Splinterlands | Are Rewards Still Worth It? (+Season Earnings)

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(Edited)

I used to make Earnings Reports for Splinterlands each month in 2020 just to showcase what realistically could be earned from the ecosystem way before the game became popular. A lot has changed ever since and I'm having another look at if it's actually still worth it now.

Earnings in 2020!

Back in those days before anyone really knew that the game was going to get a lot bigger, the earnings weren't that spectacular but they added up like crazy as cards appreciated in value a lot. These is all the detailed earnings reports I made during that year:

Just looking at the reward cards that were earned it's quite crazy to see that they were worth that little. 11.37$ in total for 170 reward card value over the course of an entire season over 2 accounts that included A golden Kemp Initiate which now on its own goes for 30$. This knowing prices of cards are down a lot compared to what they used to be.

There were also DEC earnings, untamed packs from which many of the cards are now worth quite a bit, actual affiliate earnings, blogging earnings, ... all combined offered a really high return based on the actual card collection value. In a month like December when my collection was worth the most around 1719$, it was possible to get 112.60$ worth of earnings which equals 6.55% a month. This off course required quite some time and effort.

Earnings in 2023!

So much has changed since those early days and the general trend is that it always gets harder and harder to earn with returns deminishing and the amount of new players that need to come in to hold up prices increases exponentially. At the same time, there are many measures in place to avoid players that have only the intention to extract value to do so which makes it harder for real players.

Also Fully Tradable Reward cards now have turned into Soulbound Reward cards, DEC was replaced by DEC, Affiliate earnings nowadays are next to nothing as nobody is buying stuff with credits since DEC which doesn't count for affiliate earnings is cheaper. collection power requirements which soon will be turned into SPS Staking requirements are in place

This said, Blogging earnings are a lot higher now since there are the challenges that get curated by the Splinterlands team who have an account with a lot of upvote power, SPS has the potential to increase in value, SPS staking gives passive returns, The rental market is much more active compared to 2020 when it used to be quite dead, so there are still many ways to earn.

Season Earnings

I still play 2 accounts and even though I would love to make another fully detailed earnings report, it's just way too much work since there are so many aspects and small sources of income from the Splinterlands Ecosystem. Just looking at the season reward chests playing 2 accounts, this is what I got.

Main Account (~11k Card Value): This on the season chests earned me a whopping 3681 SPS which roughly equals 100$+. This came from 60 Diamond Chest and most importantly 3591 of that came from 1 lucky chest which means that without that it would only come down to 90 SPS or 2.61$. I so see cards now as rewards without value as it's said that to mint them one day it will cost more than what they can be burned for later down the line and I'm not sure what the most optimal play will be once they go out of print.
Alt Account (~4.3k Card Value): This is the account where I tend to ship my Golden cards into. I received 63 Gold chests in that account which didn't include a single pack and only gave 25.165 SPS or 0.73$ in season rewards which is highly disappointing as is less what a single Brawl 1.40$ earned.

There are also Merrit Rewards from chests and brawls which have the potential to add up as I did get lucky getting a Golden Legendary recently from one of those packs which I managed to burn for 50k DEC.

Blogging Earnings
These by far remain the best way for pretty much all players regardless their collection to earn and offer a great way to organically grow as I'm still using them to re-invest into the game myself (See Using Blogging Earnings To Buy More Cards)

Since you get roughly 45% of the shown earnings, these 4 posts added up to another 36$ over the course of the season. this doesn't include SPT earnings.

Different Ways To Earn

There are many different ways still to earn nowadays despite the soulbond reward cards.

  • Staking SPS: This gives more SPS and other benefits like Vouchers and things like the Vrux airdrop, GLX Airdrop daily.
  • Braw Rewards: I think a brawl is competed every 5-6 days which have the potential to give a couple of Gladius packs and quite some SPS
  • Chest Rewards: They can include SPS or Packs and most of all require patience as at some point in time you for sure will get something good depending the league that you are in.
  • Rental Earnings: Spare cards can be put to use on the rental market for passive returns.
  • Blogging Earnings: These add up if you are willing to put the time into them.
  • Tournaments: I occasionally play these and just turned 10 SPS into 89 SPS
  • Leaderboard Rankings: They Pay DEC but only are achievable for a limited number of players in each of the leagues.

How Much I roughly made this season

Note that this is the result of playing the game over the course of many years mostly re-investing what I earned without putting a crazy amount into it. Doing a rough estimate of overall earnings combined in the game (Daily Chests, Season Chests, SPS Staking, Brawls, Blogging, Affiliates, Vouchers, Rentals, GLX Airdrop, ...) I would say that I easily got over 200$+ on the last 2 weeks of which half came from a single chest. Purely based on the asset and time investment, I would say this is rather low but I'm enjoying the game and blogging so in a way it's all a nice extra similar to how I say earnings back in 2020. I also still see the potential for asset price increases during the coming bull market even though they likely won't go as crazy.

Conclusion: Are Earnings Still Worth It ?

For sure things aren't what they used to be and for anyone who wants to come into the ecosystem with an eye to make a quick buck I would say it's not worth it. However, if you are a gamer that enjoys something like Hearthstone, I still think that Splinterlands is worth it. That is if your really play it smart and have some initial funds to either buy some cards or rent them. While earnings on a day-to-day basis might be quite disappointing. It's the rare chests that give really good earnings that make all the difference along with the fact that many different small earnings add up if you are consistent. There is also the potential price increase of the assets but that remains a gamble and it's not going to be easy to get another crazy adoption cycle even though I believe in one way or another it will come at some point. Once that happens it's likely going to be the time the scale back.

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Interesting perspective. Thanks for writing this and pointing out that earning is still possible. After all it is a play to earn game. It would be a shame if there was no earning potential. I think the game creators should read this and offer their take on this.

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