The GameFi market is on the rise, with new Play-2-Earn games captivating the minds of avid players and promising lucrative gaming experiences. The main growth driver for the GameFi projects is a combination of earning opportunities with a continuing hype around NFTs. Thus, the industry is expected to reach $2.8 million in the next 5-6 years, enjoying a CAGR of 20%+ every year.

The good news is that the GameFi niche is only at the germinal stage of development, so forward-thinking businesses can grab a piece of this pie if they join the market with appealing games now. Even if your company doesn't have enough tech stack for GameFi development in-house, you can always engage an outsourcing provider for this project, bringing your business idea to life and enjoying a new revenue stream.

What Is a GameFi Development Company?

As the name of the GameFi industry suggests, it's a niche of blockchain development that unifies gaming and decentralized finance. In other words, GameFi products are NFT games constructed in line with the "play 2 earn" model, allowing gamers to gain tangible rewards for their in-game activity. These rewards are tradeable NFTs (assets like skins, armor, or accessories) and native tokens that serve as the game's internal currency.

Both NFTs and game tokens possess a real monetary value, as they are traded on various exchanges (like Binance or OKX) and NFT marketplaces. Therefore, any player who dedicates a fair share of their free time to playing an NFT game can expect reasonable revenue from trading the earned currency and NFT items.

How We Rated GameFi Companies

Choosing a GameFi provider may be challenging for many, especially if you're a newbie in this industry. Here are the criteria we use in companies' evaluation and final ranking:

• Years of existence

It may sound too conservative, but the number of years in the market is still a decisive factor in many companies' choice of GameFi development partner. A one-day firm may have a stellar staff and an excellent portfolio but lack the main business value – trust and reputation. These dimensions are built for years based on successful collaboration cases and publicity. So, we also take a look at the company's age when choosing top performers.

• Domain-specific expertise

Blockchain technology is varied and diverse, covering many hyping industries – cryptocurrencies, NFTs, dApps, GameFi, GreenFi, and many more. However, when choosing a GameFi provider, you must double-check whether your company has had projects specifically in the GameFi domain. NFT P2E games have some peculiarities that a regular blockchain engineer may not know, both in design and deployment.

• Tech stack

The company's value is a sum of its staff members' expertise and talents. To be effective in full-cycle GameFi development, a company should have front-end coders with thorough knowledge of Vue.js, React, Angular, and JavaScript. Its back-end developers should be skilled in using Unity, Java, Node.js, Python, and PHP, among others, and the team should have experts in mobile app development for various platforms. Knowledge of cloud technologies is also a plus.

• Portfolio

The company's samples speak for it better than a thousand words. You can scan candidates' portfolios to see what kinds of projects they have under their belts. We always review the styles and functionalities every candidate worked with to see whether the agency has relevant and versatile GameFi dev experience.

• Familiarity with blockchain technologies

Not all GameFi projects use Ethereum (though it's still a leader). Many new projects are built using Solana, Polygon, TRON, NEAR, Avalanche, BSC, and many more well-established, robust blockchain networks. We included companies with versatile blockchain expertise in the ranking to highlight those whose clients have a breadth of underlying technology choices.

Top GameFi Developers to Consider in 2023

We've weighed all pros and cons of hundreds of GameFi providers advertising their services online, hand-picking the top 10 companies worth working with. Here is our rating.

Gamesdapp

This India-based GameFi provider GamedApp has won good fame in the market by delivering technically superior, diverse blockchain products and solutions to clients worldwide. Its team is well-versed with 20+ blockchain technologies and can provide full-cycle GameFi product development.

From smart contract development to NFT technology integration and blockchain-powered payment gateways, Gamesdapp produces state-of-the-art NFT games for its clients, equipping them with any needed functionality. The company reportedly has 250+ employees, guaranteeing a diverse tech stack and multi-functional teams for GameFi project outsourcing or team augmentation.

4IRE

A Swedish-Ukrainian collaborative, 4IRE has over a decade of experience in the DeFi, GameFi, and blockchain industries. The company boasts of a team of experienced blockchain engineers, solution architects, and designers able to select the proper mix of technologies for any blockchain business idea, bringing it from ideation to launch.

To date, 4IRE has completed 200+ projects for clients from different continents. It has 150+ blockchain experts on board and total of 300+ experts in all domains, ensuring that the best-talented developers and designers do the GameFi work. Every project goes through a funnel of development, security audit, and QA testing to ensure every GameFi product's smooth start in the market. 4IRE also provides marketing services and pre-launch support to boost the project's outreach.

Key benefits: industry leader, official NEAR protocol integrators, solid quantity and quality of projects in GameFi.

RisingMax

RisingMax positions itself as a P2E NFT game development company, which means the provider specializes exclusively in this type of blockchain project. It's a US-based provider headquartered in New York that fosters the digital transformation of businesses and helps them join the GameFi market with outstanding gaming products.

The major focus of RisingMax's scope is startups and blockchain enterprises needing GameFi solutions, metaverse apps, Web3 games, and DAO platforms. The company also provides big data solutions that can help businesses get a 3600 view of their operations and make data-based decisions. All products are hacker-proof and developed in line with cutting-edge technology demands of the Web3 space.

Sufferscom Solutions

Suffescom is a metaverse development company located in the USA (with a branch in India). It provides end-to-end assistance to GameFi startups and well-established businesses with robust blockchain development services. The company's team can develop a cutting-edge 3D metaverse game with NFT functionality in record time, giving you a competitive advantage in the fast-moving GameFi market.

The experts of Suffescom give all-around coverage of GameFi-related projects, spicing any product with state-of-the-art AR/VR technology, IoT functionality, and blockchain innovation. Moreover, the company has been successfully rendering GameFi services for 6+ years, proving its competency and responsiveness to clients' business needs.

Innowise Group

The strongest side of Innowise Group is a huge team of 1,000+ in-house and outsourced developers. This benefit enables the company to provide a universal tech stack to all clients regardless of their GameFi project's specifics and tech requirements. The provider works on full-cycle software development, IT staff augmentation, and data management/analytics on demand.

Innowise Group is a US-based tech company that has achieved many remarkable milestones in the industry. It's ranked #554 on the Inc. 5000 list, which certifies its fast growth and development tempos. Its team can provide any mix of technologies and services you might need when starting your GameFi project.

Juego Studios

Juego Studios has everything a GameFi startup might need. It's an innovation-focused game development company rendering top-rated services in the areas of NFT game development, art and design for games, VR functionality, NFT tokenization of in-game assets, and any kind of blockchain features for your next business idea.

The agency was created in the best tradition of game dev, specializing in mobile and desktop gaming solutions. Its experts can transform your existing game into a GameFi platform by moving its architecture to the blockchain platform and tokenizing the in-game assets. The expertise of Juego Studios' developers and artists is broadly appreciated in the modern tech market, with Warner Bros., Amazon, and Disney among its clients.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft is one of the oldest game production studios in the world, established in 1986 and known for world-class hits like Assassin's Creed, far Cry, and Rainbow Six, among others.

Though Ubisoft has been specializing in traditional video gaming until recently, the company has also decided to tap into the quickly developing NFT niche with some innovative products.

Its division, Ubisoft Strategic Innovation Lab, worked on a breakthrough project with NFT assets (digits) – Ubisoft Quartz. These tokenized digits have paved the way for players' new level of in-game asset ownership, making them not tied to a unique gamer ID but tradable on the NFT marketplace.

Overall, Ubisoft is making slow but steady steps into the world of NFT gaming, so you can hire them for GameFi idea realization, given the company's rich gaming design expertise.

Kevuru Games

Kevuru Games provides full-scale NFT games or in-game art for existing GameFi projects. Its large team of designers and blockchain architects keeps its hands on the pulse of the GameFi industry, equipping all projects with cutting-edge tech features and functionality. Thus, their products are always marketable, technically superior, and appealing, even for picky gamers.

You can turn to Kevuru Games for advice and business idea validation or when you need to develop a winning GameFi project concept. Kevuru Games can also enhance your project's visibility at any stage of its lifecycle through well-concerted marketing campaigns and community-building. Its pros are also experienced in game testing and 24/7 maintenance, in case you're looking for an infallible post-launch support provider.

Antier Solutions

Antier is at the top of the game regarding GameFi production. It's a well-known game production company that supports startups and existing businesses at any stage of their NFT gaming platform development. Its experts can help you build, promote, and maintain an NFT gaming product in line with the top-tier industry standards.

The service range of Antier Solutions covers P2E gaming, move-to-earn games and apps, player vs. player games, strategy-based products, and crypto breeding games.

Inoru

Inoru is another company that renders comprehensive NFT gaming development services to innovation-focused startups. Its team is universally skilled in blockchain development, Web 3.0 design, and NFT technology. So, it can be a one-stop solution for all your blockchain dev needs.

Inoru's expertise in gaming development is extensive. The company can render broad project support, ranging from gaming platform setup from scratch to affiliate program design, analytics and reports, and robust fraud detection solutions. With offices in India and Singapore, the company has 150+ top-rated developers on board, with many more available on demand on an outsourcing basis.

GameFi Is Ripe for Entry

As you can see, the GameFi market is moving fast, welcoming all strategically thinking and forward-looking businesses on board. You can also reap the benefits of the expanding GameFi industry by partnering with a reliable, credible provider and entering the market with a marketable, uniquely designed, and totally safe product.