Best Blockchains for Gaming: Ethereum vs Polygon vs Solana vs SUI

Even a few years back, nobody would’ve imagined how big of a trend blockchain gaming would become, growing from a small idea to a full-blown business today. Games today attract millions of players with decentralized platforms, in-game items, and play-to-earn models that blockchain technology provides.

The numbers do not lie, and the market statistics clearly demonstrate the widespread adoption and popularity of blockchain games. The market cap from blockchain games was worth about $128.62 billion in 2022 alone and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.8% from 2022 to 2030, expected to reach $614.91 billion by 2030.

In this article, we are going to discuss the differences between Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and SUI depending on multiple factors. By the end of this article, you will have a complete understanding of all these top four blockchains so that you can choose the best one for your needs.

Blockchain Gaming and Its Rise in Popularity

Blockchain-based games store assets, transactions, and rules on a decentralized network. Players can own, trade, or sell in-game items like characters, weapons, and land as NFTs, giving their in-game assets a real-world value.

Blockchain improves every aspect of gaming, from play-to-earn games to NFTs that allow true ownership of in-game assets

There are several blockchain networks, which can be really mind-boggling to go through, so we have compiled a list of the top four best blockchains for gaming to help you make the right decision easily.

Choosing the Right Blockchain for Gaming Projects

There are several blockchain platforms to provide the foundation for building blockchain-based games, but there is no one-size-fits-all answer because some are better for performance, some for scalability, and a few are excellent for security or helping programmers.

Let’s take a look at Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and SUI, four of the most popular blockchains for gaming, and see what each one has to offer. This list will help you decide which one is best for your project:

Ethereum 

Ethereum was the first blockchain to support smart contracts, and it is still the most popular one for blockchain game production.  If you have heard of NFTs or DeFi, you most likely stumbled upon an Ethereum project.  

Many blockchain game ventures choose it since it has the biggest developer community and a well-established ecosystem. Games like CryptoKitties and Lost Relics are built using advanced and scalable features of Ethereum. 

Ethereum is great for building applications that need security and long-term stability, but entrepreneurs who are on a budget will usually search for other options.

Advantages

Robust security: Due to its extensive and distributed decentralized network, it is exceptionally secure. 

Massive community support: There are a lot of resources, tutorials, and software engineers available.

A proven track record: Ethereum already has a lot of successful dApps and games running on it, building confidence in it.

Disadvantages

High gas fees: Players may have to spend more in fees for transactions than they do for the game itself.

Problems with scalability: When the network is busy and congested, transactions can take a long time, and it faces scalability issues.

Polygon

Polygon is a mature, secure, and highly scalable ecosystem for making blockchain games. By being a Layer-2 solution, it runs on top of Ethereum and provides faster transactions with cheaper rates, which makes it ideal for gaming. 

Polygon is an excellent choice for gaming projects that want to use Ethereum’s ecosystem and its security, but require something cheap and quick.

Advantages

High speed: Polygon’s PoS chain can handle thousands of transactions per second (TPS), which makes the network less busy and gives gamers a better experience, especially in real-time or multiplayer games.

Easy to connect with Ethereum: Professionals can use Ethereum’s ecosystem without having to deal with the scalability issues associated with it.

Low fees: Players won’t be put off by high transaction prices.

Disadvantages

Centralization Issues: Polygon’s security is linked to Ethereum’s because it is a sidechain, and there are some centralization issues with its older scaling solutions.

Still maturing: It doesn’t have the same reputation or stability as Ethereum yet, but it’s growing quickly.

Solana

Solana offers high throughput at lower costs, making it an attractive option for makers who are on a tight budget. It is well known for its speed and scalability.

Solana can provide you with speed for frequent interactions like trades or battles, but you should monitor its reliability.

Advantages

High throughput: With up to 65,000 TPS (transactions per second), it provides blazingly quick transaction speeds along with inexpensive gas prices.

Inexpensive fees: The cost of each transaction in Solana is nearly negligible.

Disadvantages

Network stability: Solana has had outages previously, causing users to question its stability.

Limited Ecosystem: Solana is a comparatively recently launched platform, so it has a much smaller ecosystem compared to other blockchains.

SUI

The SUI blockchain is a recent addition to the blockchain-gaming domain, which has been attracting a lot of attention among programmers, all for good reasons. With dynamic NFTs, kiosks, soulbound assets, and on-chain randomness, SUI ensures that programmers have everything they need to create compelling, open, and fair games.

SUI is appealing to people who want to experiment with new gaming features, but it also carries the risks associated with early adoption.

Advantages

Speed: SUI transactions are typically confirmed in under a second, as they utilize parallel transaction execution that can dynamically increase throughput and minimize latency.

Object-oriented design: It is designed specifically by keeping games and interactive applications in mind. Design helps to simplify the tracking of complex in-game elements, including characters and items.   

High scalability: It is built to process numerous transactions with minimal delay.

Disadvantages

It’s New: It’s still a relatively new blockchain, and its community and ecosystem are much smaller compared to those of Ethereum or Solana.

Unproven track record: Because this blockchain is so new, we don’t know how reliable it will be in the long run.

Comparison Table

Below is a comparison table to help you go through the features of each blockchain network at a glance.

Criteria	Ethereum	Solana	Polygon	SUI
Native Token	ETH	SOL	MATIC	SUI
Year of Foundation	2013	2017	2017	2023
Programming Language	Solidity	Rust, C and C++	Golan, Solidity, and Vyper	Move
Transactional Speed	15 to 30 per second	Up to 65,000 per second	Up to 100,000 per second	120,000 to 297,000+ per second
The Consensus Mechanism	Proof-of-Stake (PoS)	Proof-of-History (PoH) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS)	Proof-of-Stake (PoS)	Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
Scalability	Limited Scalability	High-performance scalability	Offers better scalability by being multi-chain	Extremely scalable for non-conflicting transactions
EVM Compatibility	Native	No	Yes	No
Developer Ecosystem	Mature and well-supported	Growing	Mature	Emerging
Use Case Fit for Gaming	Complex economies	Real-time/high-frequency	P2E, casual games	Dynamic NFT-heavy games
Energy Efficiency	Efficient	Highly Efficient	Efficient	Highly Efficient
Game Examples	CryptoKitties, Axie Infinity and Gods Unchained.	Star Atlas, Genopets, and Chain Crisis	Aavegotchi, Sunflower Land, and MapleStory Universe.	Abyss World, Run Legends, and Cards of Ethernity

Key Criteria for Evaluating Gaming Blockchains 

When building a blockchain game from scratch, choosing the right blockchain network is one of the most crucial decisions. The following are the most essential points that need to be addressed before making this decision:

Scalability

There are a lot of transactions in games that include buying in-game assets, trading NFTs, or giving out incentives to thousands of people at once. If a blockchain lacks the scalability to manage such high traffic, it will quickly become congested and slow down, causing frustration among users.  

For example, Solana and Polygon are networks that are built to be scalable, meaning they can handle more transactions efficiently at once, unlike the earlier chains like Ethereum.

Fees for transactions

Everyone hates paying high fees only to swap their digital assets. If the blockchain has high gas fees, such as in Ethereum during busy periods, games that need many frequent microtransactions can get a lot more expensive.

Safety

Security is a must for blockchain games because they use real money and precious digital assets. Examine the network’s history to determine if it has been hacked before, its downtime history, or if it has had any serious exploits. 

People and experts often emphasize going for older blockchains like Ethereum, as they have withstood the test of time and have undergone more testing, while newer blockchains may still need to prove their worth.

Support for ecosystems and communities

A strong community and ecosystem of software professionals will make things a lot easier for you in the long run.  Blockchains with active communities usually have superior developer tools, tutorials, and better third-party integrations.  

For instance, Ethereum has one of the largest ecosystems, with a lot of libraries and other resources needed for the game-building journey.

Interoperability

When playing a blockchain game, players expect to be able to use their in-game assets across multiple titles and platforms. Choosing an interoperable blockchain that supports cross-chain asset transfers for your game will allow your players to trade and interact outside the gaming environment.

Blockchain game interoperability is provided by standardized asset representation, often using NFTs, and is enabled by cross-chain technologies such as interoperability protocols, such as IBC and CCIP. Projects like Cosmos and Polkadot provide this functionality.

Sustainability

As people become more aware of how their actions affect the environment, energy use is becoming a key factor. So using a more environmentally friendly blockchain like Solana, Tezos, or Polygon is considerably better for the environment. 

Conclusion

The comparison of all the top 4 blockchains reveals that there is no universally applicable solution. It’s more about finding a blockchain that fits your vision than picking the “best” one.  

Ultimately, the ideal decision comes down to what is most important to your project: scalability, affordable costs, a strong community, or cutting-edge features. Answering this question can be really exhausting, which is why partnering with a firm can help streamline the process.

Technoloader can help you choose the right blockchain that will be the best fit for your specific game type with confidence.

Contact us today!