Aliens TLDR

Axie Infinity was anticipating an “aggressive target” of 250,000 users by the end of 2021, but finished the year with a community of 2.9 million members Campbell estimates that less than 20% of Axie Infinity’s universe has been deployed and told Blockworks that there is a lot more work to be done Axie Infinity, a popular play-to-earn (P2E) game, experienced serious growth — and serious growing pains — in 2021.

But this year, its focus will be all about gameplay, according to Andrew Campbell, an Axie Infinity program lead who spoke to Blockworks.

2022 is all about launching its battle experience, Origins, and a land-based gaming experience, Project K, said Campbell, whose official title is program lead for Esports and content creator programs at Sky Mavis (the company that develops Axie Infinity).

Sky Mavis launched Axie Infinity in May 2018 as a virtual world P2E game where users earn cryptocurrency rewards that can be sold on centralized exchanges like Binance or can be swapped for ether, USDC or Axie governance tokens (AXS) on Axie Infinity’s decentralized exchange.

“Our servers couldn’t handle it.” Due to its massive growth in such a short timeframe, Axie developers had to focus on scaling its infrastructure to accommodate demand, Campbell said.

“Now we’re set for the foreseeable future in terms of scaling in that regard, but it really slowed down our progress of launching Origins and [Project K].” In October 2021, Axie Infinity launched a staking program for its governance tokens, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) and Smooth Love Potion (SLP), which introduced a new component to its gaming ecosystem.

2021 was an eye-opening year for the team, according to Campbell — not just in the growth of the game’s user base but also in expansion plans for Axie beyond gameplay.

“I think it gets really exciting when you start thinking about the different games that people could build around Axies and the different applications that people will be able to build on Ronin and plug into the blockchain universe.” Campbell estimates that less than 20% of Axie Infinity’s universe has been deployed and said there is a lot more work to be done.