Off The Grid won Game of the Year at the 2024 GAM3 Awards held live for the first time in Manila on November 22.
The free-to-play third-person battle royale game developed by Gunzilla Games has won the Best Shooter, Best Multiplayer, and Best Action Game awards, a remarkable achievement in the blockchain gaming industry.
Hosted in partnership with Yield Guild Games (YGG), the GAM3 Awards recognized excellence in 21 categories and celebrated the progress of the Web3 gaming sector over the past year. The event had a prize pool of $5 million, which included donations, products, services, marketing and blockchain support from partners such as AWS, XAI, Thirdweb, Aethir and Community Gaming.
The selection process involved more than 70 jurors from prominent gaming and blockchain organizations, including representatives from CryptoSlateAmazon, Google, Ubisoft, Animoka, Immutable, Arbitrum, Blockchain Game Alliance, Base, Ronin and Avalanche brands. Community participation was significant, with more than a million votes from 143,000 unique voters contributing to the final decisions in several categories.
Off The Grid's success reflects the growing integration of blockchain technology into gaming. Set in a dystopian cyberpunk future on Teardrop Island, the game incorporates blockchain elements via the GUNZ blockchain using an Avalanche subnet, and features a player-driven economy with tradable in-game assets.
Off The Grid Early Access Release earned rapid growth, topping Epic Games' list of free PC games, surpassing popular titles like Fortnite and Rocket League. In the first five days of the game, it grew over a million wallets per day and collected 53 million transactions.
Other notable winners in GAM3 awards Including Parallel, which received the awards for the best strategy game, the best card game and the best sports game. Pixels and Pirate Nation received two awards each, further highlighting the diversity and innovation in the Web3 gaming space.
With over 300 in-person attendees, the event featured exclusive gameplay and trailers from upcoming titles such as Golden Tides, Unfettered, Elumia, Providence, Shrapnel and more. The event peaked at 48,000 concurrent viewers and garnered over 450,000 views in the first 24 hours.
The success of Off The Grid and the GAM3 awards show the growing adoption and integration of blockchain technology into mainstream gaming. Analysts Speculation That Off The Grid could be a catalyst for a new run of crypto games, potentially as important as Axie Infinity in previous cycles.
The GAM3 Awards are expected to return for their fourth consecutive edition next November, marking the continued recognition of excellence in Web3 gaming.
