Telegram’s streak of making money ended last year coldso it was a pleasant surprise to see the new game racing millions of players on the messaging platform by 2025.
Zoo has attracted more than 16 million players in just a few weeks, according to data from Telegram’s own app, which offers a very simplified riff on Microsoft’s classic Zoo Tycoon franchise, but with a crypto twist in the form of an upcoming token airdrop.
Will this be the game that melts the Telegram gaming market? I’m not sure yet, but here I am not working at the zoo for a few weeks.
Screenshots from the Telegram Zoo game. Image: Decryption
The zoo gives you a task… to build your zoo. You’re given a blank map with several types of terrain and zero animals, but you can tap on an empty space to buy an animal enclosure and start attracting visitors to your original park.
By doing so, the in-game ZOO tokens will be acquired, which the developers say will translate 1:1 to on-chain ZOO tokens in the airdrop.
Then wash it off and repeat.
Zoo is a very simple resource management game where you earn a small amount of Animal Feed (in-game currency) every day by logging in and completing simple tasks. puzzles and rebuses or take individual animal quizzes, then use it to buy new cases, upgrade for more income, and feed your furry friends.
It’s definitely repetitive, and having to log in every couple of hours to feed your pets to keep up with your airdrop income can be annoying. Also, developers are pushing expensive animals that you have to spend real crypto (Toncoin or TON) or Telegram’s Stars currency purchase, this is definitely a distortion of airdrop distribution.
On the other hand, I’m optimistic that Zoo can up its very simple game or at least embrace crypto memes and fun. The addition of prominent Doge and Pepe as zoo animals is really fun, and I’d love to see more of that in future updates.
But is there reason for such optimism?
Zoo will end its mining phase on January 31st, meaning any progress made after that will not be playable in the airdrop. That’s a fast cycle, even for a crypto game, with Zoo only launched in December.
On the other hand, maybe it’s always been this way: an easy-going traction machine that pays out ZOO tokens with airdrops after a few weeks, then spins its wheels and tries to keep players focused as the token price drops.
Telegram did not pay for game airdrops especially good for players in recent months, but who knows? Perhaps the zoo has stumbled upon a winning formula. Maybe not.
