While the broader crypto gaming narrative often focuses on hype cycles and market volatility, one blockchain has been quietly building a robust and active ecosystem for players. Polygon has emerged as a leading hub for play-to-earn and play-to-own experiences, offering a blend of established platforms and innovative new titles. If you’re looking to dive into blockchain gaming with lower transaction fees and a vibrant community, here are five games you can play right now, ranked from fifth to first.
- #5: Avalon – A Fantasy MMO Steeped in Ancient Lore
- #4: Nifty Island – Where Your NFT Collection Comes to Life
- #3: Crazy Defense Heroes – Tower Defense Meets Token Rewards
- #2: The Sandbox – A Metaverse Giant Embraces Accessibility
- #1: Sunflower Land – Polygon’s Most Active Farming Community
- Conclusion: A Diverse Ecosystem Built for Players
#5: Avalon – A Fantasy MMO Steeped in Ancient Lore
Kicking off our list is Avalon, a fantasy MMO RPG developed by Danu Games. Set in a world of Templars, Dragons, and ancient lore, this game draws clear inspiration from titles like Assassin’s Creed and Destiny. It’s available on PC and supports multiple blockchains, including Polygon, Ethereum, Binance, and Wax.
The core of Avalon is an open world built around both PvP and PvE combat. An early and crucial choice for every player is selecting a faction: aligning with either the Templar Order or the Inquisition. This decision unlocks unique gear that can be purchased with faction-specific coins. The world is divided into distinct zones like Camelot Castle and Castle Parallels, each with its own quests and challenges. A guild system further deepens the experience, enabling cooperative play.
Since its Alpha launch in January 2023, the game has grown to include three villages across four guilds. Access is currently gated behind either Gold Pass NFTs or 30-day access passes available through the official store. The game’s economy is built on wearable NFT equipment, ranging from functional items like the Epic Druid Ring and Legendary Silver Drake Mirror to purely cosmetic pieces. This model provides a tangible sense of ownership and progression within its medieval fantasy setting.
#4: Nifty Island – Where Your NFT Collection Comes to Life
Next up is a unique social experience that bridges the gap between digital art collecting and interactive gameplay. Nifty Island is a free-to-play social gaming platform developed by Nifty Studios, available on Windows and Mac with multi-chain support across Ethereum, Base, and Polygon.
The core experience revolves around building and customizing a personal island using an intuitive creator toolset. Players can place structures, statues, and avatars to craft their own unique social space. The standout feature is its extensive NFT integration: it supports assets from over 120 collections, allowing holders to bring their prized NFTs to life as in-game avatars and decorations.
Islands function as social hubs. When friends visit, they generate “blooms” for the host, creating a natural incentive to keep building and engaging. For more competitive players, Friday Scrims offer seasonal PvP events, while special happenings like the Valentine’s Build and Chill add variety. The platform’s native token, Island, is built on LayerZero’s OFT standard, making it omni-chain. It unlocks platform resources and expands creative capabilities. Creators can use the Nifty Island Forge tool to mint their own tradable NFT assets, which are then available on a cross-chain marketplace. The platform continues to evolve, with Season 2 having launched on February 13th, 2026.
#3: Crazy Defense Heroes – Tower Defense Meets Token Rewards
For mobile gamers, Crazy Defense Heroes by Animoca Brands offers a compelling entry point. This Android and iOS tower defense game builds on the mechanics of Crazy Kings, featuring over 500 levels where players deploy towers, heroes, and spells to fend off waves of enemies. Its blockchain integration is facilitated through the Tower token on Polygon.
Beyond the extensive solo content, a guild system enables a cooperative battle mode. The game stays fresh with rotating Seasonal Invasion events; for instance, the Lunar New Year 2026 event introduced the Lucky Cat Faction and Sun Affinity mechanics. Monthly events like Avatar XP Gain and Daily Star Chest provide consistent goals for its community of over 2 million downloads.
The play-to-earn mechanics are structured around the Tower token, an ERC-20 utility token. Players holding at least one Tower Battle Card NFT can qualify for token distributions by collecting 315,000 Avatar XP monthly, with higher thresholds unlocking additional reward tiers. This creates a clear, goal-oriented progression system tied directly to gameplay participation. The ecosystem is rounded out by soul-bound Achievement Badge NFTs that track player milestones, offering non-transferable proof of accomplishment.
#2: The Sandbox – A Metaverse Giant Embraces Accessibility
As one of blockchain gaming’s most recognizable platforms, The Sandbox needs little introduction. This community-driven voxel metaverse and gaming platform by Animoca Brands runs on both Ethereum and Polygon and is built around user-created experiences and owned LAND parcels. Players explore a vast array of worlds, from branded partner zones to intricate puzzle games and social spaces built entirely by the community.
Each season brings a curated slate of content with significant prize pools. Season 7, launching February 25th, 2026, is making a notable push for accessibility by allowing select experiences to be played directly in a browser, removing the download requirement. At launch, 32 experiences were available, featuring partners like Atari, while creator game jams continue to foster innovation.
The economy is powered by SAND, the primary utility token used for transactions, marketplace purchases, and seasonal participation. LAND parcels are NFTs that give owners the right to build and monetize experiences. The platform is in a state of constant evolution; in September 2025, it announced The Sandbox 3.0, introducing the Sand Chain for creator monetization and an AI partnership for assisted game creation tools. Season 7 features a 650,000 SAND prize pool (worth approximately $52,000 at the time), demonstrating its ongoing commitment to rewarding its community. For a look at how other major ecosystems are evolving, check out our analysis in The Rise and Fall of Crypto Gaming: A Post-Mortem and a Path Forward.
#1: Sunflower Land – Polygon’s Most Active Farming Community
Topping our list is the game with Polygon’s most self-reported active community: Sunflower Land. This browser-based, play-to-own farming game by ThoughtFarm is built natively on Polygon and boasts over 700,000 active farmers. It perfectly exemplifies how a well-designed game loop can foster a massive, dedicated community.
What begins as simple planting and harvesting quickly expands into a deep and interconnected economy. Players progress into crafting tools, cooking meals, breeding animals, fishing, crossbreeding flowers, extracting oil, and gathering obsidian. Each player is represented on-chain by a Bumpkin character that levels up through gameplay, providing a persistent thread that ties all the systems together.
A unique “portal” system allows community developers to build and host their own mini-games within the Sunflower Land ecosystem, with several, like the newly launched RareCros, already live. The tokenomics are elegantly structured: SFL is the primary ERC-20 token for crafting and transactions, while Flower (introduced in Chapter 10) serves as a secondary currency for bounties and trade. NFTs cover everything from collectibles and seasonal decorations to wearables and animal variants.
Perhaps its most clever design feature is a built-in supply and demand mechanism that makes basic resources progressively scarcer over time, creating natural economic scarcity without external intervention. The game continues to grow with seasonal content; Season 13, “Crabs and Traps,” launched in February 2026, adding over 27 ocean-themed collectibles. This focus on sustainable gameplay and community ownership makes it a standout success story, contrasting with more speculative models. To explore other games that prioritize player ownership, see our feature on the Top 5 Play-to-Earn Games Building on Ethereum Right Now.
Conclusion: A Diverse Ecosystem Built for Players
This ranked list showcases the diversity and depth of the gaming ecosystem on Polygon. From the expansive fantasy MMO of Avalon and the social creativity of Nifty Island to the mobile-friendly strategy of Crazy Defense Heroes, the metaverse ambitions of The Sandbox, and the community-driven farming simulation of Sunflower Land, there is a genuine play-to-earn or play-to-own experience for nearly every type of gamer.
What ties these projects together is a move beyond pure speculation towards sustainable gameplay loops, strong community incentives, and tangible digital ownership. Polygon’s infrastructure provides the foundation for this activity with lower fees and faster transactions, making it an ideal chain for developers and players alike. While the broader crypto gaming space continues to mature and find its footing, as discussed in our article Six Years and Billions Later: The Disappointing Reality of Crypto Gaming in 2025, the titles highlighted here represent a promising path forward—one where fun and engagement are just as important as the potential to earn.
