Sky Mavis, the creator of Axie Infinity, the popular play-to-earn crypto game during the epidemic, may have taken a significant move toward regaining many of the customers it lost following a turbulent 2022.
The business said that the next version of its blockchain-enabled Axie Infinity video game, which allows players to compete while collecting and exchanging non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or earning rewards, will be available for download on Apple’s App Store.
According to the announcement, the company will initially debut the game on the App Store in several Latin American and Southeast Asian nations. Sky Mavis co-founder Jeffrey Zirlin said the restricted deployment would let the company “gather data around retention rates” before an eventual global debut.
In this early iOS version of Origins, users can play with their own NFT axies or upgradeable beginning axies. Both these features will function in the Adventure and Arena modes.
However, some limits will apply to comply with current App Store standards. For example, Moonshard crafting recipes will be available in-app, whereas SLP crafting recipes necessitate desktop/Android APK downloads. Moreover, players can continue to earn SLP through gameplay on their iOS device, but these prizes will no longer be available in-app.
Sky Mavis released the game’s current version, titled ‘Axie Infinity: Origins,’ last year. In addition to this update, Zirlin informed the community that Sky Mavis has been working with Apple for about a year to obtain approval to debut ‘Axie Infinity: Origins’ on the App Store.
However, Apple has previously made it difficult for companies that wish to allow their smartphone app users to purchase, sell, and trade NFTs. Only a few Web 3.0 projects, like Uniswap Mobile Wallet App, have made it to the iOS Play Store so far.
How is Axie Infinity Gaining Recognition?
For the time being, Zirlin stated Sky Mavis anticipates a surge in growth if iPhone users download the game.
“Seventy percent of our users come from family and friend referrals,” he says. “So being on the App Store… that’s important for our growth machine.”
According to Sky Mavis, ‘Axie Infinity: Origins’ is the “most-played web3 game right now,” with over 1.5 million downloads.
There hasn’t been a web3 video game or NFT collection that has come close to matching Axie Infinity’s success in trading and adoption.
Also Read: How Does ‘Axie Infinity’ Compare To The World Of Blockchain Gaming?
According to DappRadar, Axie Infinity, not only introduced millions of users to the play-to-earn gaming model during the pandemic but also generated more than $4 billion in trade volume. For a period, people in the Philippines could also make a living by playing the game.
Further stating the game’s popularity through word-of-mouth, Zirlin says, “We’re the only web3 game that mainstreams people have heard of.”
According to CryptoSlam! data, Axie NFTs traded for $2.3 million in less than 140,000 transactions last month.Also Read: Axie Infinity Boosting Crypto Adoption
