TON Chain Mini Games Surged, Can They Really Pass Through Innovation Dilemmas?

2024-11-13, 07:20

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![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314821351690791857hotspot.jpeg)
## [TL；DR]: 
Since the arrest of Telegram founder Durov, the TON ecosystem has faced selling pressure and user loss, leading to a significant drop in the prices of a series of GameFi tokens, and challenging the ecosystem construction and reputation image.

Recently, the overall market has rebounded, and TON chain mini game tokens have started to rise and stop falling, boosting market confidence. TON prices have received strong support and have broken through the downward trend line suppression.

In the future, mini games should explore more types of mini programs, combined with forms such as payments and bots, to bring new growth points to TON. The TON chain ecosystem still has unparalleled advantages and potential.

## Introduction
Since Telegram founder Durov's arrest in Paris in late August, TON, which is deeply bound to him, has faced challenges. After a series of dismal performances, including the continuous decline of Meme GameFi tokens, the TON ecosystem has undergone a sluggish adjustment period.

In this context, as BTC steadily rises and hits the $90,000 integer mark, the TON ecosystem is gradually recovering. So, what else is there to look forward to in the future for TON? This article explores this in depth.
 
## With Reaching Pinnacle Once Launched, is the Road to Breakthrough for TON Mini Games Already Unsolvable?
The TON ecosystem attracted a large number of users' attention and activity in the second and third quarters of this year, thanks to the popularity of the mini-program GameFi. The market even considered it the best entrance for Web2 users to connect to <a  rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"  href="/web3" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Web3</a>.

However, starting from the arrest of Telegram founder Durov in Paris in late August, the <a  rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"  href="/price/toncoin-ton" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">TON price</a> faced selling pressure, and a series of GameFi tokens such as CATI, HMSTR, DOGS, etc., on the chain fell sharply at their peak, resulting in a continuous loss of active users. The TON ecosystem’s construction and reputation image are facing unprecedented challenges.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314821851.jpeg)
Source: Gate.io
 
As the core sector of TON Chain, mini games have been continuously listed on large exchanges, with more and more studios joining, as well as the improvement of user education and the mass production of fungible mini games. The market wealth creation effect has begun to show a significant decreasing trend.

OGenLab monitored up to 820 Telegram projects over the past month and found that despite accumulating 879 million monthly active users, unduplicated data showed a decrease of 296 million MAUs (a 33% drop), indicating a rapid decline in user activity. In addition, the decline is showing an amplifying trend, especially with large-scale projects with over 5 million users accelerating their decline in the later stage, indicating that even top projects cannot resist user loss, and the ecosystem has encountered deep-seated problems.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314822172.jpeg)
Source: @OGenLab

Take the once-most sought-after game “Hamster Kombat” as an example. Its rise and decline process profoundly reflects the current ecosystem dilemma of TON. This game once claimed to have 300 million users, but now it has lost most players, leaving only about 41 million monthly active users. Its token price has also experienced a significant decline, dropping from its peak at launch to less than 30% today.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314822443.jpeg)
Source: Protos
 
The failure of Hamster Kombat was not accidental. Firstly, its gameplay is monotonous and boring, and AI art appears hastily pieced together, which cannot attract players in the long run. Secondly, many controversies surround token airdrops in the game, with multiple postponements and disqualification of many players, resulting in a significant decrease in player trust. In addition, there are reports of market manipulation in the game, further exacerbating its reputation crisis.

More seriously, the tortuous history of Hamster Kombat has sparked widespread social attention and controversy. Some governments even view it as a "soft tool" that threatens national security and social stability, and call for a ban on this game. This public opinion environment undoubtedly has a significant negative impact on the future development of the TON ecosystem.

It is not difficult to see from the case of Hamster Kombat that although the TON ecosystem can rely on Telegram's huge traffic to gain short-term attention in attracting users, there are still many problems in user retention, game quality, trust building, and real-world supervision.

## What Are the New Highlights of TON Chain Mini Games With Mixed Coin Price?
Against the backdrop of the overall market recovery in recent times, the previously declining TON chain mini-game token has also begun to rise and stop falling.

On the day of writing, the gains of TON, CATI, NOT, DOGS, HMSTR, and REDO were all above double digits, indicating a slight rebound in market confidence.

Taking TON as an example, although its recent gains have been lower than BTC and ETH, from a technical analysis perspective, the coin price has received strong support at around $4.5. In addition, TON's price has broken through the downward trend line suppression, which is often seen in technical analysis as a bullish expectation that further opens up the upper space.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314822884.jpeg)
Source: Gate.io 
 
Based on our observation, the TON chain mini-game field has indeed shown some new highlights and trends recently, especially some emerging projects such as DuckChain, COINFISH Bot, OpenLeague, etc., which have provided positive growth and are expected to inject new vitality into the market.

As the first TON-based consumer layer project, DuckChain has surpassed 1.8 million test network users, with over 2 million daily active users on the Mini app and nearly 10 million total users, demonstrating strong growth momentum. Thanks to the recent launch of the "Synergy" cross-chain innovation program by TON Accelerator, DuckChain can more conveniently connect TON with ecosystems such as EVM and BTC, providing an efficient EVM development environment for Telegram and TON users, and significantly reducing the on-chain threshold through a unified account system.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314823155.jpeg)
Source: duckchain.io
 
In addition, the TON ecosystem “click-to-fishing” game COINFISH Bot, officially announced by MEETLabs, has also been launched and has gained over 130,000 Telegram community channel users. The game's background and character settings have a high affinity and cultural identity, further enhancing its attractiveness.

It can be seen that the TON chain mini-game program field is undergoing rapid development and transformation. These new games are no longer limited to short-term traffic competition but explore more ways to be compatible across chains and increase playability.
 
## Can the TON Ecosystem Take Off Again?
Although the TON ecosystem has been in a downturn over the past three months, from the perspective of long-term growth of public chains such as <a  rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"  href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> and <a  rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"  href="/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a>, the current data performance is data that inevitably appears with the cycle during the growth process of public chains.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314823446.jpeg)
Source: DeFiLlama

Of course, whether the TON ecosystem can achieve a second takeoff in the later stage still requires more technological innovation and ecosystem construction to attract enough users and capital attention.

In fact, as an ecosystem that blurs the boundaries between DEX and CEX, TON's interaction with Web2 blurs the categories of transactions and lowers the threshold for native <a  rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"  href="/web3" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Web3</a> transactions to enter Web2. This huge advantage is still unmatched by other competitors.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17314823627.jpeg)
Source: @ton_blockchain
 
According to the author's understanding, the future of mini-games is not limited to simple click mechanisms or strategy development systems, but should explore more types of mini-programs in fields such as education, finance, and social networking. By combining payment, bots, and other forms, it can provide users with richer interaction methods and higher convenience, bringing new growth points to TON to attract a wider range of user groups.

In summary, the TON chain ecosystem is experiencing pain and change, and mini-games, as an important component of it, are facing short-term challenges and long-term opportunities. Through strategic investment and cooperation, tapping into the diversified potential of mini-programs, developing DEX and DeFi, and exploring market validation, the TON chain ecosystem will continue to promote the development and innovation of mini-games, and its ecosystem still has unparalleled advantages and potential.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Charle Y.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions. All investments carry inherent risks; prudent decision-making is essential.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>