2026 Trends: Pixels’ Luke Barwikowski says the only way to save crypto gaming is to not build for crypto gamers

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, the time to look back and consider what we learned during 2025 and how to make the most of that knowledge in 2026. 

In this article we catch up with Pixels CEO Luke Barwikowski.

What was the most significant trend for blockchain games in 2025?

Luke Barwikowski: There’s been a really low sentiment for web3 gaming this year, but there are teams making amazing things right now. The biggest trend we’ve seen has been a significant shift from chasing vanity metrics to actually building sustainable businesses. For years, everyone has been obsessed with DAU and token price, but DAU doesn’t mean anything if those users aren’t generating value or sticking around. Or creating revenue?

The metric that matters from 2025 is RORS (return on reward spend). There are teams focused on whether they are bringing in more value than they are giving out, and those are the teams that have survived.

How did Pixels adapt to these changes?

In 2024, we had strong traction but it wasn’t sustainable. We were giving out way more rewards than we brought in. So, we brought in experienced people from web2, tried monetization best practices and liveops events. By early 2025, we realized that approach wasn’t working either. The spend spikes were high but not balanced with rewards.

From there, we completely changed direction and stopped chasing short-term monetization. Instead, we started building features players actually want. We shifted to sustainable earnings models, a focus on data to understand where we can improve, better content and gameplay, Merchant Ships, Chapter 3, and targeted reward offers. The feedback has been incredibly positive.

The sentiment in our core community is the best I’ve seen in 6-12 months because people see we’re actually fixing the fundamentals. They see the positive uptrend in gameplay, where things are going, the direction of Pixels.

How do you think this will change in 2026?

Looking forward to 2026, our thesis has slightly changed. To grow crypto gaming, we need to reach traditional gaming audiences. We’re working on building out the Pixels ecosystem with new apps in development, and we’re testing how to market Pixels concepts to that audience, learn what resonates, make it digestible, and generate revenue. 

For us, that involves running experiments like we started with our recently launched mobile-native pets game Chubkins and other targeted tests. Another new app called Stacked that we’re building, separate from Chubkins, will serve as a rewards hub across our games and we’ll have much more on that to share in the new year.

What was your favourite blockchain game during 2025?

Pixels always! 

What’s your New Year’s resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?

Personal: I want to sail across the Pacific. 

Industry: The only way to save crypto gaming is to not build for crypto gamers. I want the industry to start building for non-crypto players. I’m such a big believer in P2E and honestly, there are a ton of web2 platforms building P2E mechanics that are working right now. 

Crypto can be the backend of that, but normal users don’t need to interface with the crypto parts day-to-day. They just need to earn, spend, and own their assets seamlessly.

Read all our End of Year features via the EOY 2025 tag.