Hamster Kombat – Controversial Virtual Money Game with 200 Million Players
Hamster Kombat claims to have reached over 200 million players after nearly three months, but this number is controversial in terms of authenticity and player “burnout” factor.
Rapid Development and Notable Success
Compared to Pokémon Go, Niantic Labs’ augmented reality mobile game released in 2016, which took 33 days to reach 150 million users, or Meta’s Threads, which took 6 days in mid-2023, Hamster Kombat, a new game on Telegram, claimed to have reached 239 million users after 81 days according to the development team’s announcement on X.
Game Mechanics and Earning Money
Hamster Kombat is a tap-to-earn game on the Telegram app, a popular trend in the cryptocurrency world recently. Players tap on characters to earn coins and must perform other actions such as daily log-ins, watching ads, videos, and following channels on YouTube and X to earn Hamster Coins. Players can also invite friends to earn additional coins. Coins can be used to purchase characters, power-up items, and unlock new features.
According to Cryptonomist, the main attraction is the opportunity to earn money from the platform. The development team promises an airdrop in Q3 2024. Players who accumulate a lot of Hamster Coins will have a better chance of receiving Hamster Kombat tokens.
Despite the anonymous development team, Hamster Kombat quickly partnered with major names in the cryptocurrency sector, including Gotbit Hedge Fund and BingX. Since its launch in March, the game reached one million users in just 11 days. It grew to 236 million users on Telegram within 81 days.
Impressive Engagement Metrics
The project’s YouTube channel attracted 24.7 million subscribers in the first month and currently stands at 32 million. The development team has applied to Guinness World Records to certify the channel as the first to surpass 10 million subscribers in one week.
A social media expert stated that Hamster Kombat currently earns $11 per 1,000 views from YouTube ad revenue. From the channel’s launch on May 24 to June 26, it accumulated 473,709,858 views and earned $5.2 million.
Data from Social Blade shows that Hamster Kombat’s YouTube channel averaged 21 million views per day over the past two weeks, equivalent to $230,000 in daily ad revenue over the last 14 days.
As of July 4, Hamster Kombat’s X channel has 8.5 million followers, and the game has over 46.8 million subscribers on Telegram, surpassing any other game.
Controversy
Despite its rapid growth, Hamster Kombat has faced criticism from users for its “exploitation” policies. Some players have reported that the frequency of task requirements has increased while rewards have decreased, and the game requires following numerous additional channels with meager rewards. Furthermore, the game continuously adds new task cards requiring players to invite more friends.
According to BeInCrypto, the project lacks a specific plan for converting coins into tokens, despite its large user base. Some experts suspect that the 236 million player count might largely include fake accounts. They believe that view-boosting tools like PhoneFarm could be used to run bots.
Inal Kardan, Game Director at TON Foundation, believes that determining the number of bots in Hamster Kombat is “impossible.” The game has yet to require identity verification (KYC). However, he estimates that the actual number of players is around 50% of the claimed figure.
Nguyen Viet Dinh, CTO of Symper and administrator of the Blockchain Outreach Forum, views Hamster Kombat as a good entertainment game that helps players understand cryptocurrency investment, but advises not to expect much in terms of earning money from the game.
