In 2021, crypto was supposed to reinvent gaming: play, earn, and genuinely own your items. Five years later the record is sobering. Every large gaming token trades between 97 and almost 100 percent below its high, and six of them marked an all-time low only this summer. The analytics firm Caladan counts more than 90 percent of Web3 games as effectively failed.

This article sets out what became of Illuvium, Aavegotchi, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity and the other familiar names, why the model did not hold, and whether any crypto game in 2026 has real players at all. It ends with a checklist that helps you judge a new game before you put money into it.

Gaming token prices in 2026: the numbers

All prices come from CoinGecko, retrieved on…