Telegram and Toncoin Continue to Grow the Trend of Mini-Apps

For those that missed the growth of Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, more clicker games are coming up to offer potential value.

Mini-apps on Telegram, spearheaded by Hamster Kombat, continue to grow in popularity, offering potential value through airdrops and game mechanics.

As Notcoin and Hamster Kombat continue to lead the trend, more clicker games are emerging to offer value.

While Hamster Kombat remains the leading Telegram game and a highly influential channel, its model of assigning points for a future airdrop is also attracting other similar games.

The common thread among these games is tap-to-earn, but there may be variations in metrics such as total earnings or earnings per hour. Most games are still evaluating their airdrop strategies and trying to make the best of their social media presence, especially among Telegram's user base.

TapSwap grows in popularity, remains cautious with token launch

TapSwap has experienced a growth trajectory similar to Hamster Kombat, quickly amassing over 60 million users as of July 2024. The growth of these types of games can be extremely active, taking just weeks to report more than 100 million users.

The games spread their referral links mainly through Telegram, which has around 32 million registered users, but also via other social media and even in real space.

TapSwap is currently in the shares-earning stage. Over time, those shares earned will be converted into TAPS tokens. The project has raised high expectations of finally listing on a tier-A centralized exchange, but is delaying the launch to improve token generation plans.

The launch of TapSwap tokens may be delayed until Q3, leaving the game to compete with leaderboards until the airdrop.

Catizen extends play-for-airdrop model

Catizen is another high-profile game that is boosting the play-to-airdrop model. The project is still tokenless, relying on competition for gaining more tokens. For now, Catizen is still reporting around 23 million players.

The game recalls the ethos of earlier play-to-earn games, launching the Catizen Foundation to drive adoption and promote charity projects. But this time, there will be no direct competition for a token, instead going for a game-first approach. Catizen has set up ambitious expectations of rivaling Steam or even Animoca Brands for the Toncoin and Telegram ecosystem.

The Catizen game also has the advantage of a longer development. It is not a hastily created clicker to tap the latest trend, but has been in the making for five years. Catizen offers a story arc of upgrading characters to earn more points. For now, Catizen is hot, but with no hard and fast deadline for a token launch.

XLords brings back civilization-building

XLords combines tapping with civilization-building and passive earnings. The game follows the model of play-to-earn, and even has a native token, XLORD. XLords moved to Telegram only in the past weeks, but the game has been in development for a long time.

The project is also shifting its value profile, offering perks like items that can be turned into NFT. The goal of the game is to constantly upgrade and replace some of the tapping with passive income.

XLords is a game migrating from the play-to-earn idea, though its XLORD token has limited listings. The game taps the trend of both Telegram and the Base blockchain, where it has launched its NFT and native token. XLords is currently running an active season, while planning a more advanced game beta.

For now, the gaming trend on Telegram is still spearheaded by the Hamster Komemperor channel, with more than 51M subscribed accounts reported. Statistics on Telegram may be inexactly reflecting the actual players, with the potential to also drive bot traffic.

The TapSwap community is quickly catching up, though still only achieving 50% of the results of Hamster Komemperor in terms of channel subscribers and citation index. The Notcoin community has a lower subscriber count, but massive citation index influence, adding to the tapping game trend.

Games on Telegram also add to the growth of Toncoin, the native blockchain, but also Base, which is used for tokenization due to lower fees. Tap-to-earn or play-to-airdrop may face the same issues with sustainability compared to play-to-earn games, but for now, the popularity of Hamster Komemperor is also spreading to new mini-apps.