TON ecological mini-games outbreak trend? After Notcoin, two more mini-games with tens of millions in scale are released

Author: Frank, PANews

The successful launch of Notcoin has forced the crypto world to reevaluate the power of the Telegram ecosystem. With over 35 million users, the launch of Binance mining activities, and a market capitalization reaching $850 million before trading began, the user base of 35 million and an average daily activity of 5 million are heights that most crypto products find hard to reach.

However, the emergence of Notcoin does not seem to be an isolated phenomenon; similar products in the TON ecosystem are springing up like mushrooms after rain. In terms of user numbers, the projects Hamster Kombat and Tapswap are also replicating the legend of Notcoin.

Tapswap claims to currently have over 20 million users, and according to TGstats, the Tapswap community has become the second largest Telegram channel in the world, with over 8.4 million subscribers. Another mini-game, Hamster Kombat, claims to have over 15 million users, with its community channel having about 7.9 million subscribers, ranking third globally. The subscriber numbers for these two projects have surpassed the previously popular Notcoin, which has 6.4 million subscribers, ranking fifth globally.

"Massage Gun Mini-Game" Becomes the Template for TON Games?

The game modes of Hamster Kombat and Tapswap are similar to that of Notcoin, both using screen clicks to earn game coins. Due to the high frequency of clicks, many users resort to using massage gun-like tools to complete tasks. This type of mindless clicking game is also referred to as "massage gun mini-games."

The "massage gun mini-game" itself is not an innovation; it has long been adopted by various H5 games in the Web2 world. However, in the successful case of Notcoin, the combination of token mining and screen clicking achieved new success. Perhaps due to Notcoin's open-source game code, this model has now become a paradigm for simple and easily replicable crypto games on TON.

But the TON ecosystem is not just about "massage gun mini-games." Another recently active mini-game platform on TON, Catizen, features cartoon cats and is similar to match-3 games. Catizen's official statement claims it currently has over 7 million users, with daily active users exceeding 1 million.

Based on PANews' experience with several popular games, even simple mini-games are beginning to upgrade their gameplay beyond what Notcoin offered. For example, Hamster Kombat has added items and investment cards, allowing players to earn coins not just by clicking the screen. Catizen offers even more playability, as its UI design style and the story background of a cat café combine with match-3 gameplay to create a more engaging experience.

Are H5 Mini-Games and Airdrops the True Return of Chain Games?

The development of chain games has always struggled to balance playability and economic returns. The previous bull market saw P2E games like Axie Infinity ignite the chain game track. However, past chain game development primarily focused on in-game token economic models. Once this token economy becomes unbalanced, games face significant user loss.

On the other hand, chain games typically require interaction with wallets, which can be a barrier for many Web2 users. The mini-games emerging in the TON ecosystem can attract a large number of users in a short time, likely addressing the two issues mentioned above:

1. The gaming experience is indistinguishable from Web2 games, allowing participation without linking a wallet. Additionally, there is no need for user education; they are simple and easy to pick up.

2. There are expectations of airdrops; although these games may not be particularly fun, the in-game tokens could potentially become the final tokens issued by the project. This means that user interactions can translate into real money.

3. Tokens are distributed via airdrops, which do not involve the design of in-game economic models. Compared to traditional chain games, the tokens for these mini-games are usually distributed through airdrops after a phase of activity ends. This results in users not knowing the specific value of the game currency while playing, thus avoiding profit-seeking behavior or excessive participation from studio players that could lead to the collapse of the game’s economic model.

How Much Can You Earn Playing Mini-Games?

Among the top five Telegram channels with the most global subscribers, three are projects from the TON ecosystem.

Currently, the most prominent project in the TON ecosystem is Notcoin. Taking Notcoin as an example, during its issuance, it adopted a game coin to NOT token exchange ratio of 1000:1. Of the NOT tokens, 78% were allocated to 35 million users, averaging about 2,291 tokens per user. Based on the opening price of NOT at $0.0085, each user received approximately $19. Of course, this baseline is based on users having around 2.29 million in game coins. Based on PANews' experiences with several similar games, acquiring such game coins is not as simple as a few interactions; it may require several days of frequent engagement.

However, judging by the current momentum, Hamster Kombat, Tapswap, and Catizen are likely to break Notcoin's records in terms of data. After all, Hamster Kombat and Tapswap have already become the top three TG channels globally, surpassing Notcoin in this regard. As for the claimed user numbers of 15 million and 20 million, there is currently no publicly verifiable data to confirm their authenticity.

From this perspective, subsequent projects like Hamster Kombat and Tapswap may find it challenging to achieve the same level of influence as Notcoin in terms of background and resources. Unless they achieve a more significant breakthrough in user numbers, the economic effects of interactive games may not be very appealing.