What are The Best Gaming Tokens to Invest in 2022?

Cryptocurrency has been one of the fastest growing asset classes over the past few years. And the types of cryptocurrencies go far beyond just the normal Bitcoin and Ethereum investments. 

One of the most popular cryptocurrency investments in Q4 2021 has been a type of cryptocurrency called gaming tokens. These are the native tokens used on various blockchain games. 

As you can imagine, the combination of blockchain with video games will be a huge industry, so many investors are looking for any projects that might have a significant first mover advantage.

With that in mind, this article will cover some of the gaming tokens that could make a very good investment in 2022. 

4 Best Gamings Tokens of 2022

There are at least 100 (that’s conservative) blockchain gaming projects going on in crypto at any given time. Most of them are complete scams, so writing a list that includes every single gaming token would go far beyond the scope of this article. 

Instead, we will focus on blockchain gaming projects from legitimate teams that have released some sort of working game. The industry is still in its infancy and will constantly evolve, so even a game that isn’t all that good yet (ie. Axie Infinity) still has the potential to morph into something truly amazing. 

Axie Infinity (AXS)

Axie Infinity is the most popular blockchain game by a far margin. The game is actually based on Pokemon with Axie Infinity players needing a stack of 3 Axies before they can start battling the Axies’ of other players.

If you’re familiar with Pokemon, then it’s basically the same thing, but on the blockchain rather than with trading cards.   

Now, Axie Infinity is so popular because the Axies are actually NFTs that the players own. More importantly, players can earn AXS tokens by playing the game. And collecting those tokens can prove very profitable with players that know what they’re doing regularly making a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month. 

The token started the year at a measly $0.54 and has gone as high as $150. Early investors in Axie Infinity and even early players that saved their tokens made quite a large amount of money. 

Of course, the price will likely not see another 28,000% increase in 2022, but it’s reasonable that Axie Infinity will continue its reign as the most popular blockchain video game. 

The Sandbox (SAND)

The Sandbox is a different type of blockchain game than the turn-based Axie Infinity. A player can create their own digital world without any coding experience thanks to the scripting tools available to players. Assets and land are then stored on digital real estate called LAND. 

SAND tokens are the native tokens of The Sandbox and are used for LAND transactions or in-game equipment purchases. 

As with Earth, there is a limited amount of LAND available for use and not all plots of LAND are created equal. In the case of The Sandbox, ~166,000 plots of LAND are available for sale. 

Sadly, the game is mostly barren at the moment because there just isn’t that much functionality. But there have already been sales of LAND for millions of dollars as people want to buy their slice of property in anticipation of massive appreciation. 

As for the token, it has had a tumultuous year with a lot of all time highs and some heavy crashes. We still view it as a promising game because the developers have brought on a few different celebrities for endorsement deals combined with the game itself actually sounds pretty cool. 

Enjin Coin (ENJ)

Enjin Coin is a little different from the traditional blockchain gaming token. It’s actually the coin on a blockchain meant for creating blockchain games. Game developers that build on Enjin get access to software kits that make adding in-game currency and a set of items much easier than building from scratch. 

You should view investing in Enjin Coin in the same vein as investing in a company like Valve (Steam). It’s not quite the same because Enjin offers more playability between games on the platform than something like Steam, but it’s the closest comparison we can find in the traditional gaming community. 

Again, Enjin does not make games. They simply allow game developers to build games on their platform. The bonus for players is they can use Enjin Coin on any game built on Enjin. Developers like it because they get access to a player base and access to software development kits that make building out in-game currency functionality rather easy.

Enjin Coin mooned in April around $4, dipped, and has stayed flat for the rest of 2021. This is somewhat normal in a new industry and a flood of blockchain games like Decentraland and The Sandbox have likely stolen some of the liquidity from Enjin. 

With that said, Enjin Coin has so much versatility that we can not ignore it as an investment. We really like Enjin because it does not depend on any single game for the success of the project – it’s an investment in a platform and overall vision of blockchain gaming. 

Decentraland (MANA)

Decentraland is a virtual reality gaming platform built on Ethereum. Of all the projects on the list, Decentraland is the one that we like the most. 

The developers appear to have ideas about turning Decentraland into an Oasis type game from Ready Player One. For those that haven’t read the book or seen the movie, do one or both to fully understand the future of blockchain gaming. 

Anyway, Decentraland has gained a lot of popularity likely because people that have watched Ready Player One see that vision in Decentraland. 

It plans to become a shared virtual reality world where players can purchase plots of land called LAND. But Decentraland has a very heavy sandbox focus because players can do pretty much anything they want with their land (or character) in the virtual world. 

The native token of Decentraland is called MANA. It’s used for normal transactions, purchasing land, and also gives the holder voting rights concerning the governance of the project. 

Now, as much as we like the idea and vision of Decentraland, it’s still mostly an idea and vision. The game only has a couple hundred users per month, which makes it a risky investment. 

If the game becomes popular, then an early investor could make a small fortune. The risk being that the game does not catch on with the general public and dies a slow death. It goes without saying that investors would lose their money in the second scenario. 

Personally, we believe the odds of Decentraland succeeding are much higher than the price the market is giving Decentraland. However, one must do their own research before making an investment in something as wild as cryptocurrency. 

Spotting Scam Gaming Tokens and Projects

There is a lot of money to be made by speculating in the blockchain gaming industry. Scammers have noticed this and have made interesting sounding blockchain gaming projects to pitch to investors. 

Of course, the scammers have no intention of turning their interesting sounding blockchain gaming project into an actual game. Instead, they take investor money and run off before delivering a project. 

So, how do you spot these scams? Is it possible to spot a scam blockchain game?

Yes, it’s certainly possible to spot a scam blockchain game. 

It’s actually fairly easy. Here are two quick tips to avoid investing in a scam blockchain game. 

• Anonymous development teams are a bad sign in blockchain gaming. 
  • We know it’s common in the greater cryptocurrency industry. It’s not particularly common with blockchain games, and almost always indicates a scam.
• The developers push a very vague game idea.
  • The best blockchain games have some element of fun to them. This can be good art, good gameplay, or just an interesting story. That’s too much work for scammers. Scammers have a tendency to promote vague game ideas that sound good on paper, but are simply buzzwords (metaverse, sandbox style, etc.).
• It’s on Binance Smart Chain. 
  • We know this will receive some hate. However, it’s undeniable that Binance Smart Chain has a disproportionate amount of scams on it, which is why it’s referred to as Binance Scam Chain. It’s gotten to the point that serious investors don’t even bother looking at something that’s released on Binance Smart Chain because of the large number of scams on the blockchain. 

Closing Thoughts

That covers it some of the best gaming tokens to invest in 2022. All the tokens on the list have a promising future in 2022. 

However, it’s still an extremely young industry, and that means a lot can change in a year. A new game emerges regulations appear out of nowhere, or any other random thing that could change the entire path of the blockchain gaming industry. 

This makes it hard to predict the future of any one particular gaming project. We do know that blockchain gaming will eventually disrupt the traditional gaming industry as it gives more power to the players. This makes an early investment in a game a wise investment as all it takes is one of the early games blowing up in popularity to make up for the losses.