How the World’s Biggest Play-to-Earn Game Abandoned the Players Who Made It Possible
🧩 Introduction:
In 2021, Axie Infinity exploded. For millions of Filipinos, it was more than a game — it became a source of hope during the pandemic. Families bought Axies with their savings. Students, farmers, and jobless workers became scholars. At its peak, the Philippines made up over 40% of Axie’s player base.
But what started as a revolution quietly collapsed — and those left behind were the very people who built it.
🎮 Part 1: Axie Classic Was Good Enough
Axie Classic had simple gameplay, clear rewards, and fast onboarding.
Filipino players adapted quickly — grinding SLP daily to earn income.
Even with flaws, it worked: players played, bred, burned, and earned.
But instead of improving the economy, the devs focused on rebuilding the game (Origin) — and ignored urgent problems.
📉 Part 2: The SLP Economy Was the Heart — And They Let It Die
In 2021, SLP hit ₱20 with only ~320M tokens in circulation.
Players begged the devs to burn more SLP as the price started falling.
But nothing happened. The supply ballooned — now over 36 billion.
No cap. No emergency burn. Just silence.
As price crashed, thousands of players in PH were left with worthless tokens and expensive Axies.
🏦 Part 3: Where Did the Money Go?
The Axie ecosystem generated billions in market cap.
But most of that value went to:
Early investors
The dev team
Exchanges collecting fees
Meanwhile, the community — especially in the Philippines — saw the value of their hard work vanish.
🇵🇭 Part 4: The Philippine Community Was the Backbone
PH players:
Built entire scholarship models
Created content, guilds, and systems
Pumped demand for Axies and SLP
But the devs never prioritized them.
No apology. No rebuild plan. Just new products — Origin, Ronin DEX — that most players didn’t ask for.
🧠 Conclusion: A Lesson in Web3 Greed
Axie Infinity didn’t just fail due to bad luck. It failed because the developers chose to ignore the core economy — and the people who made it thrive.
> When you let bots farm, whales dump, and players beg for months without response… that’s not failure. That’s exploitation.
The community deserves to be remembered. And the next generation of Web3 builders must learn from this:
You don’t build a sustainable game by abandoning your players. Especially the ones who believed in you the most.