An Update on YGG and Our Next Chapter: Sunsetting YGG Play

In 2025, YGG focused on a simple thesis. We believed there was an underserved market of Web3 natives who wouldn’t call themselves “gamers” but who would enjoy casual, bite-sized games, if crypto elements were built into the gameplay. 

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We tested this thesis first by building our own game, LOL Land, which acted as a case study to show how “Casual Degen” games could achieve product-market fit and profitability. To scale more games like it, we launched our publishing arm, YGG Play, to provide partners with the resources, guidance, and community they needed to grow.

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From signing nine games to collaborating with IPs like Pudgy Penguins, partnering with top creators, building the YGG Play Launchpad, and organizing events worldwide, we proved that Web3-native games supported by a Web3-native publishing model could generate real revenue while delighting Casual Degens worldwide. We had strong conviction all the way, and saw signals of success as we crossed $9 million in lifetime revenue by the end of Q1 2026.

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However, external economic realities have forced us to make a difficult choice. As everyone in our community knows, on October 10, 2025, a massive macroeconomic shock sparked the largest liquidation in crypto history, wiping out over $19 billion in leveraged positions within 24 hours. While YGG Play’s early revenue performance through to 2026 gave us hope that the market would eventually recover, the carnage unfortunately continued. By mid year, Bitcoin plummeted below $60,000 while major altcoins suffered catastrophic losses of 80% or more, causing massive capital outflows that cut off the secondary liquidity retail dapps rely on.

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Ultimately, the 10/10 crash fundamentally altered retail market psychology, and we do not expect the crypto consumer market or the Web3 games publishing market to recover sufficiently in the near term. On top of that, the broader games publishing market is similarly brutal right now. With all of these challenges combined, it breaks our hearts to admit that YGG Play simply cannot be commercially sustainable in this climate. As a result, we have made the decision to sunset the YGG Play business unit. 

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This decision is about focusing YGG on areas where we believe we can build a more sustainable long-term business, and we remain entirely committed to our core mission of providing opportunities through technology.

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‍What the Sunset Means

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We want to be entirely transparent about the sunset plan. The YGGPlay.fun site, Launchpad, and all associated socials, as well as Community Questing on community.yggplay.fun, will be retired. As for the games, LOL Land and Waifu Sweeper will also be retired. All marketing support for third-party games will cease. Separately, the Web3 versions of GIGACHADBAT and Ragnarok Breaker will continue as normal, with live services fully maintained by their respective studios, Delabs Games and Planetarium Labs. The transition will be complete by August 1.

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The hardest part of this decision is its human impact. We are parting ways with 35 people across our different functions. They are world-class professionals who built exceptional products under extraordinary market pressure. YGG is actively facilitating connections to help them discover potential roles, and we strongly encourage interested companies to reach out to us via talent@yieldguild.games to connect with this top-tier talent.

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"Sunsetting YGG Play is a heavy decision, but it is a market decision, not a product decision," said Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG. "I am proud of what this team achieved under such tough conditions, and what they built is a testament to their talent and dedication. Although this business unit is sunsetting, YGG's vision and mission hasn't changed. We are still fully dedicated to using technology to open up new economic opportunities for people globally."

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The Next Chapter: AI Data 

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Going forward, YGG will channel its resources into the AI data economy. Our initial focus is building out a B2B pipeline around gaming datasets, but the broader possibilities within this space are immense. This direction positions us directly inside the Global AI Training Dataset Market, a $3.9 billion industry according to Grand View Research, where the demand for specialized data types is just beginning to scale.

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This is an organic next step for YGG. To solve real-world strategic problems, AI neural networks cannot rely on sterile logic alone; they must understand human irrationality and emergent behavior. This makes real human data indispensable for training these models, and video games act as the perfect testing grounds because players constantly make complex, split-second decisions. YGG’s global community can generate these behavioral datasets just by playing, leaning on the track record of our Future of Work initiative, which provided opportunities to earn rewards by contributing to gamified tasks like data labeling.

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Additionally, it leverages our early traction with YGG Alerts, which has been rebranded to AI Alerts. As an official community initiative, this channel serves as a prominent discovery platform for practical AI in the Philippines, connecting local talent with verified, remote AI training jobs while helping businesses implement AI tools. We have already bootstrapped a marketplace for AI gigs and jobs for Filipino workers, bringing in 27,000 applications in its first 5 days.

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Financial Position and Looking Ahead

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To ensure our community has a clear view of our operational sustainability, we are sharing our treasury position. At the end of Q1 2026, Yield Guild’s treasury reached $20.6 million, with $6.2 million held securely in stablecoins, T-bills, and large-cap tokens. Restructuring our operations and discontinuing this unprofitable unit has extended our operating runway to four years.

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We are deeply grateful to the players, creators, partners, and team members who poured their energy into YGG Play. Thank you for walking this path with us as we pivot to build a more sustainable long-term future.

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