Mythical Games has raced out the traps with FIFA Rivals, its latest web3 mobile game, which has broken all records in becoming the studio’s fastest game to reach one million downloads. The fact that its player case is entirely mobile and largely composed of non-web3 gamers attests to the mainstream appeal of FIFA Rivals and its predecessor NFL Rivals. But more than merely proving that there’s product-market fit in producing immersive sports games blessed with major league branding, the feat shows that when it comes to web3 gaming, Mythical stands in a league of its own. FIFA Rivals Joins Class of Three FIFA Rivals may have made it to one million downloads in record time, but it’s certainly not the first Mythical Games release to have achieved that feat. Indeed, all three of its major titles to date have done this, with Blankos and NFL Rivals completing the trifecta. In an industry where many web3 games struggle to reach a few thousand active players, this is quite an achievement. In fairness, the top-performing web3 games rack up serious numbers, but few studios have come close to hitting the sort of benchmarks that Mythical is now routinely posting. In an X thread celebrating the 1M milestone for FIFA Rivals, Mythical teased that it’s well on its way to its next target: 2M. Given that it only took around 10 weeks to get to the first plateau, this shouldn’t take long. It’s clear that gamers aren’t simply downloading FIFA Rivals because they believe there’s some sort of incentive attached: rather they’re rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck into matchplay. More than 16M goals have been scored across 5M matches played to date in FIFA Rivals, which has clearly resonated with footie fans. But this is about more than merely releasing a successful football game: there’s something going on at Mythical HQ that’s given the studio the Midas touch. To release a single 1M-downloaded game could be chalked up as a fluke. To release three in a row? That’s no accident. So what’s going on behind the scenes at Mythical that’s led to it emerging, seemingly out of nowhere, to become the darling of web3’s thriving gaming industry? The Making of Mythical Mythical’s rise can be credited in part to the energy of CEO John Linden , who serves as the very visible face of the company, cropping up regularly in gaming and crypto media to advance his vision of where the industry is headed next. He’s very much interested in the concept of “sustainable economies” which means creating web3 games that aren’t defined by inflationary tokens that reward early adopters only to leave later arrivals holding the bag. Indeed, Mythical’s success can be partly credited to their decision not to force a token upon players in order to get started. There’s no need to touch a token at all during the course of playing its flagship games if tokens aren’t your thing. The one area where a native token – MYTH – comes into play is for transactions on Mythical Marketplace, where in-game items are traded. But this is optional, and while it’s likely to appeal to regular players, it’s by no means essential in order to enjoy the gaming experience. This strategy has yielded dividends with NFL Rivals and now FIFA Rivals in particular. The actual sports stars represented in each game are tradable by players who want to create their dream team. But for players who just wanna kick a ball, however, there’s all that in spades. It’s believed that there will be further sports titles emerging from the Mythical Games stable in the future, which makes sense given the major success they’ve achieved with FIFA and NFL. But there are other titles too, such as Pudgy Party, featuring those irrepressible Pudgy Penguins, that will prove the studio has other strings to its bow. What the latest metrics posted by FIFA Rivals show, beyond dispute, is that Mythical Games isn’t going anywhere. It’s grown too big to ignore in web3 gaming – and increasingly now in mainstream mobile gaming too. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
