Crypto Game Crashouts: The Biggest Shutdowns in 2025

In brief Crypto gaming has experienced a growing trend of games and studios shutting down. Game creators are struggling to find funding to complete development, among other commonly cited issues. Once-promising blockchain games like Deadrop, Nyan Heroes, Ember Sword, and Pirate Nation top the list. While crypto gaming has long been seen as a key use for blockchain, letting gamers really own and freely trade their unique items and perhaps profit from a game's success, developers are struggling to sustain their games and digital economies. Some games, like Gunzilla Games’ Off the Grid , have punched through to a broader audience, gaining adoption from top streamers and gamers alike-albeit ahead of full blockchain integration . But many other games and studios building with tokens are struggling to find players and maintain funding. In 2025, a number of once-promising crypto games closed up shop, with the list growing steadily throughout the year. Here’s a look at some of the biggest games to go offline or shut down entirely. Deadrop Deadrop game developer Midnight Society announced that it was closing shop in January. The studio, which had previously removed co-founder Dr. Disrespect in 2024 after alleged misconduct, gave employees just two days notice, according to an employee post on X. The extraction shooter game spent around two years in early access, selling players NFT access passes on Ethereum scaling network Polygon , as well as other non-NFT items that ultimately became useless. In March, players started rallying around the abandoned community Discord, helping each other secure refunds via credit card chargebacks and bank reversals by claiming the product was never fully delivered. Ember Sword Ethereum game Ember Sword at one point received more than $200 million in pledges for an NFT land sale, conveying the level of hype around metaverse gaming land NFTs in 2021. But the final sale brought in much less than that, and in May, the game was ultimately shut down. Developer Bright Star Studios cited a lack of funding in its closing announcement-a common theme among crypto games ceasing development of late. The MMORPG entered closed beta last July and early access later in the year, but drew criticism from players. After moving chains multiple times in search of a permanent home, it's since gone offline. “We explored every possible way forward. But in today’s market-where even some of the most promising projects are shutting down-we couldn’t find a path to keep building,” the project said . Nyan Heroes The Solana cat-mech shooter game Nyan Heroes ended its run in May , as well. The game, which had racked up more than 250,000 wishlist additions across PC gaming platforms, was unable to secure the necessary funding to complete development and push ahead with its planned full launch next winter. Its closure rendered its NYAN Solana token useless, plummeting its value to more than 99% off its all-time high established in 2024. "It's been a difficult last few months,” 9 Lives CEO and Creative Director Max Fu told Decrypt...

Preview: ~500 words