The Sandbox - Virtual World in the Metaverse

The Sandbox (website) is a blockchain-based virtual world where players can create, share, and monetize gaming experiences. The game is built on the Ethereum blockchain and uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to represent virtual land and other assets within the game.

In The Sandbox, players can use a visual scripting tool to create their games, experiences, and virtual worlds. They can also buy and sell virtual land, which can be used to create more complex games and experiences. In addition, players can earn SAND, the game's native cryptocurrency, by creating and selling assets, participating in community events, and playing games created by other players.

The game has gained popularity among blockchain enthusiasts and gamers, attracting several high-profile partnerships and investors. The Sandbox has also been recognized for its innovative use of blockchain technology to create a decentralized gaming ecosystem that gives players more control over their gaming experiences and assets.

How does the game work?

The Sandbox game is based on voxels, which are 3D cubes that make up the environment and assets within the game. This is somewhat comparable to Minecraft. Players can create assets using The Sandbox’s VoxEdit tool or purchase assets from the in-game marketplace. Once you have your assets, you can use them to create games and experiences within The Sandbox Game Maker. The Game Maker is also available for free. Other players can then play these games; if they’re popular, you can earn SAND tokens.

How does the Sandbox game economy work?

Traditional gamers often underestimate play-to-earn games, but The Sandbox game economy is quite sophisticated. In-game assets have real value because they can be sold or traded in the marketplace. Moreover, players can earn revenue from the games they create.

The use of Decentraland

Since it is a blockchain-based platform, Decentraland’s usage data is public. DappRadar reveals that in the past 30 days, only 957 different wallets have interacted with the platform, generating less than 4,000 transactions for a total volume of less than $42,000. This is an average of only 32 different wallets daily, with a daily in-app trade volume of less than $1,500.

Just to have a yardstick for comparison, in the last 24 hours, the trade volume on DEX Uniswap was over $870 million, that on Curve over $150 million, and that on PancakeSwap almost $140 million. The fourth-largest DEX by volume at this time, Canto, also touched $130 million yesterday, giving a good idea of the gulf compared to Decentraland.

Moreover, according to DappRadar’s data, over the past twelve months, the average daily number of active wallets on Decentraland has more than halved, with the number of daily transactions dropping from around 300 to less than 100 recently.

According to MMOSTATS.COM these are the estimated players:

• February 2023
  48.1 thousand
  
• January 2023
  45.5 thousand
  
• December 2022
  56.2 thousand
  
• November 2022
  43.1 thousand
  
• October 2022
  49.2 thousand

The Sandbox Marketplace

The Sandbox Marketplace is an in-house platform for users to upload, publish, and sell their in-game creations. There are tons of collections, avatars, equipment, and assets for everyone to create unique experiences in the Sandbox metaverse. LANDs are some of the most valuable NFTs in The Sandbox ecosystem. There are a total of 166,464 LANDs in the game, split into LANDs and ESTATEs. A LAND is a basic 96×96 meters sandbox unit, just enough to create various game experiences. At the same time, an ESTATE is a combination of multiple LANDs.

Closing thoughts:

The game had a big hype around it at the start of 2022; it also seemed to cool down a bit, with its daily active users dropping heavily. Nevertheless, the game is still entertaining, although you have a very Minecraft-like feeling when playing this. The game will need new updates and good partnerships to grow or stabilize in 2023.

“Be a part of the Flagship community revolutionizing the economy; our captains are the map makers.”