Axie Infinity Season 21 closed on June 24th, marking the end of the Play-to-Earn classic version and unveiling the next version of Axie Infinity, Axie Infinity Origin.

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What is the legendary Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a blockchain-enabled non-fungible token (commonly known as NFT) monster online strategy game that was initially introduced in 2018 and gained wide popularity during the pandemic of 2020 as an alternate source of income because of its P2E model. Players are able to control a bunch of NFTs called Axies (digital pets based on axolotls) in-game and battle other players for rewards that can be converted into real-world cash. Axie Infinity Origin promises many new and exciting features to its playerbase as it embarks on its third version.

The closure of Season 21

To end the Classic version with a bang, the Sky Mavis team have increased the prize pool to 130,171.90 AXS!

Season 21 has rewarded 300,000 players with higher rewards across the board.
To reward the top players, the rewards for the top ten have been significantly increased. The first-place prize has been increased to 500 AXS!
The complete prize pool breakdown can be found here.

Though the Sky Mavis team had announced season 21 to be the last season of Axie Infinity Classic with the Play-to-Earn model, many community members confessed to being surprised by the news.

The achievements of the original Axie Infinity and Sky Mavis, the Vietnamese game development team, sent huge waves across the blockchain gaming industry. At the game’s peak, it raked in over $215 million and Sky Mavis had even reached a $3 billion valuation after a $152 million funding round.

To the dismay of both the Sky Mavis team and the players however, this period of prosperity would not last forever. Ever since November 2021, the average cost of an Axie, total NFT sales, and daily active users of Axie Infinity had nose-dived. This was caused by many reasons.

The in-game token, Smooth Love Potion (SLP), was issued without ways to destroy or burn it. SLP went into a downward spiral into an inflation period. This caused inflation, causing the token to lose value and discouraging players from continuing to play the game.

As well, the Lazarus Group and APT38 (North Korean state-sponsored hacker groups), compromised the Ronin Network (launched by Sky Mavis in February 2021, consisting of the Ronin Wallet and Ronin sidechain to work seamlessly with Axie Infinity), stealing approximately US$620 million in Ether and USDC. This theft further affected the price of $SLP.

Though cryptocurrency-related predictions from reputable analysis sites were mixed as to whether the price of $SLP would recover, the future appears bright as Sky Mavis has continued to support and evolve Axie Infinity to the best of their abilities.

Axie Infinity Origin is currently only available on the desktop via Mavis Hub. You can download and install the game client here, which should only take a few minutes. This will take you to the login page, where you must enter your email address and password.

Axie Infinity Origin is considered to be a worthy successor to the original Axie Infinity. The game is much cleaner, more visually appealing, smoother, and has better and more strategic gameplay than the original Axie Infinity. The inclusion of a story in the Adventure mode was a nice touch that will appeal to RPG fans.

Axie Infinity, even with all its past problems, is an ever-popular Play-to-Earn game, accounting for the largest proportion in the NFT gaming industry. Its transition from Classic to Origin is under close watch by the community and those invested in blockchain games. Its successful transition will largely affect the future of the whole industry.