Why 65% Of NFL Rivals' Revenue Now Comes From Web3 And What That Means For Mythical Games In this episode of DROPS, I sit down with John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games and former developer behind blockbusters like Call of Duty and Marvel Strike Force, to discuss how the blockchain, and specifically the @Polkadot ecosystem, is reshaping the economics of gaming on a massive scale. @johnwastaken shares the moment a $700 purchase of 2D CryptoKitties flipped his perspective forever: “It wasn’t just a 2D image of a cat,” he recalls. “I could sell it, burn it, give it away, or play with it. For the first time, the user had real control.” That kind of economic agency over digital assets is what sparked a journey that would lead him to build @playmythical, a studio focused on embedding Web3 infrastructure into mobile hits like @FIFARivals and @PlayNFLRivals. But here’s the catch: most of the players don’t even know they’re using crypto. And that’s by design. From Game Developer to Web3 Technologist Before going full Web3, John had already left his mark on the traditional gaming industry. He launched his first venture-backed company at 19, helped build Call of Duty, and led the development of Marvel Strike Force, a top-25 mobile game. Over the years, he watched the industry evolve and then stagnate. “Gaming is a massive industry — half the world plays games every month,” he notes. “But only about 5% of mobile gamers ever spend money.” For a sector built on engagement and retention, that’s a huge untapped market. With crypto, John saw an opportunity to finally unlock value for the 95% of gamers who engage daily but never pay. Mythical Games set out to do exactly that, but without the complication of wallets, seed phrases, or token speculation. Why Crypto Gaming Has Been Slow, and Why That’s Changing Despite the hype cycles around Axie Infinity and other Web3 titles, most crypto games have struggled with quality and longevity because, according to John, “Games take years to build, even with a full team and engine, FIFA Rivals took us a year. One of my friends, a Grand Theft Auto dev, is on year nine of his new game.” That patience doesn’t mesh well with crypto’s usual velocity. But Mythical is betting on the long game. By integrating blockchain infrastructure behind the scenes, they’re solving Web2’s biggest monetization pain points while letting players enjoy games without thinking about the tech. Take NFL Rivals: in year one, 20% of its revenue came from blockchain-based secondary trading. After adding in-game marketplaces and a feature called Quick Trade, that figure jumped to 65%, in a fully Web2-like interface. Now, FIFA Rivals is already replicating those numbers in its first week. The Mythical Vision: Web3 Without the Web3 At the core of Mythical’s strategy is an idea that sounds paradoxical: blockchain that players never see. “You swipe your credit card and don’t care which payment processor it uses,” John explains. “That’s how crypto should work in games. Players don’t need to know it’s Web3, they just need to feel the benefits.” The benefits are real: Quick Trade lets players swap in-game assets without needing tokens. Multi-leg trades are processed behind the scenes, even across countries. That means gamers in regions like Africa, where mobile penetration is high but credit card usage is low, can now generate and exchange value in games for the first time. “$20 might buy lunch in New York, but in parts of Africa, that’s a week’s groceries,” says John. “We’re opening up global markets that traditional studios ignored.” Building Sustainable Web3 Economies John also cautions against the pitfalls of unsustainable token models like those that plagued early crypto games. “Game-specific tokens are hard to sustain long-term. What happens when the game stops being popular?” Instead, Mythical focuses on limited-edition digital items like player cards, skins, or gear, which are evaluated through scarcity, not speculation. Add in a deflationary token model (via Mythos chain (@EnterTheMythos) on Polkadot), and the economic engine becomes more predictable and more aligned with real utility. “We don’t want to pump supply and hope demand catches up,” he says. “We’re focused on burn mechanics, sustainable growth, and user agency.” Why Polkadot? Mythical’s move to Polkadot came after a long journey through other blockchains. “Back in 2017, we were experimenting with Ethereum, but the gas fees were brutal,” John recalled. “You can’t have a $10 in-game item and then pay $60 in fees just to transfer it. That’s not going to work in gaming.” The team explored proof-of-stake networks like EOS for a while, then even ran their own Mythos sidechain, but that created the opposite problem. “We had control, but it wasn’t secure, and we didn’t get the benefit of integration with a broader network,” he said. Polkadot offered the best of both worlds: Mythical could keep its own L1 through the Mythos chain while plugging into the security and scalability of Polkadot’s relay chain, powered by the DOT token. This setup also lets Mythos’ token model work the way it was intended. Every transaction on the Mythos chain burns a portion of fees, making it a deflationary asset over time, and by anchoring into Polkadot’s ecosystem, those transactions are secured by one of the most decentralized networks in the space. “Honestly, Polkadot was one of the only chains that could do this,” John said. “The cost structure is great for us, we can evolve the ecosystem through the DAO, and we’re part of a much bigger community pushing for true decentralization.” What’s Next? With FIFA Rivals already hitting #1 on app stores in several countries, John’s ambitions are only growing. Mythical’s next big move will be a new product focused on social and cloud-native gaming, powered by assets, AI agents, and scalable infrastructure. But through it all, the mission remains the same: make Web3 invisible, and make gamers the owners of their digital worlds. “If a billion people are using our tech and don’t even realise it,” John says, “that’s success.” 👉If you enjoyed reading the summary, head over to When Shift Happens on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform to access the full convo.