Crypto gaming has had a crazy year, and there have been some surprises.
At the start of the year, who would’ve thought that tap-to-earn gaming—a super-streamlined riff on the play-to-earn model—would become the biggest story of the year? Who would have thought that we’d be ending the year with an enormous crypto game making inroads among mainstream gamers?
This is just a small sample of what we’ve seen this year. With 2025 around the corner here are seven games which have really defined the crypto gaming scene over the past 12 months. Keep an eye out for updates. DecryptGG continues to provide updates on upcoming games and their impact in the gaming world.
The Notcoin
Notcoin could have drawn obvious inspirations from earlier “clicker” games like Cookie Clicker, but it undoubtedly created the Telegram tap-to-earn craze—and actually delivered, too.
Players received crypto worth billions of dollars (at the peak of NOT’s value), resulting in a clone explosion. Even though some of them attracted more users, none of these clones could match the success of Notcoin.
Off Grid
It’s no surprise to see GG’s choice for 2024 Game of the Year on the list. There is nothing that comes close in terms of pure gameplay. Off the Grid offers a riff of the popular battle royale game Apex Legends as well as Call of Duty Warzone. The game also adds some exciting new twists like cybernetic limbs with special abilities.
That yielded many viral moments when the game launched in early access in October—but what many players may not realize is that there’s a blockchain behind the scenes, with an upcoming token launch and tradable item NFTs sure to shift the narrative around the game.
Pixels
Pixels, a social farming game, gained a good deal of attention in 2023 when it migrated from the Ethereum gaming platform Ronin to its own. But it really became a hit crypto early this year, when it released its PIXEL token, offering significant rewards to players who were early adopters.
Pixels didn’t fizzle out once the crypto funds were handed out, however, as the game has only expanded and evolved since, keeping players plugged in as the developers explore spinoff games—like Pixel Dungeons and an early access Telegram game—plus further enhancements ahead.
Hamster Kombat
Hamster Kombat was briefly one of the world’s most talked-about games this summer. The Telegram tap to earn game attracted 300 million players.
This game reached an even larger audience, with more gameplay features and the ability to manage your own crypto-exchange. Many players found the airdrop disappointing, while a second planned season of gameplay has yet to materialize.
Fantasy Top
Fantasy Top, or at least those who were immersed in Crypto-Twitter during the first two weeks of this year felt like it was one of the biggest things in crypto. Fantasy Top, a layer-2 Ethereum network based on Blast and designed as an NFT fantasy sport game centered around Twitter influencers was a huge engagement machine during that short period. We’re interested to see how Fantasy Top will perform now that it has recently raised new funding.
Parallel
GG selected Parallel as the best cryptogame last year. However, it was not until 2024 when players started making significant inroads. Parallel has entered an open beta phase, is now available to more people via Epic Games Store and its esports league will debut in Las Vegas March 2025.
Fernando Alonso is a well-known F1 driver who has also endorsed the game. The game is still among the best blockchain games available, and its popularity seems to only be increasing.
The Game Crypto
Crypto: The Game is indeed a game built around crypto, but it’s not a video game—well, mostly. It is multimedia You can also learn more about the experience of others by clicking here. Inspired by the TV Show “Survivor,” Blending real-world events with online ones, and adding a bit of gaming to the mix.
Early this year, the two first seasons were released and they received a lot of praise from players. They described them as having some of the best times in their careers. The third season, which will be released after being purchased by Uniswap Labs in the fall of this year, will aim to keep the same compelling feel as the first two seasons.
Stephen Graves is the editor