According to TONStat, TON has more than 10.78 million activated wallets (i.e. wallets with at least one outgoing transaction)—a +1400% increase in just the last year—and a peak of over 5 million monthly active wallets over the past six months.
Through its unique integrations with Telegram, TON projects gain access to Telegram’s over 900 million users, making the TON ecosystem one of the most visible blockchain ecosystems to date. For builders, TON’s current and potential audience provides a significant opportunity for mega projects to flourish.
While other blockchains are still in the early stages of adoption, TON has an established userbase and a potential 890 million new users that are just a few taps away from getting started. As the ecosystem continues to grow, projects in TON have a new challenge to overcome: how do you convert an existing user base into high-quality users?
As the only project in the TON ecosystem to disclose their onchain data performance to the public, Catizen provides key insights on how to make this possible.
What is Catizen?
Catizen is a Telegram-based, casual gaming platform featuring a wide range of cat themed mini games. Developed by PlutoVision Labs and launched on TON in 2024, the game has received significant attention from players and cat lovers alike and has maintained the top position in the TON ecosystem’s The Open League (TOL) competition for the past three seasons.
Catizen’s success on Telegram mirrors the success of similar mini games available on China’s superapp WeChat. where over one billion people play in-app mini games and nearly 250 mini-games generate $1.38 million in quarterly revenue.
Though Telegram’s popularity isn’t at the same level of WeChat just yet, PlutoVision’s ability to achieve and maintain virality in this emerging market has attracted key strategic investments from Web3 gaming leaders like the largest builder on TON, The Open Platform (TOP), notable Web3 investors like HashKey Capital, and Binance Labs.
Catizen’s willingness to share revenue data and commitment to establishing trust with its community provides a clear example on how to engage with gamers and convert them into a high-quality user base.
Since its release in March, the mini game platform has attracted a total of 25 million in-game players, 1.5 million of which are on-chain players. In just over three months, Catizen has converted 500k players into paid-in players, 50% of which have never used a web3 wallet before.
In total, Catizen has already generated $15.8 million in revenue via TON, USDT, NOT, and other cryptocurrencies. Through cultivating a high-quality user base, Catizen is able to generate an average revenue per user (APRU) of $30, significantly higher than $0.15 APRU generated by the average crypto project.
Despite the hype surrounding its airdrop, Catizen players appear to be here to play, and the game’s ability to build an active community demonstrates a new model of engagement that merges web2 with web3.
Building a High-Quality User Base
Building a high-quality user base and converting free-to-play players requires more than just incentivizing them through an airdrop. While an airdrop provides an early incentive for users to play the game, long-term growth in the attention economy demands additional tools.
Many mini-games and game ecosystems rely on meme economics and large player rewards to attract users but lack further plans after the Token Generation Event (TGE). To sustain growth beyond the initial hype, Catizen is focusing on long-term attention by continuously expanding the number of games on its platform and improving traditional game revenue models through the lens of Web3.
Catizen has revolutionized the traditional IAA (In-App Advertising) + IAP (In-App Purchases) business model in Web2 by transforming it into an IAB (In-App Blockchain) + IAP model.
Unlike Web2 giants like Google and Tencent, which spent billions to train users to watch ads for boosts or extra game props, Catizen guides users to complete on-chain interactions. This approach educates Web2 users to connect their wallets, gradually transitioning them to Web3 by leveraging familiar gaming mechanics.
In this hyper-casual gaming approach within Web3, users play, recharge in-game props, and engage with the blockchain, enabling them to earn extra money—thereby incentivizing more users to participate. With the successful integration of the IAB+IAP model, Catizen has attracted early adopters and is converting strong purchasing power users into a high-quality user base. With IAB+IAP, the team has attracted early adopters and gained a
By leveraging the existing user base of Telegram and the inherent benefits of the TON ecosystem, Catizen is prioritizing sustainable growth by creating active users. Stepping into the next phase of their roadmap, the team plans to add more mini apps that leverage the Telegram ecosystem to grow their ecosystem and business model.
Through transparency, fun gameplay, educational initiatives, and novel revenue models, Catizen’s success serves as a blueprint for winning the attention of players and rapidly onboarding the next generation of Web3 gamers.