Since the launch of Nitro Nation: World Tour season 1 less than a week ago, it looks like the game has seen a steady increase in downloads through the app stores.
While its developers Mythical Games and Creative Mobile initially soft launched the collectible car racing game in early August 2023, its first season, which sees players race in the Pacific Northwest, has attracted a new wave of players. Nitro Nation: World Tour recently reached over 500,000 downloads on Google Play, something Mythical CEO John Linden modestly called “not a bad first week” on X.
In comparison, Mythical’s other web3 mobile game, NFL Rivals, reached 2 million downloads through Apple App Store and Google Play combined two months following its soft launch. It’s also officially showing +500,000 downloads on Google Play.
Other prominent mobile-based blockchain games having launched during 2023 include
- Arc8 gaming platform with over 1 million downloads on Google Play,
- Com2uS’ casual Minigame Party coming in at over 500,000 downloads, and
- TCG Cross The Ages and autochess battler Mojo Melee, with over 10,000 downloads each.
In terms of Android downloads, web3 games launching before 2023 in the top include Castle Crush with over 50 million (although it originally launched as a standard web2 game), followed by Walken, Summoners War: Chronicles, Stepn and Upland, all at over 1 million downloads each.
In an interview with BlockchainGamer.biz, Linden recently explained how the app stores are slowly softening their approach to web3 as they see more good games being made and learn more about them. Both Google and Apple changed their rules recently to be more allowing of blockchain games.
Whether Nitro Nation: World Tour will join the high ranks before the end of 2023 remains to be seen, but it certainly has the potential to engage web2 and web3 players alike. The game combines racing and collecting with earning and digital ownership, including fully licensed car NFTs from globally renowned car manufacturers. While the cars are used for races, players can also customize and upgrade their cars through workshop NFTs, in addition to loaning out and renting cars.