The Respawn ReportCrypto games, reviewed after the hype

Web3 game shutdown tracker: every notable crypto game that closed in 2025 and 2026

By , The Respawn Report · Updated · Shutdowns and post-mortems

Last checked: November 11, 2026. We add new closures as they're announced, and every row links to the studio's own notice or to reporting on it.

The short version: we track 23 blockchain games and studios that closed, went offline or dropped their crypto features: 14 in 2025 and 9 so far in 2026. The pattern is depressingly consistent. Funding dried up, players left once rewards shrank, and the token or NFTs lost their use when the servers did. A handful of teams handled it well, with refunds, open-sourced code or a payout from what was left. Most didn't.

This page isn't a scoreboard of failure for its own sake. If you play web3 games, it's the most useful thing to know before you spend: what usually happens when one ends.

Tip: with JavaScript on, you can filter the tables by game, chain or status.

2026 shutdowns

When Game Chain What happened What players were left with Source
October 30, 2026 Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles (Ubisoft) Oasys Shut down. Ubisoft removed the blockchain features in May 2026, then announced the sunset. In-app purchases were disabled before the servers closed on October 30. Top-ranked players were offered rewards in Ubisoft's card game Might and Magic Fates. Kotaku
September 2026 Pixelmon (Pixelmon team) Ethereum Game development ended. A trial with a publisher did not lead to a commercial deal. A smaller team stayed on to look at work outside gaming. crypto.news
September 2026 Axie Infinity: Classic (Sky Mavis) Ronin Handed to the community (not shut down). Season 16 was the last competitive season run by Sky Mavis. The game keeps running. A community committee (CORC) funded by Axie governance is taking over, pending a legal handover of the IP and infrastructure. Axie Infinity blog
August 4, 2026 Proof of Play (studio behind Pirate Nation) (Proof of Play) Abstract and others Studio closed, code and art released. The studio said it couldn't build a sustainable business that proved its thesis at scale. Pirate Nation's client code, smart contracts and tools were open-sourced and its art released under CC0. A separate foundation kept supporting the PIRATE token; Proof of Play points are not redeemable. The Defiant
July 2026 LOL Land and Waifu Sweeper (YGG Play) (Yield Guild Games) Abstract Publisher closed. Co-founder Gabby Dizon called it "a market decision, not a product decision." Both games were retired along with the YGG Play site, launchpad and quests. 35 jobs were cut. YGG announcement, Decrypt
June 25, 2026 Fishing Frenzy (Uncharted) Ronin Shut down, studio closed. "Unable to prove our thesis on crypto gaming and could not find product-market-business fit." FISH became spend-only and untradable. The studio paid out $62,845 in USDC from its liquidity pool by Karma score and refunded $7,021 of recent purchases. Fish, pets and skins were server-side and are gone. Fishing Frenzy shutdown notice, crypto.news
April 30, 2026 GensoKishi Online (MetaP) Polygon Game and marketplace suspended. The operator announced the end of the game service. The game, GENSO Marketplace, MV staking, GENSO Maker and the LAND viewer stopped. The website, USDT staking and scholarship NFT services kept running. GensoKishi Online notice
January 27, 2026 Forgotten Runiverse (Runiverse team) Ronin Offline indefinitely. The team said it could no longer afford to keep the game running. The game went offline until further notice. The team said it hopes to relaunch. BitPinas
January 15, 2026 Pixiland (Pixiland team) Ronin Dropped its crypto features. Market volatility, regulatory uncertainty and the cost of blockchain infrastructure for a small team. The token launch was cancelled, so the wPixi points players had grinded for will not turn into a token. BitPinas

2025 shutdowns

When Game Chain What happened What players were left with Source
December 30, 2025 Ragnarok: Monster World (Ragnarok IP licensee) Ronin Shut down. Financial problems after its partnership with Sky Mavis ended in April 2025. Sales and rewards stopped at once on October 30; downloads closed November 6; gameplay ended December 29. BitPinas
November 28, 2025 Captain Tsubasa: RIVALS (BLOCKSMITH&Co.) Polygon and Oasys Blockchain versions closed. A downturn in Japan's blockchain gaming sector. Both blockchain versions ended after almost three years. BitPinas
September 30, 2025 Age of Dino (Backed by Xterio and Binance Labs) Not stated Shut down. Analysts pointed to high live-ops costs and weak new-player growth. A final snapshot recorded ROAR token balances and achievements for a promised migration. BitPinas
August 2025 Pirate Nation (onchain version) (Proof of Play) Apex and Boss chains Shut down, moved to a smaller arcade version. Too few players for the cost of running its own chains. The fully onchain game and its custom chains closed. A streamlined arcade version moved to Abstract. BitPinas
July 31, 2025 The Walking Dead: Empires (Ember Entertainment and Gala Games) Gala Games platform Shut down. Gala refocused on the wider Gala Games ecosystem. Gala said in-game NFT holders would get replacement NFTs of equal functionality in other Gala titles. BitPinas
July 15, 2025 Symbiogenesis (Square Enix) Ethereum Ended as planned. Square Enix said the story-driven NFT project would conclude on schedule. Engagement was low by the end, and no expansion was announced. DappRadar
July 1, 2025 Mojo Melee (Planet Mojo) Not stated Shut down. The studio pivoted to an AI movie-making platform. The auto-battler was sunset with no replacement game. DappRadar
June 30, 2025 Blast Royale (Blast Royale team) Polygon and Base Shut down, code open-sourced. The team said it had exhausted every other option. In-app purchases were switched off. The game's code was released as open source, and remaining scheduled NOOB tokens were unlocked. BitPinas
May 2025 Ember Sword (Bright Star Studios) Ethereum, Polygon, then Immutable zkEVM Shut down. Could not secure more funding after years of delays and chain migrations. Land NFT buyers were left holding plots in a game that no longer runs. The land sale had once drawn more than $200 million in pledges. DappRadar
May 2025 Nyan Heroes (9 Lives Interactive) Solana Shut down. Could not raise the capital to finish the game, despite more than 1 million players across four playtests. The NYAN token fell more than 99% from its peak. DappRadar
May 2025 Realms of Alurya (Alurya team) Ronin (after leaving Treasure) Offline, on indefinite hold. A promised grant was withdrawn when Treasure changed strategy. The game went offline shortly after migrating to Ronin. DappRadar
February 28, 2025 Loot Legends (HYCHAIN) HYCHAIN No further updates. HYCHAIN closed its publishing division to focus on HYTOPIA. The game stayed live but stopped getting updates. BitPinas
February 25, 2025 The Mystery Society (Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow) Immutable Development suspended. Could not secure funding. Players who bought in-game gems were promised refunds. The planned MYSTRY token was put on indefinite hold. BitPinas
January 2025 Deadrop (Midnight Society) Not stated Studio closed. Studio closed in January 2025; an employee said staff got two days' notice. The studio closed before the game reached full release. Decrypt

Download the whole list as a CSV file. It's free to reuse with a link back to this page.

What players actually got back

Read across all 23 rows and the outcomes fall into five buckets.

  1. Nothing, and the token kept falling. The most common ending. Nyan Heroes' NYAN token dropped more than 99% from its high. Ember Sword's land owners hold plots in a world that no longer exists.
  2. Points that never became anything. Pixiland cancelled its token launch, so the wPixi points players had grinded for won't convert. If a game pays you in "points" ahead of a token, this is the risk you're taking.
  3. A partial payout or refund. Uncharted froze FISH trading so nobody could race to sell, then split $62,845 in USDC by Karma score and refunded $7,021 of recent purchases. Small numbers, but fairly done. The Mystery Society promised refunds on gem purchases.
  4. A swap into another game. Gala promised Walking Dead: Empires NFT holders replacement NFTs of equal function in other Gala titles. Ubisoft offered top Champions Tactics players rewards in Might and Magic Fates.
  5. The code, given away. Blast Royale went open source. Proof of Play released Pirate Nation's client, contracts and tools, and put the art under CC0. It doesn't refund anyone. It does mean a community could, in theory, bring the thing back.

Notice what's missing: in almost every case, items that lived on the game's own servers vanished outright. Fishing Frenzy said so plainly. Fish, pets, skins and fossils were all server-side.

Six questions to ask before you spend time or money on a web3 game

This isn't financial advice, and it isn't a reason to buy anything. It's a checklist built from what went wrong above.

  1. Would you play it with the token switched off? Champions Tactics tried exactly that on Steam. Mixed reviews, and the players didn't show up. If the answer is no, the fun is the payout, and payouts end.
  2. Where do your items actually live? On-chain NFTs survive a shutdown as tokens in your wallet. Server-side items don't survive at all.
  3. How long can the studio keep paying the bills? Count the rows above that cite funding: Nyan Heroes, Ember Sword, The Mystery Society, Forgotten Runiverse and more. Look for a recent funding round, a publisher, or proof the game sells something people want without the token.
  4. Is it earning you points for a token that doesn't exist yet? See Pixiland.
  5. Has the studio already moved chains once or twice? Ember Sword went from Ethereum to Polygon to Immutable zkEVM before it shut. Each move costs time and money the game needed.
  6. What did they promise to do if it ends? Some studios now publish wind-down plans. It's worth asking in Discord before you spend.

For the bigger picture of how play-to-earn economies break, start with our topic hub on shutdowns and post-mortems as we add guides.

How we build this list

We include a game when its studio, or credible reporting on it, says it shut down, went offline, stopped development or removed its blockchain features. A rumour isn't enough, and a quiet X account isn't enough either. Dates are the day service ended where we know it, otherwise the month of the announcement. Know of one we've missed? Send us the announcement.

Sources

Checked November 11, 2026.

Not financial advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any token or NFT.

Quick answers

How many web3 games shut down in 2025?

BitPinas counted at least 22 crypto games that shut down or dropped their web3 features in 2025. DappRadar also found that around 300 gaming dapps active in Q1 2025 showed no on-chain activity at all in Q2 2025. Our tracker lists the 14 best-documented 2025 cases with a source for each.

What happens to my NFTs when a crypto game shuts down?

The NFT usually stays in your wallet, because it lives on the blockchain, but it loses its use once the game's servers close. Items stored on the game's own servers, like Fishing Frenzy's fish and pets, simply disappear. A few studios offered something back: Gala promised replacement NFTs in other Gala games, and Uncharted paid out its remaining USDC liquidity to Fishing Frenzy players.

Do crypto games refund players when they shut down?

Rarely, and usually only in part. In our tracker, The Mystery Society promised refunds for gem purchases and Uncharted refunded $7,021 of recent Fishing Frenzy purchases. Most shutdowns offered no refund at all.

Is Axie Infinity shutting down?

No. Sky Mavis stopped running competitive seasons for Axie Classic after Season 16 in September 2026 and is handing that version to a community committee. Axie Origins, Atia's Legacy and the Terrariums land game are still being developed.