Telegram game Notcoin kick-started last year’s tap-to-earn revolution that amassed hundreds of millions of players on the messaging app, but enthusiasm for the model has since dwindled following underwhelming token launches tied to increasingly overcomplicated schemes.
Now, a year after Notcoin’s NOT token launch sparked the frenzy, the game’s founders believe that reinventing classic video games via its recently launched Not Games platform will prompt the next Telegram gaming boom.
Sasha Plotvinov, co-founder of Notcoin, told Decrypt that he believes that demand for tap-to-earn games did not significantly increase after Notcoin’s release, even though the number of games on offer grew exponentially. This oversaturation of the market, he said, is the main reason why he believes the tap-to-earn genre died out so rapidly.
On top of saturation, tap-to-earn games had monotonous gameplay loops consisting of mindlessly tapping your screen to earn in-game points. This was all done in the pursuit of a future airdrop, which increasingly disappointed participants more often than not.
As such, Sasha and his brother and fellow Notcoin co-founder Vladimir Plotvinov believe that the future of Telegram gaming will be focusing on the gameplay above token reward schemes.
“We are looking at 10, 15, 20 years back… for examples of games that were popular because people just wanted to play them,” Sasha told Decrypt at Token2049 in Dubai this week. “And we just take these mechanics and try to replicate this in a new format, and also introduce the second layer of [a crypto] economy.”
Learning from the tap-to-earn wave, the co-founders believe that creating a sustainable economy via its Not Games platform is crucial this time around—due to the fact that most tap-to-earn token prices plummeted after their respective launches.
These economies will utilize The Open Network (TON) to allow players to trade skins and other cosmetics on an open marketplace. Sasha stressed that they want to avoid “pay-to-win” mechanics at all costs.
Sasha looks at the Counter-Strike skin economy, which is estimated to be worth $4.2 billion, and thinks that Telegram gaming needs this too. He points to the huge success of mobile games like Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans, and believes that a sustainable economy is the obvious next step for the industry.
But why do this all on Telegram?
“It’s much easier. If you want to play a classic game, you need to get it on the App Store and download it,” Vladimir told Decrypt. “In Telegram, you don’t have to register because you already have an account—you can just open the web app and play in one second.”
With this ease of use also comes increased potential for social virality, which prompted much of the rise of tap-to-earn gaming as devs encouraged users to invite pals in exchange for in-game rewards. Uliana Salo, head of design and product lead for Not Games, believes that reinvented classics can also take advantage of this Telegram feature.
In 2024, WeChat claimed that 500 million users were playing in-app games on its platform each month. Sasha wants Not Games to be positioned for a similar level of potential success on Telegram, with the app recently hitting 1 billion active users.
“Telegram allows anyone from any place in the world to just push a button and [play a game],” he said. “From that perspective, I don’t see a reason why Telegram gaming would not succeed.”
To help Telegram achieve its gaming destiny, Not Games will continue to reinvent classic video games on the messaging app. Not Games’ first attempt is a reinvention of the classic in-browser game Agar.io, called Void, but more games are in the works.
The Plotvinov brothers didn’t expect Notcoin’s viral success, saying that its success came almost too quickly to comprehend. From this experience, they realized that you don’t have to ship a perfect product to gain notoriety. Instead, they plan to launch good ideas quickly, and stay agile when receiving user feedback. That’s the strategy behind Not Games.
“We will move this way,” Vladimir said. “Sometimes I meet with developers who are trying to build rockets, but it’s really not necessary. You can make a small batch of features, launch it, see it, get feedback, and work with it.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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