In a metaverse often criticized for being devoid of things to do, the poker tables in Decentraland’s ICE Poker virtual casino have never been busier.
The play-to-earn poker platform from Decentral Games is host to around 6,000 unique players each day, which makes up more than 30% of Decentraland’s daily users. In the past three months, the game has generated more than $7.5 million in revenue through its various income streams, according to Decentral Games founder Miles Anthony.
“At any given time, we have over 1,000 players playing poker,” Anthony told CoinDesk in an interview. “It doesn’t sound like a lot of users, but when it comes to the open metaverse, it’s pretty substantial considering the main issue right now with metaverses is that they’re empty.”
For as much press as “Web 3” is garnering, it’s important to remember the numbers are still small. The number of wallets (the pseudonymous, but not exactly precise, measure of actual humans interacting with Ethereum-based smart contracts) touching OpenSea on a daily basis is just 50,000, according to DappRadar. The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace was recently valued at $13.3 billion in a recent funding round.