What are Telegram clicker games?

What are Tap-to-Earn/clicker games?

Since the beginning of 2024, Tap-to-Earn games have gained huge popularity in Telegram. Simple games with primitive mechanics, where the player receives a reward for "tapping" on the smartphone screen.

Telegram's open platform and bot functionality made it easy for developers to create and deploy T2E games within the app. Learn more about what are Telegram trading bots and how traders use them in our article.

Such games began to appear at the end of last year in the form of bots in Telegram. They use the TON blockchain, launched by the messenger. Telegram is the 4th largest messaging app with over 350,000 DAU a vast user base of over 900 million users presents a ready-made audience for T2E games.

According to data from Footprint Analytics, as of July 2024, there are over 3,200 GameFi projects available.

Tap-to-Earn games can be considered an offshoot of the popular Play-to-Earn, where the player earns points by performing a certain activity. Like Play-to-Earn, Tap-to-Earn is closely related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

The developers of the popular "clickers" have either already launched, or are going to launch their own coins. The logic of the game creators is that the user gets acquainted with the cryptocurrency world in a gamified form in order to become a real investor.

How to Play Tap-2-Earn Games?

The main motivation of the players is the opportunity to earn money by spending a minimum of effort and time. Players are hoping for airdrop, a free distribution of cryptocurrency to early supporters of the project. A distribution pool is a marketing budget to attract users.

A successful example is the $NOT coin, which was mined in the Notcoin clicker. In May 2024, well-known crypto exchanges opened access to this coin on the TON blockchain. The success of Notcoin has shown that such tokens can grow in value.

3 easy steps to play T2E games on Telegram:

1. Download and set up your Telegram app.

2. Go to the T2E game by looking up in the search bar or clicking the link.

3. Follow simple on-screen instructions and start tapping.

The rise of clicker games

The simplicity of the T2E gameplay and the use of social layers such as competitions and referrals make Tap-to-Earn games so popular. The support of major Web3 players such as Animoca Brands also plays an important role. Tap-to-Earn models are used not only in games but also in other applications, such as the Blum cryptocurrency exchange, which confirms their effectiveness as an onboarding tool and a source of income.

So, what is the reason for the viral Telegram games to become so popular?

Tap-to-Earn games represent a simple entry point for new users. Although such games will not bring much money, they will introduce more people to cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

The success of the T2E games can be explained by three key characteristics:

1. Simplicity and accessibility of the gameplay – simple clicking and completing easy quest tasks.

2. Gamification of simple actions – for example finding new daily card combinations or ciphers as found in Hamster Kombat.

3. Financial incentives - the success of Notcoin has generated a wave of imitators. Hamster Kombat is not the only popular clicker. There are analogs such as Blum, OnChain, and Catizen, which work like Tamagotchi and allow you to buy in-game currency for money.

Why do referral programs are needed?

The referral program is an important component of the T2E games: the players can invite their friends and receive some bonuses and improvements. This allows to grow the user audience at an insane rate. For example, Hamster Kombat gained 142 million users in just 77 days. The game's YouTube channel has more than 20 million subscribers.

Sometimes developers use the popularity of the game to boost their social networks. For example, the Blum game offers additional bonuses for subscribing to the CEO of the company.

Top 3 Tap-to-Earn games

After the impressive success of Notcoin, many new Tap-to-Earn crypto games have hit the market. Some of the most notable projects in this area are Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, TapSwap, Pixelverse, Catizen, YesCoin, and MemeFi.

Top 3 Tap-to-Earn Games (listed in the order of the size of their Telegram groups at the time of writing) are:

1. Hamster Kombat (42.73M Telegram members).

2. TapSwap (22.69M Telegram members).

3. Pixelverse (7.32M Telegram members).

Hamster Kombat

Both children and adults and even the elderly, play Hamster Kombat, a mini—app launched on Telegram on March 25. Hamster Kombat gained huge popularity by the end of May 2024.

Hamster Kombat is a clicker available via a Telegram mini-app (@hamster_kombat_bot). Players control the virtual hamster CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange, which allows users to mine tokens by tapping.

There are three main indicators in the game: energy, profit per click, and total profit per hour.

The main actions in the game:

Clicking on a hamster: instant coin earnings, determined by the "profit per click" parameter.
Buying cards: increasing the "profit per hour" parameter due to the features of real crypto exchanges.
Completing mini-quests: collecting combo cards, solving Morse code, daily checks and tasks.

"Profit per hour" allows you to earn coins offline, but only for 3 hours, so regular visits to the application are necessary.

TapSwap

TapSwap is a click-to-earn cryptocurrency game in which users earn TAPS tokens by simply tapping on the screen of their devices. But this is just the beginning of the exciting adventure. Users can not only collect coins but also participate in various tasks that open up the opportunity for them to receive additional income.

Download and install the Telegram app on your device if you don't have it yet. Find the official TapSwap bot on Telegram using the search bar and click on the "Start" button to join. Here is a direct link to the game.

TapSwap provides several ways to increase earnings:

Multi-tap: additional "fingers" to increase earnings with each tap.
Energy Limit: increase your energy reserve for longer gaming sessions.
Recovery Rate: increase the energy recovery rate.
Tap Bot: a bot that collects coins in your absence.
Boosts: temporary improvements such as "Tap Guru", which increase earnings from each click by 5 times.

Pixelverse

Pixelverse is a web3 platform that recently launched a Telegram mini-application where players can earn a few points that will eventually be converted into Pixfi tokens. PixelTap by Pixelverse is a colorful game that invites the user to immerse themselves in the Pixelverse cyberpunk universe to upgrade their character and fight online with other players (PvP battles). The battle is a game of who clicks the button faster.

Go to the telegram bot @pixelversexyzbot and click the run button. Next, click "Launch Bat". After that, the system will launch a mini-application. For those who like to click, you can click on the coin, but this is not necessary, because the coins are collected themselves, you only need to pick them up once every 8 hours by clicking the "Claim" button.

Conclusion

The attitude towards "clickers" in the crypto community is different. Some consider them a new chance for cryptocurrencies to finally enter the mainstream. Optimists believe that the popularity of games will pull the crypto market up and lead to a new bullish cycle. Skeptics are sure that tap-to-earn has no future, and believe that this is another pyramid that will collapse immediately after the listing of coins on the stock exchange.

A lot depends on whether the developers can fulfill their promises and how the audience behaves. One thing is for sure: the trend of Tap-to-Earn crypto games has shown how easy it is to captivate people with simple but exciting games.