2.1. Global games market and statistics

Preconceived and obsolete ideas about the professional players are gradually fading into the past. Previously, it was believed that all people who spend time playing video games are social outcasts, escaping from reality into the virtual world. However this judgment is far from the truth nowas many users play games professionally. Today, video games and E-sports comprise а $180 billion market category that has grown more than 2OO/oin 2O2O.

In 2021, due to the explosive growth in the popularity of NFT and AR games, the popularity of blockchain-based games is growing as well. Dozens of activities and business matters that people usually perform in real life are now taking place on blockchain gaming platforms and in augmented reality: meetings with partners, concerts, exhibitions, lectures etc. So we are sure that the day, when computer gameswill becomenew social networks, is coming soon.

The facts about the current advances in the online gaming industry, listed below, speak for themselves:

• In 2020, the volume of the computer games market, where NFTs are actively used, amounted to $165 billion and also tends to grow further.

• Total NFT sales rose to over $ 2 billion in the Q1of 2021, more than 2O times the volume of the previous quarter, according to NonFungible.com.

• The blockchain industry grew 6З9o/oyear-on-year, reaching 458,OOO daily registrations of unique active wallets across all blockchains in Q12021.

• The NFT market saw а record transaction volume and brought in over $1.5 billion in Q12021.

B This year, the average price Cor a virtual land plot at Decentraland was $ 2,703 - more than 3 times the price in 2020. In the Cryptovoxels Metaverse, land prices have gone even Curther and quadrupled Crom USD 821 per plot last year to USD 3,895 in March 2021

Number of Blockchain wallet users worldwide from November 2011 to November 2021 (in million)

Total USD spent on completed sales