In only 3 months, the NFT marketplace on Solana went from nonexistent, to surpassing total sales of 254 million dollars in October 2021.
Solana’s low fees and short processing times have made it a mainstay in the NFT world. Some of the first NFT projects on Solana were copycats of successful Ethereum NFT collections, such as SolPunks, which is almost identical to the CryptoPunks artwork.
Then came the Degenerate Ape Academy, which, even though was likely inspired by Ethereum’s Bored Ape Yacht Club, has an equally original and creative style that is less cartoony than other ape-inspired NFT collections. 
Degenerate Apes sold out in 8 minutes, and has probably become the flagship NFT collection on Solana. But some of the most popular recent mints have been for gaming and metaverse-based NFTs.
Aurory is a beautifully-designed, play-to-earn fantasy adventure game where players can explore different worlds and seek out magical creatures called Nefties, which can be caught, trained or traded, a little bit like Pokemon! 
The Aurory project originated with the sale of “Aurorian” NFTs, which now act as the player’s avatar during the game. Players can choose between competitive mode or story mode, which offers a fun and absorbing way to teach players about how cryptocurrency and the blockchain system works.
The development of gaming projects on Solana is a trend likely to continue as Solana Ventures, in partnership with Forte and Griffin Gaming Partners, announced a 150 million dollar investment fund to tempt up-and-coming game projects over to Solana.
One gaming project that has made the move is Mini Royale: Nations; a multiplayer shooting game which already has more than 2 million total registered players. 
The skill-based shooter, which is community-owned and has a heavy emphasis on advancing through teamwork, had already been live for months as a free-to-play online multiplayer game.
On December 9th, developers Faraway launched a series of 10,000 in-game items which could be purchased as NFTs on Solana’s Magic Eden marketplace, and then activated within the game on December 16th. The game will later go on to encompass land sales, allowing players to further explore the Mini Royale map, to build mines and refineries for unlocking rare items. It will also serve as a launchpad from which teams can launch attacks on neighboring clans, and take over enemy land.
The Solana NFT ecosystem also has digital real estate up for grabs. Portals, also launched in December, can be considered the closest thing to Decentraland on Solana. The Metaverse project sold NFT “keycards” that represent ownership of downtown Portals apartments. Keycard owners can design the interiors of their own apartments, adding anything from simple furniture to arcade-style video games which can be played inside the Portals interface. Portals apartment owners can also invite their friends to hang out together inside their own virtual place in the Metaverse. As the game evolves, more locations and experiences will be available out in the wider city, where users can build their own interactive spaces, or create games for others to play.
Will Solana’s high scalability make it the blockchain’s de-facto NFT gaming platform? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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