"NFT purchases allow the player to purchase their own character which is either unique to them or readily available to the wider ecosystem," says Reyes. "This gives players the ability to play as whoever they want, rather than being dictated by the developers, giving them more freedom in the gaming worlds"

More and more games enable players to build and customise their in-game characters. NFT gamers are going one better and owning their character. You can build the hero you want in your game, and perhaps even export this design to other games in the ecosystem or sell it on an NFT marketplace.

Despite these numbers there remain question marks over the usability and future of NFTs. "After all," says Reyes, "what is the point in paying thousands, sometimes millions, for a digital image of a monkey or a pixelated character that can be easily reproduced online?"

If you're unsure about non-fungible tokens we have a guide to what are NFTs, which is an essential read. NFTs can be used for all most anything but we explain how developers are adapting to the rise of NFT gaming, and we list the best NFT games to play now.

NFT gaming is growing fast, but more importantly NFT gamers are finding a purpose in their hobby. Sales of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, has risen from under $100 million in 2020 to $25 billion in 2021, as measured by DappRadar. The passing fad is here to stay and NFT games are one area that digital artists and animators should take notice of as titles such as The Sandbox become more popular.