Magic Eden, a leading NFT marketplace, has launched a gaming event called “Mint Madness” that offers free NFT mints for over a dozen Web3 titles. The event will take place throughout March and will include 13 free Web3 games spread across the Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon blockchains. These games have been developed by both traditional gaming studios and Web3 native creators and feature non-fungible tokens for in-game items. Titles such as Planet Mojo and Shrapnel are part of the event, among others.

According to Chris Akhavan, Chief Gaming Officer at Magic Eden, the decision to launch these games for free this month was based on the observation that many games entering Web3 do not necessarily need to use NFTs as a monetization tool. Instead, NFTs serve as an important user engagement tool to share the creators’ vision and work with a highly captive and invested audience.

To keep the event competitive, Magic Eden has promised to post a leaderboard featuring the top NFT traders across Mint Madness collections on its social media channels. Players will be grouped in pools based on the specific chain on which the game they are participating in is based. For instance, the top 10 traders by volume on the Polygon collections will be pooled together in a prize pool of 20,000 MATIC, or about $25,500 as of press time. The first-place winner will be rewarded with 4,500 MATIC, or about $5,400.

This announcement comes a week after Magic Eden Ventures, the marketplace’s venture arm, invested in 11 Web3 gaming studios. It appears that Magic Eden is keen on capitalizing on the growing interest in Web3 gaming.