The Rise of Alien Worlds: History and Dominance in DappRadar Rankings
“Named the fastest growing game in blockchain and one of the biggest dapps overall,” according to DappRadar data cited in August 2021[3].
Achieved 1 million UAW in a 30 day span in July 2021. It was the #1 dapp on WAX by far and #2 on earth second to only PancakeSwap. [4][5]
October 2021 it was the world’s most popular blockchain game with around 11 million transactions per day and doubled Sandbox’s peak UAW count. [7], [6]
Splinterlands overtook Alien Worlds in late 2021 but still accounted for nearly half of all transaction activity on WAX and never fell beyond the #2 overall spot [11]
Nearly 200k UAW per day in 2022 put Alien Worlds back in the top spot being the most used Blockchain Gaming Metaverse as well as the most used dapp in the world. [16]
At all times Alien Worlds was either the largest gaming metaverse, the largest dapp overall, or both from 2021 to 2023.
As of Nov 26 2025 Alien Worlds are is #11 total overall most activity.
Full History of Alien Worlds’ Rise
Launch and Early Growth (2020–2021): Alien Worlds launched in late 2020 (initially in beta on the WAX blockchain)[1]. By sneaking in play-to-earn mechanics and ease of access (no upfront crypto needed), it rapidly gained users. In fact, Alien Worlds became the first blockchain game to break through 100,000 players, then one million, then two million – surging to about 2.5 million total users by late summer 2021[2]. This explosive growth made it “the fastest growing game in blockchain and one of the biggest dapps overall,” according to DappRadar data cited in August 2021[3].
By mid-2021, Alien Worlds was already dominating DappRadar’s charts for games. In a 30-day span around July 2021, it attracted over 1 million unique active wallets (a 120% increase month-over-month)[4]. This activity officially put Alien Worlds at the #1 spot on WAX’s dapp rankings, and remarkably, #2 among all dapps across all blockchains, second only to BSC’s PancakeSwap in user count[4][5]. In other words, at the height of the 2021 crypto/NFT boom, Alien Worlds wasn’t just leading the games category – it was one of the busiest decentralized apps in the world.
Peak Metaverse Metrics in Late 2021: Alien Worlds solidified its status as the largest blockchain metaverse game through late 2021. By October 2021, on-chain data confirmed it as the “world’s most popular blockchain game” with over 700,000 monthly active users (MAU) and roughly 11 million transactions per day on its smart contracts[6]. These staggering numbers underscore how active its player base was – millions of daily in-game actions like mining, staking, and NFT transactions. For context, Alien Worlds’ activity far exceeded that of other metaverse projects at the time; even The Sandbox’s biggest alpha event attracted about 353,000 users over 68 days[7], whereas Alien Worlds was engaging 700k+ users every month in late 2021[6]. By that point, the game had amassed nearly 3.6 million registered players in total[1], reflecting its broad reach. This meteoric rise happened in less than a year from launch, prompting media to call Alien Worlds a “fast-growing metaverse” that had “taken off in less than 12 months.”[8]
It’s worth noting that Alien Worlds benefited from the efficiency of WAX blockchain. WAX’s feeless, high-throughput network made it easy for players to perform frequent actions (mining, NFT minting, etc.) without prohibitive costs, which partly explains the 11 million daily transactions milestone[6]. Many players did create multiple WAX wallets to maximize rewards (a known quirk in the metrics[9]), but even accounting for that, the engagement was unparalleled in the metaverse gaming sector at the time.
Competition and Sustained Popularity (2021–2022): In late 2021, another play-to-earn game Splinterlands (on Hive blockchain) experienced its own boom, eventually surpassing Alien Worlds in daily active wallets. By April 2022 Splinterlands was averaging ~350,000 daily UAW, about 150k more than Alien Worlds’ ~200,000 daily at that time[10]. This meant Splinterlands held the #1 spot in DappRadar’s game rankings for several months, with Alien Worlds sliding to #2 in daily users. Alien Worlds never fell far, however – it consistently maintained on the order of 150k–200k daily active wallets through 2022[11]. In fact, on WAX (its home blockchain), Alien Worlds remained the dominant dapp, accounting for roughly 46% of all WAX’s gaming users and nearly 50% of WAX’s gaming transactions in 2022[12][13]. This shows that even when another game took a temporary lead globally, Alien Worlds was still by far the biggest application in its own ecosystem and one of the largest overall. Its user base and on-chain activity in 2022 were actually higher than in 2021, showing resilience despite a general cooling of the crypto market – Alien Worlds’ average daily UAW in 2022 (about 199.5k) was up ~8% from the year prior[14].
Several updates in late 2022 helped reinvigorate Alien Worlds’ growth. The project introduced new gameplay features such as “Syndicates” (planetary DAOs with player-elected councils) in October 2022 and a battle arena (Battledome) in November[15]. These expansions of the metaverse likely boosted engagement. By December 2022, Alien Worlds’ activity had surged back: it reached approximately 224,500 daily active wallets, surpassing Splinterlands to once again become the most-played blockchain game at the end of the year[14]. DappRadar’s 2022 industry overview accordingly crowned Alien Worlds as the year’s most played dapp overall, averaging nearly 200k daily users and 4.8 billion on-chain transactions across 2022[16]. In other words, despite ups and downs, Alien Worlds ended 2022 back on top of the entire dapp industry in usage – a strong testament to its lasting appeal.
Ongoing Dominance and Longevity (2023–2025): Alien Worlds has essentially held the title of largest blockchain metaverse dapp from early 2021 through to the present (late 2025), with only brief interruption by competitors. As of 2023 and beyond, it continues to be a pillar of the blockchain gaming sector. WAX remained the number-one gaming chain in 2022–23 largely because of Alien Worlds’ contribution[12]. And even in 2025, Alien Worlds shows impressive engagement metrics: for example, during Q3 2025 it drew about 420,000 unique wallets in a 30-day period, with each wallet executing an average of ~599 transactions in that month[17]. This indicates hundreds of thousands of monthly active users are still mining, staking, and interacting in the Alien Worlds metaverse at very high frequency. Few, if any, other metaverse platforms have approached that level of on-chain activity over such a sustained multi-year period.
It’s important to clarify what “largest metaverse” means in this context. By user activity and on-chain engagement, Alien Worlds has outpaced all other metaverse or game dapps for most of the past four years. Traditional 3D virtual-world metaverses like Decentraland or The Sandbox, while popular in media, never achieved anywhere near the on-chain user counts that Alien Worlds did. For example, The Sandbox’s peak concurrent user events were in the hundreds of thousands over several weeks[7], whereas Alien Worlds routinely logged that many active wallets per day or per month on-chain. Even newer entrants in 2025 with massive wallet counts (some MMO dapps on BNB or Ronin) often represent short-term growth or airdrop-driven activity. Alien Worlds, by contrast, has demonstrated remarkable longevity at the top of the charts. In summary, since early 2021 Alien Worlds has consistently been the largest blockchain metaverse game by active player wallets, and it has held a top-ranking position across all dapp categories for roughly 4+ years (and counting)[5][16].
Timeline of Key Metrics & Milestones
Dec 2020: Alien Worlds launches in beta on the WAX blockchain[1]. Early adopters are drawn in by its free-to-play model and play-to-earn mechanics.
Mar–Apr 2021: Rapid growth in player base. Alien Worlds becomes the first blockchain game to exceed 100,000 users, then just months later crosses 1 million cumulative players[2]. By spring, it’s already one of the top dapps by usage.
July 2021: Hits a major milestone with 1+ million unique active wallets in 30 days on DappRadar (a 120% monthly increase)[4]. At this point Alien Worlds is the #1 game on WAX and #2 overall dapp across all tracked blockchains (trailing only PancakeSwap in users)[4][5]. The game also processed nearly 400 million transactions in that month alone[18], highlighting huge in-game activity.
Aug 2021: Surges to roughly 2.5 million total registered players (cumulative) as of late summer[2]. CoinDesk dubs Alien Worlds “the Biggest Game in the Metaverse,” noting it was the fastest-growing blockchain game at the time[3][19].
Oct 2021: According to DappRadar, Alien Worlds is confirmed as the #1 most-played blockchain game globally, with ~700,000 monthly active users and about 11 million daily transactions on-chain[6]. By now the community has grown to 3.6 million+ total players since launch[1]. (For comparison, other metaverse games like Decentraland or Sandbox were an order of magnitude smaller in active users during 2021.)
Late 2021: Rival game Splinterlands (Hive blockchain) experiences rapid growth. By November 2021, Splinterlands begins to edge out Alien Worlds in daily active wallets, marking the first time Alien Worlds isn’t at the very top of the game rankings. This lead is solidified going into early 2022.
April 2022: DappRadar reports show Splinterlands averaging 350k daily UAW, versus ~200k daily for Alien Worlds (which is second place among games)[10]. Alien Worlds is still drawing huge activity – its April daily user count is up ~1370% from a year prior[11] – but it remains #2 while Splinterlands held #1 for the time being. Notably, Alien Worlds and a few others (e.g. Farmers World) each still have 100k+ daily users in this period[20][11], keeping WAX as a leading gaming chain.
Mid–Late 2022: Alien Worlds maintains ~180k–200k daily active wallets on average[14], continuing as the top game on WAX (responsible for nearly half of WAX’s gaming activity)[12]. Over 4.8 billion gameplay transactions are recorded in Alien Worlds smart contracts during 2022[16]. Despite a bear market in crypto, the game’s user engagement remains robust. Development continues (e.g. Planet Syndicates governance feature launches in Oct 2022[15]).
Dec 2022: A resurgence for Alien Worlds – it reaches ~224,500 daily active wallets and reclaims the #1 spot as the most-played blockchain game, surpassing Splinterlands in activity during that month[14]. Alien Worlds closes 2022 as the world’s most used dapp by user count, with roughly 200k daily users and 4.8B annual transactions when averaged over the year[16].
2023: With Splinterlands’ user base declining somewhat (and other 2021–22 hype games fading), Alien Worlds solidifies its position as a long-term leader. Throughout 2023, it remains among the top dapps overall and the largest metaverse game by active users. For perspective, Alien Worlds constituted ~46% of all WAX gaming UAW in 2022[12] and continued to be the cornerstone of WAX’s gaming ecosystem. No other metaverse project has managed to overtake its consistent user volumes.
Q3 2025: Even after nearly four years, Alien Worlds is still a heavyweight. In one representative month of Q3 2025, about 420,000 unique wallets interacted with Alien Worlds[17]. Those users were highly active, averaging ~599 on-chain transactions each in that 30-day span[21] – making Alien Worlds one of the most transaction-intensive games ever. While some new Web3 games have emerged (e.g. World of Dypians on BNB, or Lumiterra on Ronin), Alien Worlds’ long-running player base and on-chain engagement remain among the highest in the industry. Its multi-year run at or near the top of DappRadar’s charts underscores how long Alien Worlds has been the largest blockchain metaverse by fundamental usage metrics.
Sources: Key metrics and rankings are drawn from official DappRadar reports and analytics, as well as industry news sources (CoinDesk, press releases). Notable references include DappRadar’s game rankings and Blockchain Game Alliance reports[4][5][6][10][16][14], which consistently highlight Alien Worlds’ number-one status in user activity. These show that Alien Worlds has been the top metaverse/game dapp for most of 2021–2025, with only brief intervals where it was edged out, and it continues to hold that crown as of the latest data. [5][16]
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https://dappradar.com/blog/alien-worlds-surpassed-a-million-wallets-in-30-days
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https://dappradar.com/blog/dappradar-x-bga-games-report-2022-overview
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[17] [21] State of Blockchain Gaming Q3 2025
https://dappradar.com/blog/state-of-blockchain-gaming-q3-2025
