Last year, YGG ran a special Pixels mission season, and after the data came out, there was one line that made me pause and stare for a long time: over 50% of participants came from the Philippines.
My first reaction was, this isn't surprising; the Philippines is one of the most active markets for Web3 games. Axie Infinity had the highest adoption rate over there, with many families relying on gaming to make ends meet. This thought spun in my head for a couple of seconds, and then I realized that's precisely the issue.
I know the ending of the Axie Infinity story in the Philippines. A ton of regular gamers treated Axie as a source of income, but then the devs adjusted the economic model and rewards were cut. Many families relying on game earnings got hit hard; community vibes shifted from hype to outrage, and a massive number of players bounced, causing daily active users to plummet. Currently, half of Pixels' user base consists of similar players—those who see game rewards as a crucial income source and are super sensitive to any changes in the economic model.
There's a saying on the construction site: if half the workers on a project come from the same contracting team, and the boss of that team runs into trouble or pulls out, the project will immediately face a labor shortage. The more concentrated the source of labor, the higher the project's dependence on that single source, and the lower its resilience to risks.
The current issue with Pixels isn't that Filipino players are bad; it's the vulnerability from being overly concentrated on a single type of user. Once the game rewards are adjusted again, or if another more profitable blockchain game pops up, this economically driven player base could migrate en masse, potentially leading to a cliff in daily active users like we saw in June 2024.
Luke says Chapter 4 is about bringing traditional gamers into the fold. I now understand this strategic direction more deeply—not just to expand the user base, but also to diversify the user structure and reduce reliance on a single type of player. However, whether the influx of traditional gamers can keep pace with the potential loss of economically driven players is the most uncertain factor for me right now.