I remember, a few years ago, there was constant joking about TON: it was about to take off, but the plane just kept circling over the runway. A funny story, right? But here’s the interesting part — now that joke is starting to turn around. Mini-games on Telegram have just exploded.

There are now over a hundred games, and by the end of the month, another two thousand are expected to launch. Even Telegram itself probably didn’t anticipate such a surge. I spoke with the people involved, and it turned out there’s something interesting about how this actually makes money.

It turns out, the main revenue for mini-games on Telegram doesn’t come from the players themselves, but from advertising other projects. This is a typical traffic business that has long dominated the Chinese gaming industry. Projects pay to have their ads shown in games to attract real users. Previously, Web3 task platforms were used for this, but there are hardly any real people left there — mostly bots and studios doing tasks for themselves.

Telegram mini-games have become much more effective. They directly and aggressively compete with traditional task platforms. If this continues, traditional Web3 platforms could simply disappear. Even venture capitalists have noticed. For example, Vertex Capital invested in this space and is now developing its own game, Token Hunter, to activate users of their NFT projects.

But here’s the question that’s been bothering me for a while: are people really willing to pay in these mini-games? I was skeptical until I spoke with Sleepy, the founder of the NFT project Weirdo Ghost Gang. He says something completely different. According to him, the number of people willing to pay for games has far exceeded their expectations.

The numbers are impressive. Catizen, one of the most popular mini-games on Telegram, earned over $16 million through in-game purchases. People buy props, items, upgrades — just like in regular mobile games. Notcoin makes more than $300,000 a month. That’s serious money.

An important point: in traditional crypto games, props cost tens or hundreds of dollars, which deters casual players. In Telegram mini-games, prices are much lower — $0.99, $1.99. This attracts a lot of people willing to pay small amounts frequently. As they say, the sand is building up into a tower.

Now, about tokens. Many ask: will the projects that are already making good money issue tokens? Zong Yue, an investor and market participant, is confident: yes, they will. Because traffic-based business is temporary. Without a token, a project is doomed to short-term existence. But it’s an art — launching the token correctly without killing the project.

Sleepy was initially against tokens. He thought they could harm long-term development. But after seeing how many people are willing to pay, they reconsidered. A token at the right moment can give the project a new boost.

Telegram mini-games are gradually proving that this is not just a trend. Combined monetization — advertising plus in-game purchases plus potentially tokens — is becoming the new standard. It looks like we’re witnessing the birth of a serious market with the potential of hundreds of millions of active users monthly. Maybe even more.

Perhaps a truly large-scale game for TON has already launched, but not everyone has realized it yet.