Illuvium co-founder and CEO Kieran Warwick predicts artificial intelligence could help spur as many as 100,000 speculative crypto games within a year, raising questions about whether players will stay.
Warwick’s estimate concerns games built around speculation and financial rewards, with Wolf Game and Fishing Frenzy among the examples he cited. He said comparable projects once needed months to develop; he estimates AI could make some possible in days for about $1,000. Warwick expects the lower expense and shorter cycle to encourage traders to try repeated game launches. He compared that possibility with frequent memecoin creation: “Like you have serial deployers of memes, you’ll get serial deployers of games.” The 100,000 figure is his forecast, not a verified release total.
More releases would not automatically create a larger, lasting player base. Robby Yung, CEO of The Sandbox and CEO of Investments at Animoca Brands, said “user retention is the lifeblood of games and always has been.” He warned that low-effort games may fail to keep players and compared AI-supported development with the early mobile gaming market. Faster production in that period expanded the range of available titles, while quality varied, he said.
Corey Wilton, co-founder and CEO of Mirai Labs, said his company released six or seven games before concluding its Web3 titles did not have enough demand. His experience points to a gap between easier production and audience interest: a cheaper build process does not itself bring players in or keep them.
In 2025, 32.8% of the 506 valid responses said organizations had put AI to use or tested it in game design and content work. That figure reflects stated AI adoption; it does not show how many games AI can produce or how quickly.
The memecoin comparison offers context, but it measures a different market. Memecoin market capitalization reached $150.6 billion in December 2024 and stood at $47.2 billion in November 2025. Those figures track tokens, not games, and do not establish that crypto gaming will follow the same course.
Warwick’s forecast ultimately rests on two separate questions: whether AI can make development faster and cheaper, and whether players will keep returning to the games that result.
