P2E // Play to Earn

When I first discovered the world of Play-to-Earn in 2021, I thought it was the future, and the near future! But just a few months later, reality hit hard. 😅

Those who discovered my Twitch channel around that time, and who were also into P2E games, know exactly what I’m talking about. We were at the end of the 2021 bull run, and a flood of new P2E projects was emerging. Most of them turned out to be some kind of Ponzi scheme: the first players made money, while the last ones saw their investments go up in smoke, often in the form of NFTs that quickly lost value.

At the same time, the end of the bull run caused the crypto market to crash, further reducing investments in NFT-based games. It was a bloodbath... Projects were dying one after another, and only a few managed to survive.

Yet, the concept itself was solid, and it still is today: combining gaming with a real in-game economy.

Imagine if, the higher your level, the more valuable your characters and in-game items became when resold. If every video game worked like that, there would probably be a lot more “pro” gamers, meaning people actually earning a living from playing.

The usual criticism of gamers “wasting their time” would probably fade away a little. At least it wouldn’t just be “wasted time.” I’m putting that in quotes, because people play games mainly for fun, not to waste time.

Of course, some games can become addictive and end up interfering with more important aspects of life. But if all those games could actually generate income, it would be a different story.

For now, that’s not the case: FIFA, GTA, Fortnite, Apex, Call of Duty (and so many others) don’t generate any income for the average player. Maybe that will change in the future. Some people still speculate about the integration of cryptocurrency into GTA 6, which I doubt, but who knows...

As of 2025, the catalog of truly polished P2E games remains limited. Sure, there are hundreds of them, almost 3,000 listed on playtoearn.com as of February 2025. But here’s the problem:

Either the “play” part isn’t well developed, meaning the games lack the fun and immersion of traditional titles (like the ones mentioned earlier);
or the “earn” part is too small; you often have to pay to play by buying mandatory NFTs, and/or the rewards system (crypto or NFT-based) is minimal.

The true Play-to-Earn revolution will begin when AAA-level games with high-end graphics become accessible to everyone and offer meaningful earning potential. When the more you play, the more you can earn: real money, whether in crypto or NFTs, as long as it can be converted into stablecoins. Eventually, players could make a full-time living from certain P2E games.

I’m not necessarily wishing for that for everyone, nor am I encouraging it. But I think it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if most (or even all) video games had some sort of reward system that allowed players to earn money. Right now, you can play for hours, days, months, and even years, and not make a single cent!

Conclusion:

I stopped playing the few P2E games I used to play because I see them as a waste of time, not enough income on the “earn” side, and not enough fun on the “play” side. Especially the farming-style games like Sunflower and others in that genre.

Either I want real entertainment; in that case, I play video games or do other activities (music, sports, card games...) that don’t make money.
Or I want to make money; in that case, I work, invest in crypto, or find another productive way.

But for now, today’s P2E games don’t give me fun or income (let alone both).

Still, I hope that era will come for gaming enthusiasts like me.

That’s also why I haven’t deleted all the P2E channels from my Discord server. I still want to keep an eye on how things evolve, especially for the games I’ve followed since their early development.