Here’s why 31% of blockchains games were shuttered in 2023

The Big Blockchain Game List, created by Jon Jordan, found that 407 games out of the 1,322 games that were ever included in the list, were discontinued last year. Therefore, 31% of all blockchain games in the list were halted in 2023.

Of the 407 games that went dark, the majority were shuttered in the first half of the year — 248 games were discontinued in the first half of 2023 compared to 162 games in the second half.

Fifty (50) or 31% of the games discontinued in the second half of 2023 were live while the remaining 69% were in the development phase when shuttered.

With 18 discontinued games, the BNB chain saw the highest number of scrapped blockchain games while Polygon came a close second with 17 games going dark. 10 blockchains games on Ethereum were discontinued in the second half of 2023 while Sui and Solana each recorded a loss of 9 games.

It is worth noting that the blockchain for 15% of the games discontinued in H2 2023 was marked as “unknown” in the Big Blockchain Game List data. This is likely because several small games, especially those in their development stages, often do not clearly state the blockchain they use in their documentation or social media channels.

Most canceled games cited funding and market conditions as the reason for discontinuation. While most cancellations included small games, two prominent ones discontinued last year include Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party and Goals.

On Dec. 18 last year, Mythical Games sunset its desktop game Blankos Block Party, launched a year and a half earlier. Mythical Games announced that it will focus on launching a mobile game instead.

Goals had raised seed funding of $15 million in 2022, topped up by $40 million in 2023. However, the team announced that it will no longer be integrating blockchain.