Simulation Game ‘Infected’ Leaves Base for Solana Over Transaction Bottlenecks

The team behind Infected, a speculative pandemic-simulation game that recently gained viral traction, announced its decision to migrate from Ethereum’s Layer-2 network Base to the Solana blockchain.

The announcement was made via the game’s official X account. It cited Base’s inability to handle transaction volume during the game’s launch and broader concerns about the scalability of EVM-based chains.

Infected Ditches Ethereum’s Layer 2 for Solana

“Infected crashed Base,” the team stated, referencing the game’s launch, which attracted 130,000 sign-ups within 48 hours. The sudden demand led to a spike in gas prices and failed transactions, especially in the first 30 minutes.

This issue, according to the developers, significantly impacted the game’s momentum and user experience. Describing the incident, they noted that many users were unable to participate and subsequently abandoned the game, which runs on a 7-day cycle reliant on real-time interaction.

While the developers acknowledged that the issue was not unique to Base, they framed it as part of a larger, ongoing limitation across all EVM-compatible chains. Despite previously believing Layer 2 solutions were the future of Ethereum scalability, the team said that it now views these bottlenecks as structural and unresolved in the near term.

The shift to Solana was also driven by what the team identified as two key advantages: culture and user base. They drew a contrast between Ethereum’s technically advanced but builder-focused ecosystem and Solana’s more user-oriented approach. According to the post, Solana’s developer community is more closely aligned with current consumer behavior, as seen in the success of other Solana-native applications such as Pump.fun and DAOs.fun.

Additionally, user feedback played a role in the decision. The Infected team said many players requested a version of the game built on Solana to avoid the need to bridge assets. The post read,

“If they are on XRP, we’d go to XRP. If that was Bitcoin mainnet, we’d go there. But today’s users are on Solana.”

The team also highlighted that their future games will also launch on Solana, aligning with what they see as the best available infrastructure for high-volume, consumer-facing applications.

Response

Head of Base and Coinbase Wallet Jesse Pollak responded to Infected’s announcement, saying that while he respected teams building on any platform, he felt compelled to clarify what he described as factual inaccuracies.

“Base did not crash – the chain hummed along, just as it should.”

He wrote that the technical issues experienced during Infected’s launch were related to frontend problems, which the game’s team had previously acknowledged and discussed with Base. The Infected team, however, denied this claim.

Meanwhile, Pollak added that the team behind the Coinbase-incubated network had reached out to Infected immediately after their migration announcement, but had not received a response.