Coinspeaker
Telegram Eyes 1 Billion Users as Hamster Kombat Soars
Telegram, one of the most popular social media messaging apps in the world, has achieved a significant milestone of 950 million monthly active users after 11 years of service. Announcing the feat on July 22, the company’s founder, Pavel Durov, said the platform has now set its sights on reaching the 1 billion users milestone by the end of this year.
The social media messaging app owes part of this impressive growth to the extraordinary success of Hamster Kombat, a tap-to-earn crypto game that has rapidly gained traction among Telegram’s audience.
Hamster Kombat’s Meteoric Rise
The game was introduced as a mini-app on Telegram in March 2024. The simplicity and engaging nature of the game have made it a hit, drawing in millions of players. Within three months of launch, Hamster Kombat amassed over 239 million users, a feat previously achieved only by Pokémon GO and Instagram’s Threads.
The game’s viral nature has attracted millions of new users to Telegram, particularly from younger demographics interested in mobile gaming. Currently, Hamster Kombat has over 53 million active subscribers, highlighting its widespread appeal.
The game stands out for its engaging gameplay and educational content. Players earn HMSTR tokens by tapping and managing a virtual crypto exchange. They can upgrade their hamsters, complete daily challenges, and participate in special missions to win prizes.
Strategic Expansion of Telegram
With mini-apps like Hamster Kombat seeing explosive growth and helping attract more users to Telegram, the social media messaging app plans to expand its ecosystem to a better position for growth.
Last week, Durov announced plans to launch an app store and an in-app browser that supports web3 pages. These additions aim to provide a more comprehensive platform, enhancing user engagement and creating a seamless digital experience.
Telegram is known for regularly introducing and updating its features to adapt to market trends. The company started supporting developers to build crypto-related mini-apps and games on its platform last year after its efforts to enter the space dwindled due to regulatory issues.
In 2023, the company launched crypto payment features that allowed merchants to accept digital assets for payments. That same year, it started sharing advertising revenues to channels creating content to keep users engaged using Toncoin (TON), the native token of The Open Network.
Driving Growth Through Innovation
The platform’s openness to crypto helped skyrocket its user base. In March this year, Telegram announced that it had crossed the milestone of 900 million monthly users. Thanks to the platform’s strong emphasis on privacy, security, and user-friendly features, the firm attracted an additional 50 million users in barely four months. At the time, Telegram boss Durov said the platform raked in “hundreds of millions of dollars” in revenues after introducing advertising and premium subscription services two years ago.
With the addition of its latest features like Telegram Stars, which can be used by both Android and iPhone users to purchase in-app digital products, the platform is well on its way to reaching its goal of 1 billion users this year. However, only time will tell.
