If you have been in Web 3 for some time, The Sandbox and Axie Infinity should be no strangers to you. To begin with, Axie Infinity has gone through a slew of negative events this year. On the flip side though, Sandbox had a successful Alpha Season 2 with several huge partnerships in the pipeline. Interestingly, both the $SAND and $AXS market cap are quite similar to each other right now ($3.9 billion). Comparing both, it seems that Sandbox will overtake Axie Infinity’s popularity soon.

Can The Sandbox really overtake Axie Infinity in popularity?
Very likely. There are a few reasons:
Player base
The Sandbox is experiencing a growing player base. This is mainly because the platform opened up its Alpha Season 2 to the public. In fact, there are over 2 million registered users in Alpha Season 2 alone. In the future, The Sandbox is likely to release more Alpha/Beta seasons to the public. This will bring more players into The Sandbox’s ecosystem. On the contrary, Axie Infinity has seen a reducing number of players due to diminishing ROI caused by poor tokenomics.
Tokenomics
In Axie Infinity, the more you play, the more you earn $SLP and $AXS (potentially). Both tokens are only useful for breeding Axies and nothing else. Hence, players are mostly taking tokens out of the system, instead of the other way round.
However, not all hope is lost. The upcoming Axie Infinity Origin will introduce a burning mechanism for $SLP tokens, where players will use $SLP to craft charms and runes. We shall see how effective it is in taming token inflation.
As for The Sandbox, you will only earn $SAND if you’re lucky. Why? Only players who won the Alpha Pass can claim $SAND rewards from the game. Without that pass, you will never be able to claim those tokens. Besides, players can also use $SAND to buy land, in-game items, and accessories. Thus, less selling pressure for $SAND in this regard.
Security
Let’s not forget the $600 million Ronin Network hack that happened lately. The Ronin bridge houses millions of players’ assets in Axie Infinity. But surprisingly, there are only 9 validator nodes to “secure” the Ronin Network. In contrast, The Sandbox is based on the Ethereum blockchain which has more than 300k validators. Furthermore, The Sandbox has partnered with Ledger to bring more security into the metaverse.
Final thoughts
All in all, with better tokenomics, security, and more exciting gameplays, The Sandbox will be more in favor compared to Axie Infinity — at least in the short term. But if Axie Infinity is able to resolve its tokenomics, we believe players might return to this game. As for now, let’s watch and see.
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