Axie Infinity faces big test as player earnings fall

Lately, things have not been great for many Axie Infinity players, most of whom play the game solely to make money.

The value of small love potions or SLP, the in-game currency that players exchange for cash, has plunged from US$0.35 in mid-July to the current price of US$0.059. Prices have not recovered despite recent tweaks to the game’s economy.

“Earning US$100 every 15 days is not that substantial at all,” says Peter Villagracia, an independent Filipino Axie Infinity “scholar” who used to earn more than twice that figure in the same amount of time. Scholars are players who can’t afford to own axies – the digital monsters in the game – so they rent them from “managers” under a profit-sharing model.

For Althea Torres, another independent Filipino scholar and a single mother of three children who relies on the game to support her family, the change is more drastic.

She began playing Axie Infinity full time at the start of May 2021 because it allowed her to bring in more money while spending more time with her children. Before that, she was working at a small roadside vegetable and fruit stall, earning between US$5 to US$7 daily for a hard day’s work. At the game’s peak, she could make between US$15 US$20 per day, but now she only gets around US$6 a day.

“I didn’t realize it, but this game became such a huge part of my life. In fact, it became my only source of income because other jobs just couldn’t match what I was earning while playing Axie,” she tells Tech in Asia.

Torres adds: “When the price of SLP fell, it became really hard for me to survive because my earning power dropped by so much. I have to pay rent, feed four people every day, and buy other necessities that we have to use in our daily lives. It’s scary because I don’t know how I am going to keep providing all these for them.”

Falling from a peak

In July, Tech in Asia wrote about Axie Infinity’s mercurial rise and how it became an integral source of income for many people in the Philippines, with some even relying on the game to pay for their medication.

We then explored the problems that we thought the game may face in the future. We also raised the question: Can players expect to continue earning that much, or will incomes decline when the hype dies down?

Fast forward to two months, and some of these problems have begun to plague the game and its community.

While Axie Infinity’s daily active user base has kept growing, its Ethereum revenue and trading volume, while still significant, have plunged from their peaks.

Why has the price of SLP sunk so much?

The impact on scholars

Can Axie Infinity reach the same heights again?

Trust issues