Over the past few years, the popularity of “mini-games,” which integrate with popular social media applications, has soared, creating a new niche in the video game industry that is now beginning to threaten the popularity of more sophisticated games.
Mini-games combine entertainment with social interaction, simple accessibility, and—increasingly—the prospect of crypto rewards, providing major incentives for gamers. Popular social apps like Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and WeChat provide access to mini-games, enabling them to reach millions of users globally, and their growth shows no signs of slowing down.
One major catalyst for mini-game adoption is blockchain. In particular, the close collaboration between Telegram and the Ton network has become a key driver of growth. The tight integration between Telegram and Ton enables mini-game developers on that platform to easily incorporate crypto rewards, thereby attracting players to return for more.
Ton enables this by providing a seamless onramp to the blockchain, enabling users to access and sell crypto with minimal friction.
The growth of mini-games
The idea of mini-games integrated with social media platforms has its roots in the early 2010s when platforms like Facebook and Messenger started providing games directly within their apps. Others have since followed suit, and one of the most successful has been WeChat, the Chinese super app.
It launched its first mini-games back in 2017, made them available globally in 2019, and now boasts more than 400 million monthly active users, according to Statista.
A report in August by SocialPeta and Tenjin also highlights the incredible appeal of mini-games, showing that while the overall gaming market remains in the doldrums, mobile gaming actually saw a resurgence in the first half of 2024. During that six-month period, revenue from mini-games rose 4.7% compared to the previous year, illustrating the impressive traction of mobile game developers.
One of the hottest areas of growth is Western Europe, where players have more disposable income. There, revenue from mini-games jumped by 10% year-over-year, with the top sub-genres being hyper-casual puzzles, hyper-casual simulations, and hyper-casual work games, the report found.
All told, gamers in Western Europe downloaded an incredible 7 billion mini-games during the first half of 2024, accounting for 7% of all downloads worldwide.
What’s intriguing, and perhaps worrying for traditional game developers, is that the popularity of mini-games is increasing at the expense of more sophisticated, long-format games.
Traditional immersive AAA titles like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, PUBG, and Fortnite appear to be losing players, with many shifting to more casual mini-games that require less commitment. Mini-games’ greater accessibility on mobile devices, compared to more complex games that necessitate a PC or gaming console, could be a contributing factor to this shift.
What’s driving this shift?
As previously mentioned, mini-games are incredibly lightweight and frequently offer instant play without requiring the player to download or install them beforehand. This makes them ideal for casual gamers looking to satisfy an urge for instant fun.
This is particularly true on Telegram, which has built up an extensive and rapidly growing collection of more than 400 mini-games. Telegram enhances the competitive aspect with its global leaderboards, crypto rewards, and community chat rooms, all conveniently accessible directly from within the popular messenger app.
The ease of access could be a reflection of current trends. TikTok, the short video-sharing app, rose to global fame many years after the birth of social media apps like Facebook and Twitter thanks to the way it satisfied people’s urge for quick adrenaline kicks.
Users can scroll through TikTok and enjoy short bursts of highly engaging content at almost any moment in their lives. If they’re waiting in a queue, commuting to work or school, eating their lunch, or waiting to see a doctor, they can quickly open up TikTok and find an instant source of entertainment.
Mini-games provide a similar experience, allowing for instant activation and typically requiring only brief sessions. They provide instant gratification, and TikTok has already shown that such a formula is a big winner in a world where time is becoming increasingly short.
Another aspect of mini-games is their social nature. For instance, the dedicated blockchain gaming platform Funtico has built up an extensive community, with more than 28,000 followers on Telegram and 23,000 on Discord.
Its integration with Telegram allows players to chat in real time, share their highest scores, and play cooperatively. This social element heightens the overall thrill, transforming a traditionally solitary activity into a shared one that fosters competition, collaboration, and organic growth.
Then there’s the monetization factor. With the integration of blockchain, players can earn financial rewards in the shape of cryptocurrency tokens. For instance, players can earn the native TON coin from many Telegram games, and Funtico offers its own native token, TICO, for purchasing items and accessories across its game library.
Telegram and Funtico’s secret is that they make blockchain more accessible. Telegram provides each user with their own Ton crypto wallet, abstracting away the complexity of dealing with seed phrases. Funtico offers a similar experience, relying on a traditional email and password-based sign-up process to simplify onboarding.
Examples of popular mini-games
Hamster Kombat, a popular tap-to-earn game on Telegram, epitomizes simplicity. The game itself is a simulation, where the player takes on the role of a hamster CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange, but the mechanics couldn’t be any easier.
To progress, all that’s required is to tap the screen continuously, as fast as possible, in order to earn HAMSTER tokens. So players can pick up and play for short bursts at any time, with guaranteed rewards for their efforts.
Hamster Kombat has become a mini-game sensation with more than 300 million users and over 12 million followers on X.
Another fast-growing game is Funtico’s Formula Funtico, which is a fun, slick, adrenaline-fueled racing simulation where multiple players can compete in fast and furious races to try and earn TICO tokens. The game offers both free and paid modes. With the latter, racers deposit a small amount of TICO tokens into a prize pool, and the winner of the race takes home all of the rewards.
More recently, Formula Funtico has embraced the idea of competitive tournaments, offering even bigger prizes of up to 100,000 USD for the most successful racers.
Mini-games have also embraced more traditional games. Take Hangman on Telegram, which is based on the simple guessing game everyone knows and loves from their school days. The player is required to guess the hidden word by suggesting different letters.
Every correct guess by the player adds a letter to the blank spaces, thereby simplifying the word-guessing process. But if the player suggests the wrong letter, a new part will be added to the figure of the condemned. If the user fails to guess the word before the picture completes and the condemned dies, the game ends.
The unstoppable rise of mini-games
The mini-game ecosystem’s rapid growth indicates a significant shift in the gaming industry, as the design, accessibility, and consumption of games are evolving significantly. These days, a growing number of gamers are choosing more casual experiences over the lengthy time commitment necessary to fully enjoy traditional AAA-style games.
There’s reason to think this trend will accelerate. Mini-game developers are increasingly exploring new technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, making them more immersive than ever before. The adoption of these technologies will push innovation forward, resulting in more addictive mini-games.
Additionally, the push towards cross-platform compatibility is making mini-games even more accessible. Basically. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a PC, console, smartphone, or tablet—the mini-game ecosystem is always accessible, in any location. Combined with the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies, mini-games are poised to attract even more interest.
All of this means that mini-games are no longer just a fun distraction. They have emerged at the center of gaming innovation, providing more rewarding experiences with rich community interaction and powerful incentives that attract a more diverse audience than traditional games. Mini-games are transforming gaming and will continue to shape the future of entertainment.
