Axie Infinity NFT sales jump 350% amid game’s reported struggles to retain players

NFT sales in Axie Infinity have increased significantly following Sky Mavis’ pledge to restore hundreds of millions of dollars stolen in a hack. The game itself, however, has been reportedly struggling to retain players during the last month.

The sales volume of Axie Infinity’s NFTs jumped over 350% in 24 hours, Forkast reported on April 7.

This surge happened soon after Sky Mavis, a Vietnam-based company behind the popular blockchain game, raised $150 million to restore $625 million stolen from its Ronin Network last month.

Despite temporary sales growth, Axie Infinity still has problems when it comes to retaining its player base. According to data compiled by CoinDesk, the game’s DAU has dropped 30% over the last month — to around 107,240 daily active players.

“There is currently no organic engagement that retains players in the game – unlike traditional games like Fortnite, GTA, Candy Crush – where players are willing to pay to keep playing,” analyst DeFi Vader wrote last August.

What it means is that DAU growth for NFT and blockchain titles like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox is mostly dependent on their daily earnings. Inability to organically engage users leads to struggles with long-term retention, as players stay in these games to earn money rather than to enjoy gameplay.

That’s why the number of players of NFT titles is still relatively small compared to popular console and PC games like CS:GO, PUBG, and Fortnite, which attract hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on the daily basis.