Last week, we reported the launch of ‘Nitro Nation: World Tour’ (NNWT) from Mythical Games. In just a few days, the free mobile game that lets players drag race NFT cars from top auto manufacture brands like McClaren, Aston Martin, and Jaguar, has racked up an astonishing 500,0000 downloads on Google Play.
NNWT lets players use fully licensed car NFTs that can be customized and upgraded with ‘workshop’ NFTs before hitting the streets of the Pacific Northwest — where the first season of the game is set. NFT cars can also be loaned out, rented, or sold, and players of NNWT can race in real-time or in campaign mode. Other models of cars that are available include KTM, Pagani, Saleen, Lotus, Volkswagon, and RUF.
Yesterday, October 9th, Mythical’s CEO John Linden took to X to reveal the news, casually writing, “Not a bad first week.”
Not a bad week, indeed. To add some perspective, NFT Rivals, Mythical’s game that lets players manage NFL teams, has around 2 million downloads on Google Play and the Apple App Store combined after two months of its soft launch.
Other top Web3 games that launched this year include ‘Minigame Party’ (over 500,000 downloads), ‘Cross The Ages’ (over 10,000 downloads), ‘Mojo Melee’ (over 10,000 downloads), and ‘Arc8’ gaming platform (over one million downloads).
The rise in blockchain-based gaming can partly be attributed to app stores softening their stance on the new technology as they learn more about it. It’s also worth noting that NNWT is a remix of the original ‘Nitro Nation,’ which was launched by Creative Mobile in 2014. That game was wildly popular and recorded thirty million players in its first three years. It was also free, but users could buy in-game cars and upgrades.
Now that same concept has been applied to Web3, and so far, the results are impressive.
Mythical Games Is on the Rise in Web3 Gaming
Mythical Games is a Los Angeles-based Web3 video game development company that creates games for playable NFTs, allowing players to own their digital assets and buy and sell them on secondary markets. Founded in 2018, the company has released several games that have been growing in popularity. Here are some of the most recent headlines from one of the top blockchain-based gaming studios around.
First, three months ago, Mythical Games launched a Web3 gaming DAO to help the company become more decentralized. Some of its partners for the launch included Ubisoft, Krafton, Kakao Games, Sandbox Gaming, LINE Blockchain, Animoca Brands, and other top Web2 and Web3 gaming companies.
Next, about eight months ago, Mythical Games dropped a series of NFT player packs ahead of Super Bowl LVII. The “Super Bowl LVII Rivals” cards featured players from the two championship teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles — and can be used in its eSports game ‘NFL Rivals.’
Finally, three months ago, Mythical Games announced a $37 million Series C1 fundraising round. The round was led by Scytake Digital and saw participation from Animoca Brands, Proof, and ARK Invest. The money will go towards scaling its blockchain-based games and infrastructure.
Although Mythical has been around less than five years, it’s already positioned itself as one of the top blockchain-based gaming companies in the world. We’ll have to wait to see if the success of ‘Nitro Nation: World Tour’ will continue, but to paraphrase the humble words of its CEO — its first week wasn’t bad. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll keep you in the loop if there are any updates to the story.