NBA Top Shot Just Had Its Worst Month Since 2020

NBA Top Shot surged to popularity at the start of 2021, as Dapper Labs’ digital collectibles platform helped bring NFTs into the mainstream. But the hype was short-lived, and sales momentum has gradually dwindled since. In October, the platform hit a nearly two-year low for monthly sales.

According to data from NFT analytics platform CryptoSlam, NBA Top Shot generated just under $2.7 million worth of secondary market sales in October—down 43% from nearly $4.7 million in trades in September. It’s the fourth straight month that Top Shot trading volume has fallen.

That’s the lowest monthly tally for Top Shot since December 2020, when it racked up about $869,000 worth of sales. At its peak, NBA Top Shot generated $224 million worth of NFT trades in February 2021. Even earlier this year, when the overall NFT market was still booming, Top Shot did $59 million in trades in January 2022.

Nearly 189,000 Top Shot NFTs were traded in October—again, the lowest since December 2020—across fewer than 13,500 unique secondary market buyers. The average sale price of just over $14 is the lowest for any month since NBA Top Shot debuted in a closed beta format in September 2020, per data from CryptoSlam.

NBA Top Shot’s continued decline last month came amid the start of the new NBA season—a potential boon for renewed interest and excitement around the NFT collectibles. Last year, sales on Top Shot spiked in mid-October, just as the NBA season got underway. This year, things have played out differently.

The marketplace’s decline has coincided with a broader overall slump for the NFT market, which started in May as the cryptocurrency market itself tanked. According to data that Decrypt compiled from DappRadar and Dune, the broader NFT market saw a roughly 25% drop in month-over-month trading volume in October.

However, the Flow blockchain—which Dapper Labs created to launch Top Shot and other projects—saw an even sharper drop last month. DappRadar points to a 60% fall in NFT trading volume on Flow in October, from nearly $39 million in September to about $15.6 million in October.

NFL All Day, Dapper’s latest NFT sports collectibles platform, saw its own significant drop in trading volume after launching to the public in August and seeing rising activity on NFL game days in September. All Day’s secondary NFT sales fell from nearly $14.3 million in September to under $6.7 million in October, per CryptoSlam—a 53% month-over-month decline.

An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership in a unique item. They’re often used for digital goods such as artwork, sports and entertainment collectibles, and video game items. In the case of NBA Top Shot, each NFT represents an individually numbered collectible featuring a memorable video highlight from the league, plus animated visual flourishes.

All told, NBA Top Shot has generated more than $1.03 billion worth of secondary market trades since its 2020 launch. Only about $207 million of that total has come during 2022. Dapper Labs takes a 5% fee on secondary NFT sales through its marketplace. Those figures do not include the initial sales of NFT packs through the platform.

Dapper Labs did not immediately return Decrypt‘s request for comment on declining NBA Top Shot marketplace activity and details about primary pack sales.