Play and Win Era is Over, Click and Win Era has Started

Play-to-Earn (P2E) games were a quick entry into the industry, but they failed because they tried to lure players directly into crypto, and everyone realized that this was not a sensible way to build trust or mass adoption.

The focus needed to change. What crypto enthusiasts really wanted was to find a way to earn crypto quickly and easily. While traditional P2E models often require complex games and significant time investment, so-called “Click to Earn” games offer a more accessible and engaging approach. By using social platforms like Telegram, which come to life in the hands of consumers, so to speak, a window is opened to mass adoption, whether intentionally or not.

In the last three months, 210 million people became CEOs of a simulated crypto exchange in Hamster Kombat, a viral clicker game on Telegram. Other successful Click-to-Earn games have also achieved relatively lower but still significant numbers among Web3 games: TapSwap reached 50 million total users, and Yescoin reached 26 million active players in less than a month. While these statistics may seem similar to traditional Web2 games, these games are at the center of mass adoption at the heart of the Web3 ecosystem on Telegram.

Telegram Mini Apps were the wheel of this adoption cycle, and the Click to Win trend was what kept the wheel turning. Telegram games like Gatto or fantasy sports games like Fanton have also made good progress, but their user bases remain limited compared to the clicker giants.

It all started with Notcoin, which has managed to attract over 40 million players since its launch on New Year’s Day 2024. 11.5 million of the players stated that they became Web3 users after their Notcoin ($NOT) tokens were listed on Binance, OKX, and other top exchanges.

Their strategy was genius and has since been adopted by many viral apps like PixelTap. The process went like this: Start with a completely off-chain game to avoid user friction, capture as many players as possible through incentives and referrals, and then announce a token airdrop.

Of course, other strategies have worked quite well. Yescoin and Catizen (a popular P2E Telegram Mini App) introduced on-chain mechanics from the very beginning. Over time, especially after Hamster Kombat, TapSwap, and PixelTap tokens were released, we will see more clearly how these strategies will continue to work, how they affect conversion, and how they retain users. Currently, Catizen and Notcoin have an off-chain user to on-chain user conversion rate of 7% and 6.2%, respectively. This rate is much higher than Telegram’s average of 0.6%.

What’s the secret sauce behind a viral Telegram game? The simplicity of the game (the easy completion of tasks) and the fun progression of the game (finding new daily card combinations or passwords found in Hamster Kombat) are the main reasons why Click to Win has seen incredible growth in such a short time frame.

The promise of a community airdrop is another reason for such games to succeed. Unlike DeFi protocols or Ethereum L2, clicker apps do not require any complex on-chain actions. As the Notcoin team reports, proving this, around 90% of the token supply has been allocated to the community, with the average reward per wallet reaching $200. While Catizen promises to airdrop 42% of the $CATI token supply in the future, the token plans of most of the above-mentioned projects are not yet clear.

Another important component of success is to leverage the social layer and encourage players to invite their friends and compete in teams to get higher rewards.

We can see that big players in Web3 are also confirming this strategy. Leading Web3 game studio and venture capital firm Animoca Brands made a significant bet on Telegram. Now the company is using TON as a token in Web3 projects, including Animoca’s gaming platform GAMEE, which has over 80 million users.