The Rise of TON Gaming: A New Era for Web3 and Crypto Staking

Key Takeaways

• TON games are thriving due to their low entry barriers and Play-to-Earn mechanics, similar to early mobile gaming’s rise.
• Telegram’s 900 million users create a massive distribution potential, potentially making TON the go-to platform for Web3 mobile games.
• Gamification will drive mass adoption, and DeFi protocols can integrate with games to offer users financial opportunities beyond gameplay.

Tonstakers actively supports TON’s gaming ecosystem by providing seamless staking and liquidity solutions. Our partnerships with various games highlight the synergy between DeFi and gaming, ensuring sustainable rewards for users.

This year, we’ve seen a rise in the popularity of games built on TON, such as Notcoin, Yescoin, Hamster Kombat, brrrrr, Tomarket, and others. Millions play these games, earning fair rewards while boosting TON’s popularity.

At Tonstakers, we notice some similarities between the current state of games on TON and what was happening with mobile gaming 10–15 years ago. Our prediction is simple: in a short time, we’ll see many cool games launching on TON, including games from popular publishers, because TON has two unique features that other platforms lack.

The Main Driver Behind TON Games’ Popularity

The main reason why TON games have become so popular is the potential monetary rewards. These games allow anyone to earn money with tapping or swiping and boost their earnings by inviting friends.

Unlike “traditional” Web3 games like Crypto Kitties, Gods Unchained, Axie Infinity, and many others, they don’t have an entry barrier. Users don’t have to buy NFTs for hundreds of dollars and then pay transaction fees for every action. Anyone can try TON games for free and earn with them.

The Second Driver That Sets TON Games Apart

In 2002, the WSJ wrote an article stating that mobile phones with color screens could kickstart the era of mobile gaming. By 2007, the mobile gaming market reached $3 billion in revenue thanks to legends like Gravity Defied and Asphalt. It was the same year the first iPhone launched and one year before the AppStore went live.

In 2009, Apple sold a total of 33 million iPhones. That same year, Rovio launched Angry Birds, which garnered 12 million users on iOS. It’s safe to say that every third iPhone owner played Angry Birds back then.

In 2012, Google launched Google Play for most Android devices. The same year, Subway Surfers debuted and gained 140 million users in just two years, with 75% playing on Android. With 460 million Android smartphone owners at the time, almost every fourth played Subway Surfers.

In 2012, King launched Candy Crush Saga on Facebook that reached 93 million players in a year. Facebook had 1 billion users at the time, so every tenth user was swiping candies.

So what’s about these numbers? Check this out: Telegram has 900 million monthly active users and it could become the biggest platform for the distribution of Web3 mobile games. On July 19th Pavel Durov announced the launch of Mini App Store inside the messenger and it will certainly have games.

Extrapolating data from Angry Birds, Subway Surfers, and Candy Crush, we can expect more than 100 million users for the most popular TON games. Actually, TON doubled these numbers already: Hamster Kombat reached 250 million users, as was mentioned by Pavel Durov.

Looking at these numbers it is just a matter of time when not only enthusiasts but also well known game development studios start to view Telegram and TON as a platforms to launch their games.

Which Games Are Already on TON

The most popular games on TON use the basics from the Cookie Clicker game launched in 2013. Despite our initial thoughts on the subject, games like Angry Birds, Subway Surfers, Candy Crush, Township, and even Flappy Bird were released before Cookie Clicker. So why do developers choose clicker games instead of other classics?

The reason clickers or incremental games are so popular on TON is simple: players don’t like losing, and you can’t lose in clickers. Additionally, clickers are great for rewarding consistent players as points keep accumulating infinitely. However, there are many other genres flourishing on TON. We checked all 150 games listed on ton.app and selected the most interesting by gameplay.

• SnakeTON combines the classic Snake game with Agario PvP gameplay, letting TON users fight each other for another fruit (or tail). NFT cosmetics are included.
• Catizen is a “merge” genre game where players care for cats and merge them to create even better cats.
• TON Planets — Mars is an economy simulator set on Mars. Players train their Marsoids to produce resources like energy, water, plants, and minerals to trade on a free market. It’s a perfect example of a complex economy genre.
• TFARM is a farming game where players manage a farm quite reminding the Stardew Valley.
• Cat Gold Miner is a casual game about constantly enhancing your goldmine to produce more and more gold. It’s easy to learn and fun to manage the gold empire.

They might not have the million players count yet, but they show what you can create on TON.

How TON Games Might Evolve Over Time

Given the popularity of clickers, ideal games on TON must be:

1. Simple to learn.
2. Impossible to lose or get stuck.
3. Constantly and clearly rewarding.

The first point aligns with the popularity of casual and hyper-casual genres in mobile gaming. The next two points are about constant and infinite progression, achievable today with AI. Here are some ideas for such AI-powered projects:

• Alien Farm Simulator where players merge creatures with an AI agent generating the resulting image. AI ensures all creatures look unique and have value.
• Endless Runner Game with procedurally generated levels that reward players with good reaction time.
• Endless 3-in-a-row Game with AI constantly generating new levels and an open market for players to earn and trade power-ups.

Many cool old-school games can be reimagined and reshaped to fit the current narrative with on-chain rewards and endless progression powered by AI-generated content.

How TON Games Popularity Will Affect TON

Games will have their positive impact by onboarding millions of new users on TON. While they will be coming mostly for games and profits, a part of them will probably be interested in amplifying their earnings with DeFi services and start exploring TON. Judging by active wallets chart, it works.

Also, DeFi protocols can partner with popular games to combine their communities and educate newcomers about opportunities. For example, games can offer unique cosmetic items and long-lasting bonuses for staking with Tonstakers or providing liquidity to DEXes. Notcoin, Yescoin, PocketFi, Gatto, Cat Gold Miner, and Bump enjoyed such partnerships with Tonstakers. This approach is better: instead of Web2’s traditional “buy this item”, Web3 games on TON might offer their players a new narrative:

“invest, earn, and get this item as a bonus”.

Will There Be AAA Games on TON?

“AAA” is a term to describe video games of highest quality and budgets: GTA, Call of Duty, Need for Speed, God of War, Spiderman, and others. We think that it’s unlikely to see major studios releasing major games on TON or Telegram.

The reason is simple: most mobile gamers aren’t looking for detailed stories or hardcore gameplay but for a something to click for 5–10 minutes during lunch break and studios give them what they want: Fallout Shelter, Mighty Doom, etc.

However, we might see franchised games based on popular intellectual properties. While the AppStore and Google Play face competition from all sides, TON users would welcome any project from Microsoft or Sony-owned game studios.

Final Thoughts

While TON games can’t yet compete with mobile games in gameplay, graphics, and intellectual property, they can offer what others can’t — the Play to Earn model and free and fair in-game economy.

Millions of people are joining TON games to earn some tokens and then decide to stay in for other on-chain benefits like passive income with staking and farming, trading, investing, transferring stablecoins, and more. We see the gamification as one of the biggest drivers to bring mass adoption to retail users, and will support most games that are aimed to fulfil this task.