The Sandbox (TSB), a mobile creation game on Ethereum, announced on April 1 that its third presale of virtual land had generated 3,400 Ether ($450,000) in sales.

The March 31 presale sold 12,384 pieces of LAND — virtual spaces in the game — in just five hours. That equates to approximately 10% of the total 166,464 pieces in the game, with most of it snapped up in the first thirty minutes.

TSB has quickly become one of the most coveted blockchain games on the market, with more than 40 million downloads. The first presale for the game occurred in Dec. 2019 with more than 3000 pieces of LAND sold in four hours. The second presale on Feb. 16 sold 6,192 pieces. A fourth and final LAND presale will be announced later this year.

This third TSB presale included LAND in an Atari-themed neighborhood, where players can enjoy old-school game experiences with a 3D voxel look, including Asteroids and Centipede.

Blockchain gaming picks up during pandemic?

The fact many people are unable to move around in the real world right now may help explain why gamers are scooping up LAND like hotcakes. Each piece is 96 x 96 meters, far more space than the 1.5 meters recommended for social distancing. Sebastien Borget, Co-founder of TSB Gaming said: