Telegram Tap-to-Earn Gaming Explodes, Then Implodes

At first of 2024, the primary Telegram tap-to-earn sport was a curiosity—an enigma. By the top of the yr, the success of Notcoin had spawned a mini-industry that had drawn substantial demand. And but, as shortly as Telegram gaming got here, it additionally went, and it more and more seems like its second has handed.

When Notcoin launched again in January, we barely knew what to make of it. Why had been individuals incessantly tapping a coin inside a messaging app on their telephones? Would there be an actual on-chain token, or was this just a few form of meta-commentary on the crypto world?

There can be an actual token minted on The Open Community (TON), and Notcoin opted to maintain issues easy: You faucet and also you’ll earn. That simplicity, paired with an alluring anti-establishment vibe and rising momentum round TON, in the end drew 35 million gamers to the sport inside simply three months.

By the point the Notcoin airdrop delivered lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ value of tokens to gamers, with that worth surging to billions of {dollars} inside weeks, tap-to-earn was able to explode. And that’s the place Hamster Kombat picked up the torch.

Whereas nonetheless in the end constructed round a tapping mechanism, Hamster Kombat shifted gears, taking the type of a really streamlined administration sim as you launched and expanded your individual crypto alternate—as a fuzzy hamster, in fact.

As goofy as that premise sounds, Hamster Kombat hit exhausting. Inside a pair months, the makers boasted of lots of of thousands and thousands of gamers as the sport’s social media accounts surged.

After which issues obtained bizarre.

Therapeutic massage weapons had been reportedly promoting out in Russia as gamers used their rhythmic, repetitive vibrations to govern Hamster Kombat’s tapping gameplay. And in June, an Iranian navy official slammed the sport’s rising maintain on gamers within the nation, suggesting it will influence the approaching presidential election.

“One of many options of the smooth warfare by the enemy is the ‘Hamster’ sport,” mentioned Iran’s deputy navy chief Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, based on the state-run IRNA information company.

Telegram gaming was impacting the actual world, and by the point Hamster Kombat mentioned it had pulled 300 million complete gamers in July, different video games like Catizen and Yescoin had been additionally surging with their very own riffs on the premise.

Loads was driving on Hamster Kombat’s airdrop. A smash success would affirm the viability of the tap-to-earn mannequin and its repeatability—that Notcoin wasn’t a fluke, and {that a} sport that pushed into the mainstream might nonetheless ship that form of worth at scale.

As an alternative, as many gamers would declare by way of social media posts, they obtained “mud.”

Hamster Kombat’s HMSTR airdrop in September delivered lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} value of free tokens to gamers, successfully creating worth out of nothing and rewarding gamers with actual cryptocurrency. However with some 130 million gamers eligible for the airdrop, it was hardly stunning to see individuals wind up with perhaps a number of {dollars} value of cash. They usually had been annoyed.

Each notable Telegram gaming airdrop since Notcoin has been marked with related discontent. Partly, it’s as a result of the airdrops have develop into a lot messier, marked by issues as builders shifted away from the simplicity of Notcoin and tried to monetize their gamers, all whereas funneling them into different video games to gas the hype cycle.

The cat-themed Telegram puzzle sport Catizen, for instance, pissed off a good variety of gamers by altering the airdrop eligibility elements proper earlier than the token launch, closely favoring those that had spent actual cash to pay for perks.

Tomarket mentioned it held its token era occasion in October, however then the “tokens” supplied to gamers wouldn’t be tradeable till TOMA had been listed by exchanges. In the end, the staff admitted that it was an “in-game” token launch and that nothing had been minted to TON—after which every week earlier than the airdrop, Tomarket mentioned that TOMA can be minted on Aptos as an alternative.

Because the yr involves an finish, the makers of video games like Tomarket and MemeFi try to clarify to their gamers why their respective tokens aren’t value a lot. In the meantime, early Notcoin followers like Yescoin and Tapswap nonetheless haven’t launched their very own tokens.

Hamster Kombat, in the meantime, is simply kind of caught in limbo after the airdrop. The staff teased a “Season 2” overhaul with new gameplay, however missed its launch goal by practically two months as of this writing, with dwindling participant counts and fewer updates within the official Telegram channel. Now the staff says it’s launching three video games as a “HamsterVerse.”

On prime of the repetitive gameplay, the more and more messy token launches, and gamers burned by misleading guarantees, crypto {industry} consideration has gone elsewhere in a extra bullish market—again in the direction of Bitcoin and surging meme cash.

Specialists are combined on the way forward for tap-to-earn video games. Some have mentioned that the video games have to be extra partaking and extra sturdy; others counsel that such easy tapping mechanisms ought to solely be used as an onboarding and engagement software for brand new platforms and initiatives.

Faucet-to-earn gaming repackaged the play-to-earn craze from 2021, streamlining and simplifying the idea and making it extra palatable for the lots. It labored, if solely briefly, however a number of the identical underlying points in the end reared their head.

Is the subsequent Notcoin simply across the nook in 2025? Maybe. However gamers and creators alike discovered some powerful classes from the preliminary growth, and any illusions about tapping your solution to crypto riches have shortly light.