Why Are Telegram Mini-Games The Key To Web3 Gaming Adoption?

Telegram is taking the mobile gaming industry by storm, having emerged as one of the fastest-growing gaming platforms over the last year thanks to its blockchain capabilities.

The messenger app, which boasts almost one billion users around the world, is tightly integrated with the Ton blockchain, which means mini-games on the platform can integrate financial incentives to keep players coming back, again and again.

The concept of "play-to-earn" has become firmly rooted in Telegram’s mini-games, which span almost every genre imaginable, ranging from simple "tap-to-earn" games to more advanced battle games, fantasy adventures, shooters and racing simulators.

The rise of Telegram’s mini-games has transformed the platform into one of the primary growth engines for Web3 gaming, where players can earn cryptocurrency as prizes and own in-game assets such as characters, skins, weapons and accessories. With Web3 games, almost every item in a game can be an NFT, or nonfungible token, which are unique digital tokens that live on the blockchain.

Web3 gaming first came to attention in 2020 and 2021, when millions of gamers were stuck at home amid the height of the coronavirus pandemic. It was back then that games such as Axie Infinity grew in popularity, giving those who were unable to go to work an opportunity to make money from playing games. Axie became an enormous hit in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, with some players claiming to earn hundreds of dollars per month.

Axie and other first-generation Web3 games lacked staying power and their earnings potential is nowhere near what it once was, but the concept of integrating crypto and NFTs within games is being given a new lease of life thanks to Telegram and Ton.

One advantage provided by Telegram is that it simplifies the onboarding process. Whereas before, Axie players were required to create their own crypto wallet and educate themselves about NFTs and the like, Telegram provides every player with their own, integrated wallet, where they can keep all of their digital assets from playing mini-games.

Rewards and Prestige

Telegram’s mini-games are generally very simple, casual games that anyone can pick up and play, but the key to its staying power are the incentives that blockchain gaming enables, paired with the social aspect of Telegram itself.

One of the most popular mini-games developers right now is Funtico, which has created titles such as Formula Funtico, an adrenaline-pumping, high-octane racing car simulation where players can compete with other humans to race around the track first and win prizes paid out in its native TICO tokens. In addition to having regular races every few minutes that anyone can join, Formula Funtic also holds regular tournaments, where players can compete for prestige and a share of a 100,000 USD prize pool, plus other prizes, such as the opportunity to take part in designing the game.

Funtico also leverages the messenger app to aid in community building, and it has more than 28,000 followers on Telegram, where it encourages a healthy discussion about its upcoming games and possible updates, as well as cooperative, real-time gameplay. It extends to real-world meets and greets too, such as its VIP launch party at The Agenda in Dubai Media City to celebrate the official launch of its TICO token.

This social aspect adds to the allure of the prizes, as the best players can also gain significant prestige within its growing community.

Incredible Simplicity

The other aspect of Telegram games is their level of simplicity. Virtually all of the 400+ mini-games found on Telegram are what might be considered "casual games" that are easy to learn, simple to play, and incredibly addictive.

Symbolizing this is the "tap-to-earn" phenomenon pioneered by games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat. The latter title has emerged as the single most popular Telegram mini-game, with more than 200 million players globally, helping to make Ton one of the world’s most-used blockchains.

It combines rich graphics with a fun, if somewhat bizarre story about the hamster CEO of a crypto exchange with ridiculously simple gameplay. Basically, players just have to repeatedly tap a button, earning crypto tokens with each tap, until they’ve exhausted all of their taps for that session. But they can keep coming back to tap again, multiple times a day, to earn yet more HAMSTER tokens.

Hamster Kombat’s incredibly simple game mechanics make it perfect for casual players, who can just open the game and start tapping at any idle moment, and others, like Funtico are now trying to build on the basic concept.

Funtico’s Lucky Fanatic uses the same mechanics but adds in the element of "energy", which players must have to keep on tapping, as well as "Cards", which are NFTs that can help players to accumulate more energy so they can keep tapping for longer. Players can also spend the FUNZ tokens they earn to boost their NFTs, so they can provide an additional energy boost.

Widespread Appeal

Tap-to-earn games aren’t the only popular genre on Telegram though. In fact, its mini-games provide something for every taste, including many more intricate titles aimed at non-casual audiences.

For instance there’s Ton Chess, where fans of the timeless classic board game can compete with other humans to earn tokens. There are trivia games like Quiz Craze, fighting games like Batte Planes, soccer games such as Goal Pixels and even classic Tetris clones, such as TetriX4.

Other titles include Catizen, a strategy simulation similar to The Sims, where players must manage a colony of cats, and MemeFi Club, which is likened to combat games like Street Fighter or Tekken. Players can create their own NFT fighters and engage in one-on-one or team battles, and the more experienced they become, the more power their fighters gain, increasing the value of the NFT.

In every case, these Telegram games include the ability to earn cryptocurrency, increasing their appeal by tapping into what psychologists refer to as a "reward feedback loop". The fun yet extremely simple nature of Telegram games is enhanced by the ability to earn tangible rewards from playing, stimulating the pleasure center of the brain. This causes the release of dopamine, which is what leads to addiction, luring players to keep coming back to play.

Accelerating Web3 Gaming

All of these characteristics of Telegram’s mini-games mean they have become pivotal to the growth of Web3 gaming. Telegram unseen integration with Ton overcomes one of the main barriers to adoption for blockchain games. Players can just open their favorite games and start playing, and then spend the rewards they earn, without even thinking about it.

With almost one billion Telegram users in the world, these highly addictive mini-games have an enormous audience within their reach, and their popularity is only going to increase in future, driving the adoption of Web3 gaming.

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