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This was the 12 months that, for a lot of, the crypto gaming dream died. However that dream didn't finish by itself—it was smothered by enterprise capitalists who stopped believing in it, and crucially, stopped investing in it.
In 2025, quite a few notable crypto video games shut down their operations, which Decrypt has tracked all year long. These closures left builders unemployed, devoted participant bases deserted, and whole collections of digital property rendered virtually ineffective.
A few of these titles even promised to be eternally video games, claiming the ability of the blockchain would maintain it working indefinitely—a promise that was evidently damaged.
The online game trade has confronted broader struggles lately, together with widespread layoffs, and it’d be straightforward to say that every one of those video games closed down as a result of they merely weren’t adequate.
Whereas we didn’t see a recreation with the standard (or scale) of Fortnite go offline this 12 months, we did see some genuinely promising titles completely halt improvement (see: Deadrop). The reality about crypto gaming’s existential epidemic is that enterprise capitalists have realized it's merely not price their time or cash.
The vast majority of crypto video games that shut down in 2025 did in order builders pointed to a scarcity of funding to proceed improvement. Elsewhere, builders said that video games had run their course, or that groups have been pivoting to new ventures—principally these exterior of crypto and gaming.
pic.twitter.com/26DK9pWCaR
— Midnight Society (@12am) January 30, 2025
“My guess is that almost all of them in all probability raised cash in 2022, and that is simply how lengthy their runway has lasted,” Robby Yung, CEO of investments at enterprise capital agency Animoca Manufacturers, in addition to CEO of crypto recreation The Sandbox, informed Decrypt. “Enterprise capital funding in gaming has been dry for years,” he added.
A number of different trade specialists additionally informed Decrypt that VC funding has began to vanish, leading to a slew of video games shutting down.
Beanie, the pseudonymous founding father of GM Capital, stated that “all belief is gone” between traders and recreation makers as a consequence of a historical past of builders altering the phrases post-investment—corresponding to rising the token complete provide. Beanie stated he’s now “extra cautious” when making gaming investments.
Theodore Agranat, director of Web3 at Off the Grid maker Gunzilla Video games, additionally stated that chatting with his community of enterprise capitalists and crypto gaming devs, it seems like an “open” and “common sentiment” that funding has dried up.
“That entire state of affairs was fucked as a result of even when you had a superb VC, their [limited partners] had this… thesis that crypto firms ought to have twice the return in half the time of a daily fund. In order that they wished these redonkulous returns and had no persistence,” Chris Heatherly, recreation trade veteran and former CEO of Nice Massive Stunning Tomorrow—developer of the shuttered The Thriller Society—informed Decrypt. “In the direction of the tip of 2023, mid-2023, crypto funds stopped deploying and writing checks.”
Recreation improvement is certainly a tricky enterprise even exterior of crypto, with huge video games like Marvel Lady, Kingdom Hearts Lacking-Hyperlink, and a new Titanfall recreation all getting cancelled this 12 months. When including crypto to that already fractured equation, you’re additionally attracting profit-hungry traders and placing your failures on a extra public stage—because of many crypto builders constructing within the open as a strategy to entice funding and group assist.
Heatherly defined that The Thriller Society had “one of many larger audiences in Web3” with sturdy underlying metrics, corresponding to early participant retention. Nevertheless, he claims that traders didn’t care about any of this, and slightly informed him to develop his social media accounts, pay for influencers to advertise the sport, and different “phony-baloney bullshit.”
Buyers didn’t care concerning the recreation, he believes. The Thriller Society shut down in February as a consequence of a scarcity of funding.
Yung informed Decrypt that almost all Web3 funding funds have moved to being “token-first,” slightly than wanting fairness within the recreation. Conventional VC corporations, he defined, often make investments with a five-year window to exit by way of an IPO, or preliminary public providing. Nevertheless, as that is uncommon in gaming—not to mention crypto gaming—these funds are as a substitute desperate to see crypto video games launch tokens to allow them to exit their funding.
“For a lot of recreation builders, this was additional down their roadmap, so it presents a problem of bringing [the token generation event] ahead when perhaps the sport/group improvement isn’t mature sufficient but,” Yung informed Decrypt.
This method affords a brand new set of challenges, nevertheless, as crypto gaming tokens have struggled simply as a lot as recreation improvement this 12 months. On the time of writing, there are not any gaming tokens within the high 150 cash by market cap, in line with CoinGecko, and solely two amongst the highest 200.
Immutable’s IMX token, which sat within the high 100 cash earlier this 12 months, has plummeted in worth by greater than 85% during the last 12 months, in line with CoinGecko. And regardless of working a robust recreation in Off the Grid with a passionate fanbase, Gunzilla Video games’ GUN token is down 89% from its all-time excessive set in March, as of December 15.
Right here’s the checklist of crypto video games and studios
That shut down in 2025
• Battlebound / Anterris
• Blade of God
• Blast Royale
• Champions Ascension
• Derby Race
• Ember Sword
• Goombles
• JungleXYZ
• Kryptomon
• Good day Monster
• Loot Legends
• Metalcore
• Thriller…— StarPlatinum (@StarPlatinum_) October 30, 2025
“Tokens simply aren’t investible. Individuals don’t belief them. And for good cause,” Beanie stated. “The VC payback is by way of tokens. The general public isn’t valuing tokens anymore—even from established initiatives that when had baseline valuations within the a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} for any half-decent app or recreation.”
“VC investing in any semi-credible crew at a valuation of $20 million to $50 million seed (fairly customary) was a straightforward win,” he added. “Now it’s a 90% loss base case.”
Equally, this token-first method applies undesirable stress to the builders.
Krypticrooks, the pseudonymous co-founder of Fractional Rebellion Studios, which developed the now-iced recreation OpenSeason, beforehand informed Decrypt that including a token into the combination was a “fucking nightmare.” He stated that it break up the crew’s consideration between creating the sport and supporting the token’s value, all whereas being shouted at by gamers and retail traders alike.
Moreover, meme coin launchpad Pump.enjoyable has fully modified the panorama for tokens, with the eye span of traders dropping as extra short-term achieve alternatives flooded into the market. Heatherly stated that each enterprise capital funds and retail traders had misplaced curiosity in a long-term crypto gaming token; all they wished was the following “Buttcoin” that may put up insane day by day beneficial properties.
Now that meme coin fervor has cooled down, funds have flowed into new narratives. Agranat from Gunzilla Video games believes AI and real-world property are two asset lessons which are at present taking consideration and capital away from crypto gaming. This can be seen with a number of crypto recreation studios pivoting to AI initiatives—certainly one of which stated it was as a consequence of funding points.
Finally, each enterprise capitalists and retail traders have grown fatigued by poorly performing crypto gaming investments and have opted to place their cash elsewhere. In doing this, crypto video games have crumbled underneath their very own weight, and players have been left within the mud.
The makers of crypto buying and selling card recreation Splinterlands created the Crypto Gaming Restoration Fund for deserted gamers to try to claw again a few of the worth of their now-useless crypto property. The undertaking assigned $500,000 price of crypto tokens and property to the fund, calling upon different initiatives to affix the marketing campaign. Nevertheless, no main initiatives joined in.
Different video games, corresponding to Deadrop, left gamers with no straightforward approach for gamers to be refunded. Luckily, some group members have been in a position to drive their banks to refund their NFT purchases, claiming that the studio didn’t ship what was promised on the time of sale.
Monetary loss is one factor, however some crypto gamers purchased into these property with the promise of being a part of the event course of and becoming a member of a burgeoning group. For some, it felt like a one-sided break-up, ripping away their emotions of belonging and behavior. Every little thing was misplaced.
“Many individuals use video video games as a type of escape, and whenever you discover a recreation or gaming universe to immerse your self in, you accomplish that out of ardour,” a content material creator and fan of Deadrop, Mayor Reynolds, informed Decrypt. “When that recreation or story involves an finish, you not solely lose the sport however, many occasions, the buddies and group that you just made via it."
"It leaves a void in your life past simply not having your recreation to play anymore," he added. "It’s like dropping a part of your on a regular basis life in so some ways.”
