In the middle of this year, Nigerian youths and a handful of elders were locked in a tapping frenzy.
You could see people tapping on their screens repeatedly and religiously everywhere you went.
It became a menace that some labour employers had to ban their staff from engaging in any such activities as it was beginning to affect productivity.
Nigerians were in the midst of the Airdrop frenzy powered by various crypto projects and brought to the masses by Telegram. Telegram was the single denominator in all the crypto airdrop projects that existed this year.
From Tapswap, Dogs, and Notcoin to Hamster Kombat, Blum and Catizen Nigerians were able to access these games through Telegram as they existed as Telegram mini apps.
The combination of Airdrop projects where users can earn free crypto tokens by participation and Telegram, a social media app with a global user base of 950 million users was a game-changing collaboration that single-handedly led to the onboarding of millions of people into crypto.
However, a November 8 report carried out by Chainplay, a leading curator of Blockchain and NFT games revealed that the Tap to earn games powered by Telegram are not as popular and effective as perceived.
The report sent to Nairametrics by Chainplay this month disclosed the Metrics of Tap to Earn Web 3 games following the study of 957 tap-to-earn players aimed at gathering insights on user engagement and their experiences.
Key metrics for Tap to Earn Web 3 games in 2024
Chainplay’s study focused on four key metrics in their study of Tap to Earn Web 3 games in 2024.
1. Player Adoption
2. Duration of Gameplay
3. Number of Return Gamers After Trial
4. Future Prospects by Gamers
These five metrics pinpointed the true pulse of the Tap to earn games category revealing a lot of hidden data about the category of the Gamefi sector.
Report Findings
1. Only 15% Of Players Engage With A Tap-To-Earn Game Daily
The Chainplay report revealed that out of the test group of 957 players, only 15% engaged in a tap-to-earn game daily. The majority preferred to Binge play and only about 37.2% of users play weekly. The report also revealed that engagement levels only peaked during special events like giveaways and Airdrops.
Source: Chainplay.
2. 53% of players engage in Tap to earn games for an average of 15 minutes
The report revealed that the average engagement time for Tap to Earn projects was 15 minutes per session. This was partly due to the default design of tap to earn games which are casual games meant for shorter sessions. 53% play for under 15 minutes, 35.1% play for 15 minutes to 1 hour, and only 11.9% play for more than an hour.
Source: Chainplay
3. Only 50.6% of players continue engaging in Tap to earn games after airdrop
Most native tokens of Tap to earn projects tend to drop by over 60% after the Airdrop event. This is due to a drop-off in community engagement after the TGE. About 17.6% of tap-to-earn game users cease playing after the first airdrop. 50.6% continue but play the game less frequently. Only 31.7% of players maintain their level of engagement, continuing to play as they did before receiving the airdrop.
Source: Chainplay
4. 3 out of the 4 Tap to Earn game players are positive about the prospect of the game
Despite the decline in engagement, 3 out of every 4 players from the study group shared positive sentiments on the prospect of the game they engaged in. They believed the native token of the projects would be listed on major exchanges.
13% of users are pessimistic, believing these gaming trends will soon decline, while 12.4% remain uncertain.
Source: Chainplay
These metrics reveal the market sentiment and user data of Tap to earn Web 3 games in 2024. The category of games which peaked in the middle of the year and dropped off in September currently experiences low daily engagement but a good percentage of its community remains optimistic about their prospect.
Founders within this ecosystem are obliged to tackle key issues leading to player drop-offs like automation, a large player base, and difficulties cashing out.
As of today, there are currently no big Tap-to-earn games in the Nigerian crypto space. The interest in such projects within the Nigerian space was dealt a massive blow following the disappointment of Hamster Kombat, the biggest of them all.