According to the recently published Q3 2025 report from DappRadar, the decentralized application (dapp) ecosystem has witnessed a significant 22% decrease in active wallets. However, gaming has remarkably maintained its stronghold, capturing 25% of the market share within this domain.
Gaming Maintains Its Dominance
Despite the overall downturn in dapp engagement, gaming has emerged as a crucial element in driving participation in Web3 technologies. The dapp industry recorded an average of 18.7 million active wallets daily in Q3 2025, reflecting a 22.4% decline compared to the previous quarter. Nevertheless, the gaming sector has fortified its position, with its market share increasing from 20.1% to 25%. Other categories, including Social and AI, faced larger declines, with AI’s share dropping from 18.6% to 16.8% and Social’s falling from 15.9% to a mere 8.4%. The Games category continues to lead the dapp industry, now holding a commanding 25% market share, while NFTs have grown to 18.5%, securing second place.
Among the top five dapps in Q3, three are from the gaming niche: World of Dypians, a social gaming metaverse; HOT Protocol, which provides gamified services; and KGeN, a platform focused on gaming engagement. Despite these successes, DappRadar acknowledges that the gaming sector in Web3 continues to face challenges in attracting a wider audience.
NFT Market Experiences Significant Growth
The NFT market has shown remarkable growth in 2025, with trading activity resulting in over 18 million NFTs sold and $1.6 billion in trading volume by Q3. While the sales figures soared, the increase in actual participation was more modest, with 2.14 million wallets involved in trading 18.1 million NFTs. This marks a 158% surge in sales, yet only a 28.6% rise in the number of traders, suggesting that the growth is predominantly driven by existing users rather than attracting new participants.
Sports-themed NFTs are witnessing a surge, with trading volumes skyrocketing by 337% to $71 million and sales increasing by 143% to 4.1 million. Platforms like Sorare, which offer fantasy sports experiences across basketball, baseball, and football, are facilitating this growth. In contrast, the gaming NFT sector has encountered challenges, with trading volume and sales decreasing by 17% and 32%, respectively.
NFTs Transition Beyond Collectibles
The report emphasizes the increasing fusion of NFTs with real-world assets (RWAs) and decentralized finance (DeFi). For instance, Courtyard has developed a system for tokenizing physical trading cards, enabling users to trade digital versions while providing the option to redeem physical items. In Q3 alone, this innovation generated $145 million. Additionally, Token Works’ NFT Strategy protocol allows for automated trading of CryptoPunks using $PNKSTR tokens, granting users exposure to valuable NFTs without needing direct ownership.
DeFi Shows Resilience
Decentralized finance continues to exhibit strong capital inflows, achieving an unprecedented total value locked (TVL) of $237 billion. DappRadar highlighted this as the highest figure recorded to date, suggesting that the ongoing tokenization of real-world assets and advancements in stablecoin technologies could lead to substantial liquidity influxes in the future. Ethereum (ETH) remains the leading DeFi chain in terms of TVL, though it experienced a slight decline. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) faced the largest downturn among major chains, attributed to diminishing interest in memecoins and platforms like Pump.fun. Conversely, BNB Chain and emerging networks such as Hyperliquid and Plasma are demonstrating significant growth.
The Importance of Gaming Dapps
Gaming dapps have emerged as a pivotal force in boosting engagement within the Web3 landscape, despite the overall decline in the activity of the broader ecosystem.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are gaming dapps? Gaming dapps are decentralized applications built on blockchain platforms that provide games, in-game assets, and rewards directly to players without relying on central authorities.
- How do gaming dapps differ from traditional games? Unlike conventional games, gaming dapps leverage blockchain technology to ensure genuine ownership of in-game assets, establish verifiable scarcity, and support player-driven economies.
- How do gaming dapps interact with NFTs and DeFi? Many gaming dapps incorporate NFTs for in-game items and utilize DeFi mechanisms for tokenized rewards, staking options, or trading within their ecosystems.
- What challenges do these games face? Despite their market leadership, gaming dapps encounter difficulties in appealing to mainstream audiences, fluctuating token prices, and the necessity of maintaining secure blockchain infrastructures.
- How can someone start using gaming dapps? To get started, users require a crypto wallet, access to supported blockchain networks, and platforms like DappRadar to explore popular gaming dapps.
In conclusion, following this analysis, what is your sentiment regarding the future of gaming dapps? Are you feeling optimistic, pessimistic, or indifferent?
