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Caladan Report: Web3 Game "Rug Pulls" $15 Billion, 93% of GameFi Projects Have Failed

2026.04.23 21:12:47

**Web3 Games Burn $15B with Minimal Player Traction; 93% of GameFi Projects Failed: Caladan Data** On April 23, CoinDesk reported that liquidity and trading firm Caladan’s data reveals Web3 games have burned $15 billion chasing a token-driven future—yet failed to win over players. Key findings from Caladan’s report: - ~93% of GameFi projects have declared failure. - Token values have plummeted ~95% from their 2022 peak. - Studio funding shrank 93% by 2025. - Over 300 blockchain games have shut down. “Capital is being destroyed at every level,” the report notes, with venture capitalists, retail NFT buyers, game guilds, and the tap-to-earn trend among Telegram’s 300 million users all falling victim. Standout examples: - Hamster Kombat lost 96% of its users within six months of launch. - YGG (flagship game guild Yield Guild Games’ token) dropped 99.6% from its November 2021 peak. Striking individual project failures include: - Pixelmon: Raised $70 million via a 2022 NFT sale but has yet to release its public game four years later. - Ember Sword: Burned $18 million over seven years of development, shut down in May 2023, and offered no refunds. - Gala Games: Faces a lawsuit alleging its co-founder embezzled $130 million in tokens. - Square Enix: Quietly closed its Symbiogenesis experimental project in July 2023. - Axie Infinity: Once an industry leader, daily active users have fallen from a peak of ~2.7 million to roughly 5,500 now (per DappRadar data). A Coda Labs survey cited in the report adds context: Even at the height of the crypto game hype, only 12% of players had tried one. Capital flow has shifted sharply: Web3 games made up 62.5% of Web3 venture capital in 2022, but by 2025 that share dropped to single digits. Funds have moved to AI, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and Layer 2 infrastructure. Even Animoca Brands—once a top Web3 game backer—has cut games to ~25% of its portfolio, pivoting to stablecoins, RWAs, and AI.
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