Heroes of Mavia (MAVIA) rallies after adding gaming features, signals Web3 games are still active

Heroes of Mavia (MAVIA) turned into one of the trending tokens for the day, after years of borderline irrelevancy. The Heroes of Mavia game continued to function, though the native token was left behind as interest in Web3 gaming diminished.

Heroes of Mavia (MAVIA), one of the leading Web3 games during the 2021 boom, is trying to recover its influence. The MAVIA token was among the strongest gainers on Monday, with a non-stop rally taking the asset to a one-month high.

For the past few days before the rally, MAVIA was showing signs of being oversold and forgotten. The token had been sliding for months, but it finally broke out with a strong rally today.

Heroes of Mavia (MAVIA) gained to a one-month low, trying to break out of its long-term sliding trend. | Source: Coingecko

MAVIA appreciated by up to 370% at one point to trade at $0.56. MAVIA had a strong bounce from the recent lows, trading at $0.11 over the weekend. The token has been unraveling since last year’s launch, sliding from a peak above $9.70. Heroes of Mavia was relatively late to arrive on the Web3 gaming stage, and its native token had to adapt to the 2024 conditions.

The current MAVIA pump is highly leveraged and risky. Within a day, open interest for MAVIA rose from $430K to over $14M. The pump is expected to also reverse sharply, as funding switched to negative 2%.

Some of the reasons for rallies may be aggressive shorting of seemingly inactive ‘dead’ coins. The MAVIA token was more than 51% short, which may have caused traders to pump the asset and liquidate short positions. MAVIA and similar tokens can also achieve up to 5X growth in the short term, becoming appealing tools for fast gains as memes and other narratives slow down.

Heroes of Mavia hinted at new features

Heroes of Mavia is a civilization-building game, where players must expand and defend their base. The game’s goal is to bring wider adoption of Web3 features, where players retain on-chain ownership of gaming items, their bases, and progress.

The Heroes of Mavia game only carries a few dozen wallets daily, with some players choosing the off-chain version. The game itself boasts over 1.1M downloads and a vocal social media community. Heroes of Mavia aims to repair its features and grow its reputation, as the game has only earned 3.3 stars on Google Play.

The game is now trying to revive its online presence, recently launching an intern account coinciding with the MAVIA token pump.

New intern just dropped. GM Mavians!

— Heroes of Mavia (@MaviaGame) March 17, 2025

The game’s team also made several pre-announcements, including new gaming features. In the past months, gamers complained of unfair mechanics, which did not allow for mining sufficient gold to perform attacks.

Despite the flawed game mechanics, MAVIA proved resilient. The token depends on Bybit and Gate.IO listings, achieving over $127M in daily volumes. MAVIA was considered a token that could easily reach $1B valuation based on the game’s reputation. However, the asset did not benefit from the 2024 bull market, instead losing most of its value.

MAVIA revives Web3 gaming

Gaming tokens have been trading in the background, down from their previous peaks, but attempting a recovery. Gaming projects retain users or often offer free tokenless versions, and keep building one of the leading on-chain use cases.

The Web3 gaming sector is valued at $11.87M, with an overall rally in the green led by the MAVIA unexpected pump. Gaming projects are also trying to offer utility or platforms for other features. Currently, ImmutableX (IMX) is the leading gaming token.

Older projects are also trying to make a comeback, including GALA, SAND, and Axie Infinity (AXS). RONIN remains one of the most active tokens, offering an NFT and gaming platform and carrying all of the Axie Infinity assets.

Web3 gaming did not recover during the 2024 bull cycle, as interest shifted to meme tokens and AI agents. The current MAVIA rally is seen as unexpected and unrelated to an overall gaming trend. Despite this, risky traders and smart money can seek out older tokens that can still achieve significant pumps.