Acryptoinvest.news reports that the nascent Open Network gaming ecosystem has become one of the most interesting examples of crypto in 2024. Casual games such as Notcoin, Hamster Kombat and Yescoin may have attracted tens if not hundreds of millions of people to Web3.
The number of games on the TON (The Open Network) blockchain has grown significantly in recent months, thanks to a series of clicker games that offer players rewards in the form of tokens and are available to all users of the Telegram messaging app.
Inal Kardan, head of gaming at the TON Foundation, said that back in December last year, only about 1% of active Telegram users played games on the app on a monthly basis. Kardan noted that at that time he spoke about the need to increase this figure to 10-12%, as in other social networks, or even 30%, as in WeChat. Right now, about 20% of Telegram users play at least one game a month, a 20-fold increase. Telegram, which has 950 million users worldwide, has become home to several mini-games that utilize the TON blockchain, which is closely tied to the messenger's creators.
It's hard to say whether the popularity of these games will succeed in turning the popularity of these games into a long-term sustainable business or drive growth in the blockchain space, but games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat seem to have succeeded in attracting newcomers to the world of cryptocurrencies through free games that offer financial rewards. Kardan emphasized that at this point, most games are focused on building communities and driving engagement. All of these games monetize traffic in different ways rather than through in-app purchases. After the token generation event (TGE), their monetization model should change. In addition to Hamster Kombat, other games such as Catizen and Yescoin are likely to hold token giveaways.
Notcoin paved the way by being the only major Telegram project to demonstrate how a click-and-earn game could conduct a large token eirdrop (TGE) to keep players engaged in its ecosystem. After launching in January, the Notcoin team initiated a $1 billion token eirdrop in May, when the project gave away 80 billion NOT tokens. The NOT token in the game currently has a market capitalization of $1.1 billion. Last week, Notcoin's creators launched another game on Telegram to expand their ecosystem. Kardan noted that they are launching companions, marketing campaigns, new games, and even an acceleration program to retain their existing audience.
Hamster Kombat's next step is still unknown, but the game is generating significant interest online, claiming to have over 300 million users. The Hamster Kombat team is skillfully enticing people to follow, join, and subscribe to the game's social channels on X, YouTube, and Telegram. While it's unclear how many of those users are bots, the game's founders plan to address that issue before listing the tokens. Kardan admitted that no one knows the exact percentage of bots, and even the Telegram team doesn't know this, as many people have multiple accounts.
Hamster Kombat originally planned to launch its TGE last month, but recently said that technical issues with airdrop made it impossible to predict the exact date of the event. According to a whitepaper published last week, 60% of airdrop tokens will be allocated to players. Kardan is optimistic about Hamster Kombat's chances of surviving TGE and creating a sustainable gaming ecosystem, noting that they already have a huge audience that they could try to convert into players of a new mid-tier game with in-app purchases, which would provide a good source of revenue.
Kardan believes that mid-tier games will play a big role in the development of games on the TON and Telegram blockchain. Games like Gatto show that they can attract a lot of users and generate good revenue. More mid-tier games are expected to be launched on TON and Telegram in the next six months.
