- Sporting Crypto
- Posts
- Mythical Games Raise Series D Round
Mythical Games Raise Series D Round
The creators of NFL Rivals and FIFA Rivals, have raised a Series D round at an undisclosed price, with backing from Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and Sam Altman's Worldcoin.
Pet Berisha
October 20, 2025
Join 4750+ Leaders in Web3 & Sports from brands like FIFA, NBA, Premier League, NHL, reading Sporting Crypto every week 👇️
If you’re in London in early November, you need to be at our second instalment of Sports Blockchain Summit.
𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀:
📅 5th November 2025
🕐 830am - 2 pm
👥 Room full of decision makers at the intersection of sports & blockchain
Get Tickets HERE
Get your tickets to Sports Blockchain Summit London → 5th November 2025!
Mythical Games Raise Strategic Investment Round
Discussed in this edition of Sporting Crypto:
1) Mythical Games Raise 💰️
2) FIFA Rivals & NFL Rivals Success 📊
3) Analysis & Concluding Thoughts🧠 💬
Mythical Games Raise 💰️
Mythical Games, creators of popular blockchain-based sports games NFL Rivals and FIFA Rivals, have raised what is to be their Series D round.
It is expected to be announced today (Monday 20th October 2025), but has already been communicated by Eightco Holdings — a NASDAQ listed entity who have recently pivoted to become a ‘Digital Asset Treasury’ (DAT), raising $270m to buy Worldcoin tokens. Worldcoin, of course, is the Sam Altman-affiliated ‘human verification’ protocol.
To date, Mythical Games have raised ~$300m in capital, with their Series C round valuing the company at $1bn.
The Eightco Holdings press release states that they are “Joining a strategic round alongside Cathie Wood's ARK Invest and World” and also mentions that they are backed by the likes of BitMine (BMNR), MOZAYYX, World Foundation, Wedbush, Coinfund, Discovery Capital Management, FalconX, Kraken, Pantera, GSR, Brevan Howard and more.
For the uninitiated, Worldcoin works by using a device called an Orb to perform iris scans to create a unique digital identity, or World ID, for each person. After verification, users receive a ‘World token’ reward and can store their World ID in the World App, which functions as a digital wallet for accessing the Worldcoin ecosystem and other applications.
To some, this is ‘tech bros gone too far’ , and to others, it’s a necessary prerequisite to bringing parity to humankind’s digital footprint.
John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games said: "Mythical is integrating with Worldchain to bring identity and trust into the next era of gaming. Our vision is to make every player, whether in FIFA Rivals, Pudgy Party, or NFL Rivals, part of a verified, global economy where digital ownership and fair play are guaranteed. By partnering with Worldcoin, we can connect billions of players through secure, human-verified accounts that work seamlessly across games, marketplaces, and rewards. It's about scaling real-world identity and on-chain utility together, turning gaming into the largest, most inclusive digital economy on the planet.
"Mythical's 9.6 million wallets represent an installed base of users that can build on World ID's over 17 million verified user count," continued Ives. "We expect this partnership and future deals to drive positive step-change functions in the World verified customer base."
NFL Rivals & FIFA Rivals Success 📊
From a sporting perspective, Mythical Games have created two of the most successful blockchain-enabled games in the space.
NFL Rivals, a licensed NFL game, has over 7 million downloads to date with 10s of thousands of reviews, with a 4.4+/5 score across Apple and Android.
It’s a mobile game that allows players the opportunity to collect and trade officially licensed NFL player NFTs.
The NFTs in the game are player cards used to build out teams and compete in the game. Each player card has different rarity levels from common to legendary.
Players can play against each other in online games or in single-player seasons. Teams can be improved and upgraded by buying packs of player cards or by purchasing player cards individually on the marketplace.
The game has seen strong monthly transaction volumes since launching in early 2023.
The volumes peaked in early 2024, seeing $1 million+ monthly volumes, before dipping to current volumes of ~$200k in late 2025.
Source: Cryptoslam
Monthly unique buyers and sellers have seen a slightly different trend. They peaked in September 2024, at 12,000 - 14,000 per month, and have consolidated to 4000 - 6000 at present.
Source: Cryptoslam
Transactions also peaked in the September 2024 period at 160,000 monthly transactions. Still, they saw a resurgence in February 2025 (which can likely be attributed to the Super Bowl), and then consolidated to between 40,000 and 60,000 in the last few months.
Source: Cryptoslam
The monthly average price (of sold assets) is another interesting metric to look at. This has consistently decreased over time. This makes total sense, and shows the journey from a more niche, web3-centric audience to a more global, mainstream audience who have less propensity to spend.
Source: Cryptoslam
FIFA Rivals is their latest launch. It’s adjacent to NFL Rivals, this time in vertical format, but with the same quirky design.
Having spoken on stage with John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games, over the summer at SEG3, it was easy to see why there is so much excitement for FIFA Rivals.
Here’s a quick summary of some of the things he said, just before they launched FIFA Rivals.
They view FIFA Rivals to have a 10-20x larger potential market than NFL Rivals because football is so popular and global.
EA FC Mobile game, when FIFA licensed it, had more than 500 million downloads, and 50 million daily active users during the World Cup Tournaments… on Android alone. This makes them incredibly bullish for what could be possible with FIFA Rivals.
The launch has been successful, with 1 million downloads in its first 6 weeks.
Other data publicised by Mythical Games are the following:
5 million matches played
16 million goals
14 million interceptions,
7 million super moves, and
4 million goals saved.
Analysis & Concluding Thoughts🧠 💬
(1) This is an Interesting Strategic investor
I honestly have no idea whether this is Mythical Games taking advantage of the frothy nature of the DAT market we’re seeing, or whether this is seen as genuinely strategic.
Only time will tell, but gaming historically, in digital format, has found distributions through platforms, TelCos, digital marketplaces and subscriptions, compared to stores and online commerce with packaged goods games.
Worldcoin’s network currently has almost 20 million wallets, and so if Mythical Games can tap into that, it will be a major coup for them. How that happens, however, I’m unsure of.
(2) FIFA Rivals has a way to go
With the World Cup 2026 being hosted in the US, and likely to be the most advertised on and most commercialised football event of all time, it will definitely play into FIFA Rivals’ advantage.
They have already crafted partnerships with Adidas and OneFootball, to name a few, and it feels as though FIFA Rivals can tap into the network effects via partnerships in a way NFL Rivals may not be able to as easily.
(3) Mythical Games’ Quick Trade is a Gamechanger
Mythical Games have so far obfuscated any crypto by tying purchases to a dollar amount, and not the Mythos token that is secured by the Mythos Chain, which their games use.
This has led to them monetising better than most games. This is due to what they call Quick Trade. It allows users to swap several cards for one, which in turn increases transaction volume (and revenue) for Mythical Games, whilst offering more liquidity and a better experience for their players. Win-win.
Simply put, Quick Trade allows Mythical Games to monetise players who don’t even deposit into the game.
That sounds crazy, so let’s walk this through step by step.
John Linden, CEO of Mythical, has previously said that 80-85% of the players on their NFL Rivals marketplace usually have a ‘bid’ on them.
This is essentially the price someone is willing to pay for that player.
A user can automatically sell their player, for that price, satisfying the ‘bid’ and creating the transaction.
With Quick Trade, Mythical allow users to do that in a batch transaction — so they can sell 4 cards at once, and automatically transfer the funds to buy a player they want, in a trade, all in one fell swoop, instantaneously.
To summarise:
(1) I want to buy Lionel Messi’s FIFA Rivals card for $50
(2) I can’t afford it. I only have $30 in my account.
(3) I’m willing to trade for the card by offering 2 of my players worth $20 combined and the $30 in my account.
(4) With Quick Trade, it automatically sells my 2 cards to the highest bidder and transfers the proceeds to the person selling Lionel Messi.
(5) I now own a Lionel Messi card
(6) Mythical Games were paid 3 times on that transaction (Selling my two players, and selling the Lionel Messi from my seller’s account)
Blockchained-enabled businesses are often accused of using tech for tech’s sake. But when they start solving real user and business problems, they accelerate ferociously in terms of adoption and often don’t get the credit they deserve.
(4) Growing into their valuation
Mythical Games raised a lot of money early on in their journey. Many crypto-based businesses haven’t been able to cope with those lofty valuations. Mythical Games have survived long enough that they are now building compelling games that drive revenues.
This strategic investment likely means they can continue building aggressively and acquiring top IP.
More Sports & Web3 Stories
General ‘Stuff’ that Could Impact You
Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Sporting Crypto newsletter!
If you enjoyed this, please tell your friends who might be interested and share it on socials.
Disclaimers
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial, business or legal advice. These are the author’s thoughts & opinions and do not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity or sponsor. Any companies or projects mentioned are for illustrative purposes unless specified.
The contents of this newsletter should not be used in any public or private domain without the express permission of the author.
The contents of this newsletter should not be used for any commercial activity, for example - research report, consultancy activity, or paywalled article without the express permission of the author.
Please note, the services and products advertised by our sponsors (by use of terminology such as but not limited to; supported by, sponsored by or brought to you by) in this newsletter carry inherent risks and should not be regarded as completely safe or risk-free. Third-party entities provide these services and products, and we do not control, endorse, or guarantee the accuracy, efficacy, or safety of their offerings.
It's crucial to provide our readers with clear information regarding the inherent nature of services and products that might be covered in this newsletter, including those advertised by our sponsors from time to time. When you buy cryptoassets (including NFTs) your capital is at risk. Risks associated with cryptoassets include price volatility, loss of capital (the value of your cryptoassets could drop to zero), complexity, lack of regulation and lack of protection. Most service providers operating in the cryptoasset industry do not currently operate in a regulated industry. Therefore, please be aware that when you buy cryptoassets, you are not protected under financial compensation schemes and protections typically afforded to investors when dealing with regulated and authorised entities to operate as financial services firm.