New NFT collectors, investors, artists, musicians, and all sorts of folks are entering the web3 space daily, looking for a way to make a living doing what they love. If there’s one platform that you will succeed on doing what you’re passionate about, it’s web3.
With that, many people are curious to know what kind of NFTs are the most popular and which types sell the best. There are many factors that go into figuring out what kind of NFTs sell the best, however, after a year of being heavily involved in the NFT and web3 space, I’ve learned exactly what kind of NFTs are truly selling the quickest.
What types of NFTs sell the best?
There are millions of NFTs currently available for sale across all the marketplaces, so how do you know what types of NFTs people are looking to buy? Here are the top NFT trends to cash in on now, and heading into the future.
1. Art
Art is without a doubt one of the most popular types of NFTs people are currently buying. Technically, the very first NFT ever created was a piece of art, or rather a digital animation called Quantum. Although Quantum was only the beginning, NFTs were traded by more than 28 million wallets in 2021, totaling over $40 billion of NFT trading volume for the entire year.
A majority of those NFTs traded were art. Beeple’s Everyday – “The First 5,000 Days”, sold for $69 million dollars alone. Furthermore, there’s no limit to who can make and sell NFT art. 12-year old Nyla Hayes, for example, made $1.6 million selling her artwork popularly known as the Long Neckie Ladies NFT collection.
The reason why I believe that NFT art sells so well is that art is an easy concept to understand, especially when dealing with such a foreign technological platform like web3 and blockchain technology. Additionally, art is a form of communication, and web3 is all about creating and communicating your interests.
With that being said, I believe art will always have a special place in the NFT market for years to come, but it will get more difficult to sell NFT art—both as a creator and investor—as time goes on.
I say this because eventually, supply will outweigh demand and new use-cases will appear for NFTs as well, meaning they’ll be more widely adopted and used for normal things in addition to art. In other words, NFTs will soon be the new ‘’norm”.
2. Profile Picture Projets (PFP)
2021 was the year of profile picture projects (PFP). If you’ve ever spent one-minute searching NFT hashtags on Twitter, then it’s likely you’ve seen the mass amounts of people with random animals, creatures, and other creations as their profile pictures.
In fact, Twitter has now made it possible for Twitter Blue members to authenticate their PFP NFTs by connecting their web3 wallet to their Twitter profile picture. This is a big statement from such a large brand, further solidifying my confidence in PFP NFTs being one of the best kinds of NFTs that sell well.
PFP NFTs have already proved to be a solid type of NFT to buy, sell, and trade. If you are looking for the next best NFT to sell, you may want to look into some PFP NFT projects.
Upcoming NFT trends to watch for
1. AI-generative art
Artificial intelligence-generative NFT art projects are becoming increasingly popular in the NFT space, especially to those who are interested in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the metaverse.
This concept of AI-generative art isn’t necessarily new, however, it hasn’t gained the same kind of attention as user-generated art and PFP NFTs, yet. AI-generative art is created by inputting images, sounds, or words into a generator that mixes the contents together to create something entirely new and unique.
Some examples of generative NFT art projects include NOUNs Dao, (The Ghost of) Frank Dukes, and Eponym. The possibilities are endless when it comes to AI-generative art because humans can now take their own ideas and automatically generate them into something new and beautiful using technology.
2. Photography
Another trending category of NFTs is photography. NFT photography is just beginning to take off. Many photographers who have struggled to make a living in the past are finding great success in the NFT space, and more photographers are beginning to take notice.
Award-winning photographers such as Julie Pacino, J.N. Silva, and David Drebin for example, are currently taking advantage of the unique opportunity NFTs offer photographers. Famous web3 enthusiast and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck has even commented on the photography wave that is soon to hit in the NFT space.
3. Music
The music industry is long overdue for a complete makeover, meaning, how artists are able to make a living in the industry. Before NFTs and web3, musicians had to rely on record labels to sell their work, and in exchange, the labels take a huge cut of the profit. Now with NFTs, artists have the ability to sell their work directly to fans and take a larger portion of the profit home, respectively.
As well, artists can earn a percentage of every secondary sale by implementing royalties. Even more so, musicians can provide extra value to fans by creating terms such as VIP access, meet-n-greets, monthly meetings, merchandise deals, and even fan royalties all through the use of NFTs.
Music NFTs have already made a huge hit in the NFT space when Budweiser partnered with 22 emerging musicians to create their own Budweiser Royalty NFT collection. The collection sold out almost instantly and was a way to prove your loyalty to up-and-coming musicians.
Mainstream adoption and the desire for change are some of the main reasons why I believe music NFTs are going to be a huge trend in the near future.
4. Play-to-earn NFT games
Play-to-earn (P2E) gaming is yet another trend in the NFT space that will likely blow up and stick around for years to come. Axie Infinity is likely the most popular example of a P2E game that incorporates NFTs, but it’s definitely not the only game.
The gaming industry is already worth an estimated $300 billion, then you add in the fact that players can earn from their hard work and you’ve got yourself a very promising trend, particularly in the NFT space.
The reason why NFTs are so sought after in the P2E ecosystem is that NFTs enable players to prove ownership of their in-game assets, whereas before, this wasn’t possible. Without a doubt in my mind, NFTs are going to revolutionize the gaming industry and are sure to be a huge trend.
5. Memberships
Lastly, but most certainly not least are membership NFTs. A membership NFT is an NFT that may give you access to special events, alpha information, lessons, and much more.
Imagine for a second that your Costco membership was in the form of an NFT. If you decide that you no longer wanted to shop at Costco, you could sell your membership to someone else using an NFT marketplace. This means that you could earn money for selling your membership, Costco would earn a royalty fee, and the new holder would be a Costco member, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
NFT memberships are still a very new trend, but surely utilizing NFT technology to provide consumers with value through exclusivity will be the new norm one day. Jump on this trend early, and you may be able to make a nice profit in the future.
Final thoughts
Not every NFT is a good buy, however, there are certain types of NFTs that sell better than others. The types of NFTs I mentioned in this article have either already proven to be hot-sellers, like art and PFPs, or are soon to be the new trend, such as AI-generative art, photography, music, P2E games, and memberships.
That being said, it’s important to understand what’s currently trending and why, that way you can better determine what a future trend may look like and when the right time to take advantage of the market might be.
