In the short history of GameFi, there have been a few major milestones. One of the most notable came two years ago, when gaming studio Mythical Games sealed a partnership with the National Football League to create a blockchain mobile game, NFL Rivals.
The game, which compels players to create a championship-caliber team made up of generative 3D NFTs, featured the first-ever blockchain-based in-game marketplace on mobile. Its arrival followed the success of NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs’ NFT collectible game released in partnership with the NBA in 2020.
It is fair to say that both games have proven to be a hit, and collectively they have helped onboard many millions of players to blockchain. In June, NFL Rivals surpassed $6 million in lifetime trading volume, making the jump from $5 million to $6 million in just 27 days. The game has now racked up over 5 million downloads and, because it’s available as a web2 version without the need of a crypto wallet, it represents a smooth potential onramp for players who may explore its web3 counterpart at a later date.
MYTH Makes Gains
Mythical Games is not stopping there. On May 30 the company announced that it was partnering with Pudgy Penguins to create a new AAA mobile game. Described as an immersive game that will leverage the lore and humor that characterized the popular PFP collection, the release is expected to land sometime in 2025.
In the wake of the Pudgy Penguins news, Mythical’s native MYTH token saw a significant spike. Closing at $0.39 on May 29, it rose by almost 8% over the next two days. More broadly, the token is up by over 54% in the last 12 months.
These results are especially impressive when accounting for the fact that MYTH only recently became available for trading on HTX. The midcap GameFi token debuted on the Seychelles-based exchange on July 5 and is not currently listed by some of the industry’s other leading exchanges like Binance and Kraken.
The native token of the Mythical Chain that underpins all products from Mythical Games, MYTH is used in both the Mythical Marketplace and as a governance asset to vote on all proposals made through the Mythos DAO. It is also the medium of exchange favored by Dmarket, a marketplace for digital skins and NFTs acquired by Mythical Games last January.
While it could be argued that many GameFi tokens are driven by speculation rather than solid fundamentals, their value stemming from market cycles and hype rather than genuine momentum, robust tokenomics, and meaningful partnerships, the same cannot be said for MYTH. This is a consequence not just of the utility of the token itself but the trajectory of Mythical Games and the people behind it: its founding team is made up of ex-Blizzard and Activision devs whose hits included Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
Given the success of NFL Rivals, the upcoming launch of Pudgy Penguins, and a brightening market outlook more generally, Mythical Games’ native token is assuredly one to watch in 2024 and beyond.
