Off The Grid won the Game of the Year award at the GAM3 Awards 2024, which was held live for the first time in Manila on November 22.
The free-to-play, third-person, Web3-enabled battle royale game developed by Gunzilla Games also won awards for Best Shooter, Best Multiplayer Game, and Best Action Game, marking a significant achievement in the blockchain gaming industry.
Organized in partnership with Yield Guild Games (YGG), the GAM3 Awards recognize outstanding achievement across 21 categories, celebrating the progress of the Web3 gaming sector over the past year. The event featured an expanded prize pool of $5 million, which included grants, products, services, marketing and blockchain support from partners such as AWS, XAI, Thirdweb, Aethir and Community Gaming.
More than 70 jury members from well-known gaming and blockchain organizations took part in the selection process, including representatives CryptoSlatAmazon, Google, Ubisoft, Animoca Brands, Immutable, Arbitrum, Blockchain Game Alliance, Base, Ronin and Avalanche. Community participation was significant, with over a million votes from 143,000 unique voters contributing to the final decisions in several categories.
The success of Off The Grid reflects the growing integration of blockchain technology into games. The game takes place in a dystopian cyberpunk future on Teardrop Island. The game incorporates blockchain elements through the GUNZ blockchain using the Avalanche subnet, offering a player-driven economy with tradable in-game assets.
The Early Access release of Off The Grid has achieved rapid growth, topping Epic Games’ list of free PC games and surpassing popular titles like Fortnite and Rocket League. In the first five days, the game grew by more than one million wallets per day, accumulating 53 million transactions.
Other notable winners at the GAM3 Awards include Parallel, which took home awards for Best Strategy Game, Best Card Game and Best Esports Game. Pixels and Pirate Nation each received two awards, further highlighting the diversity and innovation in the Web3 gaming space.
The event, which was attended by over 300 people, featured gameplay premieres and exclusive trailers for upcoming games such as Golden Tides, Unfettered, Elumia, Providence, Shrapnel and more. The ceremony peaked at 48,000 concurrent viewers, generating more than 450,000 views in the first 24 hours.
The success of Off The Grid and the GAM3 Awards illustrates the growing acceptance and integration of blockchain technology into mainstream gaming. Analysts suggest that Off The Grid could be the catalyst for a new bull run in crypto gaming that could potentially be as big as Axie Infinity was in previous cycles.
The GAM3 Awards are expected to return next November for the fourth year in a row, marking continued recognition of excellence in Web3 games.
