‘Catizen’ Review: Telegram’s Viral Play-to-Airdrop Game
Catizen is a viral play-to-airdrop Web3 game on Telegram. Image: CCN
- The play-to-airdrop game presently has 1.2 million daily players, 1.7 million on-chain users, and 28 million total “Catizens.”
- Catizen plans to become a Web3 ecosystem of its own, housing gaming, TV dramas, Telegram Web3 campaigns, and more.
- But is the idle clicker any good?
Catizen has pounced onto Telegram as the newest viral Web3 sensation, captivating players with addictive gameplay, tantalizing play-to-airdrop rewards, and innovative Web3 integrations.
But does it live up to the hype? After immersing myself in Catizen for the past three weeks, it’s time to dive into the fur-tastic details.
What is Catizen?
Developed by Pluto Studio, Catizen is the latest in Telegram’s increasingly popular Web3 gaming ecosystem. It leverages Telegram’s native crypto wallet, The Open Network (TON), and other nifty features to keep players returning for more.
It’s billed as a “play-to-airdrop” game, as opposed to play-to-earn (P2E), which became popular with games such as Axie Infinity. Catizen’s earning model operates more akin to that of Solana’s (SOL) airdrops, which saw rewards distributed based on interactions, on-chain activity, and the volumes of aforementioned actions.
According to the Catizen website, the game currently sees over 1 million players daily, and since launching on March 19, 2024, it has garnered over 11 million USDT in revenue.
The game has also received much praise from Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov. Speaking about Catizen’s success, he shared:
“Catizen is a mini-game on Telegram with over 26 million players. The game has already earned $16 million from in-app purchases and donated 1% of it to rescue stray cats.”
Durov also noted the game introduced millions of people to blockchain because it uses TON-based smart contracts for its in-game rewards.
How Does It Work?
Simply put, it’s a classic idle-clicker game where you “Feed” to create new cats that generate more currency. You use that currency to buy more cats, and those cats merge into higher-level cats that generate even more currency. So on, and so forth.
The game features four in-game currencies:
- $vKITTY: This is the in-game currency used to “Feed” and generate more cats.
- FishCoins: These “premium” in-game coins are used for the fishing mini-game, to buy the highest-tier Cat available, and to pay for in-game boosts such as Cat Box drops and $vKITTY production multipliers.
- $vCATI: This is the token that will be distributed during the Catizen airdrop. It is currently available for pre-market trading on Bybit.
- $vZEN: Very little is known about ZEN, its uses, or even future plans. So far, users can only receive ZEN by claiming one of the daily “freebies.”
Each player has sixteen empty slots, which they can fill with virtual cats. When two cats of the same level meet, they merge and level up into a cat with higher $vKITTY speeds. Players progress through the leagues that begin at Bronze and finish at Royal. They can do so alone and/or alongside one of many “Cat Clubs.”
FishCoins are purchased using Telegram “Stars.” They’re the premium tokens that accelerate various functions in the game, allowing users to progress using real money.
FishCoins can also be used to “Fish,” which is a mini-game in which users fish for large sums of $vKITTY, bonus FishCoins, and compete to catch the heaviest fish for even more rewards.
Players are also presented with daily tasks, which they receive FishCoin for completing. These simple check-ins require users to sign a transaction in the Telegram wallet, paid with fractional amounts of the TON crypto.
Players also receive FishCoin for making a daily purchase with Telegram Stars, interacting with the Catizen Telegram channel, retweeting Catizen content, and watching YouTube videos, among other tasks.
The Future of Catizen
The project has high ambitions. Firstly, it has a philanthropic arm where users can donate a pre-set amount of dollars to feed, house, and provide medical care to stray cats.
Secondly, it is working on expanding itself into a Web3 entertainment platform, complete with a mini-game ecosystem, e-commerce, and even a short drama platform. This also includes the rollout of a task platform where projects can launch campaigns on Catizen, from which users can earn more FishCoin and $vCATI.
As per the Catizen whitepaper, many of these developments are due to arrive in Q3 and Q4 of 2024. However, by the looks of things, they are running behind the whitepaper’s schedule. Furthermore, the highly anticipated airdrop has been delayed until further notice.
As the team builds more partnerships with OKX, Bybit, and Binance, the Catizen game seems to be relishing in some solid early success. However, much of this success hinges on whether or not it can follow through with the $vCATI airdrop.
Is Catizen a Good Game?
If you strip away all the Web3 features, Catizen is another iteration of the tried-and-tested Gacha game format. Yes, there is a chance you’ll be able to make some returns for your efforts, but until the airdrop, the quality of those rewards is yet to be seen.
Is it fun? Yes, in a mindless, delayed-gratification kind of way. The game doesn’t really require your attention, just the daily login and tasks, the occasional new cat purchase, and some optional fishing if you’re up to it.
Is it a good game? No, in a mindless, delayed-gratification clunky kind of way. As a Web3 game, it neatly leverages the Telegram wallet to create all of those on-chain interactions that are perhaps used solely for tracking interactions that could convert into airdrop rewards.
CCN reached out to Catizen to understand more about the game and the future of the Catizen ecosystem. The project has not yet responded.
Telegram to Launch Gaming Accelerator Spurred by Notcoin (NOT) Success
