Further, you may exchange assets for fiat money and withdraw them to your e-wallet. What’s more, you can buy and sell assets from other players. The main feature of P2E games is a combination of relative simplicity and tempting earning opportunities. This is the reason why the P2E game market (global) size reached $3292.73M in 2022. According to predictions, this value will reach $8856.95M in 4 years.
How P2E Games Work?
Before moving to the top five P2E games, it is crucial to discover how they work. Explore the main features in the list below.
- The player registers in the system and starts the game.
- Depending on the game type, you need to complete specific tasks. It can be battles between players, cooking potions, harvesting resources, etc.
- For a successfully completed task, you receive in-game currency, NFT, or cryptocurrency (for instance, ETH). These rewards have real value, so you can use them to trade or convert to fiat money.
- Most of the games have functionality for trade operations without the involvement of third-party platforms. However, you feel free to use third-party crypto exchanges as well as using the Ethereum casinos currency.
What’s more, there are games where you can bet on internal assets or participate in decentralized finance operations. This is an option for getting additional rewards. Currently, there is no single body that would control financial transactions within P2E games.
The same applies to taxes (for example, on profit). It depends on the specific jurisdiction in which the player is located. For example, in the USA, it is the Securities and Exchange Commission, in Great Britain—the Financial Conduct Authority, in Canada—the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
Top 5 Metaverse Games Which Can Bring Earnings
Along with earning at online casino sites with real money, you may play P2E games and get about $1-$10 daily. Of course, these are approximate figures since it all depends on the skill level and time invested into the gameplay.
Currently, you can try your hand at about 2,766 games that support the Play-to-Earn approach. They differ in genre, supported platforms, blockchain type, market cap, and more. Below, you can check reviews of the top 5 P2E games that are worth paying attention to.
Sandbox
This is one of the most popular games where you are almost not limited in your creativity. You can build your own digital world and monetize it. The Sandbox is based on Ethereum and allows not only trading but also creating digital assets in the form of NFTs. These can be items, equipment or even landscape objects to which you get the right of ownership. Among the main game’s instruments, the following are worth noting:
- VoxEdit: a solution for creating objects;
- Game Maker: a tool for placing created objects on LANDs and implementing game mechanics.
Then, using the Marketplace, you can buy, trade, or sell assets you created.
Axie Infinity
This game would be a real find for those who like animals. Registered players can breed pets, which are called Axies. With their help, you can build kingdoms and compete with other players in the PVP format.
Selling Axies you created is one of the main sources of income. In order to get more money, you should do your best to create as powerful Axie as possible. For this, you should combine the character traits of 6 breeds that have 6 body parts.
The cost of such digital animals may range from $3 to over $99 billion. What’s more, you can earn by buying and selling land within 5 regions. The price of the most affordable land is about $900+, while the most expensive one costs $1,000,000+. 
Upland
Upland is a game in which you interact within the virtualized analog of the world in which we live. As a player, you can communicate with other participants, buy things, sell items, and more.
The game is advantageously distinguished by an economic model that almost completely repeats the real one. During the game, you can buy real estate in London or San Francisco, sign up for contracts, travel by car, and create your own business.
The game operates using EOS blockchain functionality. But you are not limited to this asset and can instantly import the ones you want.
Wilderness
The game has a powerful economic component. You can buy or sell things using the proprietary WILDY token. In contrast to the urbanistic Upland, the theme of Wilderness is related to the world of magic. Feel free to join exciting battles in the best traditions of the MMORPG genre.
You can also earn money by exploring the world or, for example, brewing potions. A pleasant bonus is weekly parties for more than 150 participants, created to entertain the Wilderness community.
Alien Worlds
This is an engaging space-themed game about a galactic adventurer. The functionality of the game gives you the freedom to perform a wide variety of tasks, including the following:
- Resource mining;
- Participation in mini-games;
- Visiting the planets,
- Playing quests.
However, the goal of all these activities is the same — to earn as much Trilium as possible. This in-game currency (also known as TLM) is the main incentive for exploring Alien Worlds. The game allows you to try multiple blockchains to store digital assets.
Is this everything you can expect from the game? Definitely not, because it offers an extremely quick developing community. There, you can learn about unique additions to the main game, how to solve puzzles, and more.
The Future of Play-to-Earn Games
The current situation shows that the P2E industry will continue to grow and develop. With the improvement of technologies (especially AR and VR), the player experience will become even more captivating and immersive.
Even now, blockchain technologies are being improved almost every day, which will lead to greater stability of gameplay and better sensitive data protection. If we look broadly at the P2E games, we can see great potential for creating new career paths and financial possibilities.
