Telegram gaming has been one of crypto’s biggest winners in 2024. Hamster Kombat pulled in 300 million players ahead of this week’s airdrop, and Notcoin launched a token that neared a $3 billion market cap—a screen-tapping game yielding one of the 100 biggest coins on the planet.

All of this revolves around the tap-to-earn mechanic, a simple concept with a growing list of variations and permutations. But has this model truly evolved upon the fraught play-to-earn gaming craze that dominated the last bull cycle before crashing and burning? Or is tap-to-earn doomed to the same eventual fate of mockery and shrugs from the masses?

In 2021, play-to-earn was all the rage with Pokémon-esque monster battler Axie Infinity peaking just shy of 3 million monthly active users. Gamers were required to purchase or borrow three Axie NFTs before they could start playing—a buy-in cost of $600 or more at peak—and then could start winning real crypto tokens by competing.