NFT statistics: Find the Stats for NFT Market

Why are we looking at NFT statistics? Well, everybody wants to know about NFTs. They’re the future of digital art distribution, after all. That’s why we’ve put together this list of NFT statistics.

In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, here are some preliminary statistics…

• The current amount of NFT owners is approximately 360,000
• Only 4.6% of Australians own an NFT.
• The Philippines has the highest percentage of NFT owners in the world
• There were over 11 million NFT art sales in 2021
• More than $17 billion dollars was spent on NFTs last year
• The Merge is the most expensive NFT ever sold
• Approximately 9% of the NFT community owns approximately 80% of the total value in NFT items
• As of May 2022, an average of $10-20 million is spent on NFTs a week
• 18-34 year old men and women are the target demographic for NFTs
• Pak is the highest grossing NFT artist

Sources: CNBC, Finder, Business 2 Community, NFTNow, Atisfyre, Earthweb, Statista, Influencer Marketing Hub, BusinessToday, Financial Times, Finder, NonFungible

So, we have all of these statistics, but what are NFTs?

An NFT (non fungible token) is an entirely unique digital asset stored on a decentralised network of servers known as the blockchain.

Who buys these NFTs in the first place?

It takes a special kind of person to hear about this entirely new form of digital interaction and decide that they want to invest, right? Well, here’s what the statistics say…

Not a lot of people actually own NFTs just yet…

According to statistics by Financial Times, there are approximately 360,000 concurrent NFT owners around the world.

Source: Financial Times

… especially not in Australia

Finder conducted a report in which they surveyed 28,000 adults that concluded that only 4.6% of Australians currently owned an NFT. 

Source: Finder

However, Asia has certainly embraced the NFT

According to statistics from Finder that polled more than 28,000 people worldwide, the top ten countries with the highest percentage of NFT buyers amongst their population are: 

• The Philippines (32%)
• Thailand (26.6%)
• Malaysia (23.9%)
• The United Arab Emirates (23.4%)
• Vietnam (17.4%)
• Nigeria (13.7%)
• Brazil (12.1%)
• Hong Kong (10.7%)
• Venezuela (10.6%)
• Peru (9.9%)

Source: Finder

But what’s the NFT market like?

Whenever you bring up NFTs, the conversation turns to the market. But, what’s the NFT market actually like? Here’s what the statistics tell us…

NFTs sell a TON of art…

While it is difficult to determine the number of NFT sales that have occurred since their inception in 2014, available statistics suggest that over 11 million individual art sales occurred over the course of 2021, with that number projected to increase in 2022.

Source: NonFungible

… and that art makes a TON of money

2021 saw a significant increase in worldwide NFT sales, with more than $17 billion being spent in NFT art sales over the course of that year (a 21,000% spike).

Source: CNBC

We mean it when we say a TON of money

According to statistics, the ten most expensive NFTs ever sold are:

NFT	Description	Amount $	Artist	Buyer
The Merge	Disembodied white orbs on a black background that grew in size (and price) with the more buyers they accumulated.	$91.8m	Pak	28,893 different collectors
The First 5000 Days	A collage of the first 5000 digital images created by Beeple for his Everydays series.	$69.3m	Beeple	Vignesh Sundaresan a.k.a. MetaKovan
CLOCK	A clock of white text on a black background that states the amount of days that Julian Assange has been imprisoned.	$52.7m	Pak	AssangeDAO
HUMAN ONE	An astronaut walks through a location that is constantly changing/updated by the artist.	$28.99m	Beeple	Ryan Zurrer
CryptoPunk #5822	A pixelated 8-bit sprite face with a blue bandana.	$23.7m	Larva Labs	Deepak Thapliyal, CEO of Chain
CryptoPunk #7523	A pixelated 8-bit sprite face with a beanie, a face mask and an ear piercing.	$11.75m	Larva Labs	Shalom Meckenzie
CryptoPunk #4156	A pixelated 8-bit sprite face of a monkey wearing a blue bandana.	$10.26m	Larva Labs	thereal4…
CryptoPunk #3100	A pixelated 8-bit sprite face with a headband.	$7.67m	Larva Labs	0x7b8961
CryptoPunk #7804	A pixelated 8-bit headband with sunglasses and a hat, smoking a comically large pipe.	$7.6m	Larva Labs	Dylan Field
Crossroad	A group of people walk past a gigantic defaced corpse representing the loser of the 2020 US presidential election (the image would change depending on the outcome).	$6.6m	Beeple	babybeluga

Source: Business 2 Community

Where are NFTs sold?

It’s easy to talk about NFT sales. But, in order to get the full picture, we need the statistics to tell us where NFTs are actually sold. It turns out that it’s not in the dark corners of the internet. There are a variety of NFT marketplaces that all sell NFTs to the public.

Where are the best places to buy NFTs?

While there are many NFT marketplaces, the ones that have seen the most success are OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare, Foundation, AtomicMarket, Myth Market, BakerySwap, KnownOrigin, Enjin Marketplace and Portion.

Sources: Influencer Marketing Hub

What are NFT buyers like?

As the statistics have previously suggested, NFT buyers make up a fairly small fraction of the world’s population. So, who are these people with their digital assets?

When you’re hooked on NFTs, you’re hooked

While it is difficult to use statistics to track the exact distribution of NFTs owned per capita, it has been determined that around 9% of the NFT community owns approximately 80% of the total value in NFT items (meaning there is an estimated 2.7 million individual NFTs held by only 32,400 NFT buyers – approximately 83 NFTs per person). 

Source: Earthweb

You’re also probably rich…

Statistics suggest that the market of NFTs is in constant fluctuation. Currently (as of May 2022), it is estimated that an average of $10-20 million a week is spent on NFTs.

Source: Earthweb

… and young (but your gender is harder to pin down)

Demographics statistics on NFT owners suggest that the age group with the highest interest is 18-34, while women and men are actually fairly equally represented amongst NFT owners (24% and 21%, respectively).

Source: Finder

Who makes these NFTs?

What do the statistics say? Do NFTs just spring out of the internet through some kind of weird online mitosis? Did we all collectively manifest NFTs? No! It turns out that there are real life artists behind this digital art. 

Creating NFTs can be a lucrative opportunity

While many artists have made money on NFT sales, the highest grossers are:

• Pak (The Merge, CLOCK, Crossroad)
• Beeple (The First 5000 Days, HUMAN ONE, Crossroad)
• Larva Labs (The Cryptopunk Collection)
• Edward Snowden (Stay Free)
• Mad Dog Jones (REPLICATOR)
• Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow (Bored Apes Yacht Club)
• FEWOCiOUS (Nice to meet you, I’m Mr. MiSUNDERSTOOD)
• Hackatao (Kim Jong Un – “Dead and Alive” Edition)
• XCOPY (Right-click and Save As guy)
• Slimesunday (Sunky’s Uprising)

Source: Atisfyre

So, if NFTs are digital art… what constitutes an NFT?

The term “digital asset” is really really (really really) broad. The simple answer is that anything can be minted into the blockchain.

However, you’re more likely to find success if you create the following

While NFTs can be anything, the most popular types of NFT, according to statistics, are:

• Artwork  – High art has gone from museums to a digitised space, certificate of authenticity and all.
• Collectibles – As a society, we have gone from catching ‘em all in Pokemon to owning one of many Curio Cards, Bored Apes, Cryptopunks, etc.
• Sports Memorabilia – Because why own a quaint little basketball card when you can personally own footage of LeBron James’ best dunks?
• Video Game Assets – Purchasing video game assets is nothing new (see: Micro-transactions). However, now you can personally own what you purchase in games such as Axie Infinity, CryptoKitties, Gods Unchained, Sorare, etc.
• Virtual Land – Face it, with the chances of buying land in real life getting ever so slim, maybe property in the Metaverse isn’t such a bad idea.
• Memes – Nuff’ said.
• Domain Names – Yes, crypto domains are a thing, and they’re also exactly what you’d expect – website domains that are minted on the blockchain.
• Music – With artists releasing their latest creations on the blockchain for prospective buyers, it makes perfect sense for musicians to do the same. This method of distribution allows buyers to own a significant stake in (and therefore profit from) an album.
• Tickets – Not only does minting tickets for events on the blockchain significantly reduce forgeries and scalpers, it also allows for minted NFT tickets to be stored and then resold as collectibles.
• Real World Assets – A Real World asset NFT (rwANFt) is a token that signifies virtual ownership of a physical object. Just like digital NFTs, the token attached to a rwANFT proves ownership as well as establishes legal contracts of warranty, insurance, enforceability, etc. rwANFTs have an extra layer of security since the tokens cannot be forged and the digital ledger provides transparency to prevent frauds.

Source: Finder

So, what have we learned?

Well, according to statistics, NFTs are still a fairly niche market. But this niche market is growing at an exponential rate. NFT art is just the logical conclusion to a market that has been inching ever closer to decentralised art distribution ever since we could host pictures on the internet.
At Digital Treasury, we pride ourselves on keeping on top of the many innovations that the ever changing internet presents. If you want this dedication brought to your business’ online presence, contact us.

• Category: NFT