Web3 Gaming’s Challenges: A Shift from Play-to-Earn to Play2Win

Web3 gaming has been facing significant challenges, particularly with the Play-to-Earn (P2E) model. Initially, P2E promised a world where gamers could generate income through their passion for gaming. However, many P2E games have failed to live up to their expectations due to poorly designed mechanics that hinder long-term success.

The downfall of these projects is often tied to an overemphasis on short-term rewards. Many P2E games distributed free crypto or tokens without a sustainable business model, leading to inflation and reduced value. Players, seeing a quick opportunity, exploited these mechanisms by farming and rapidly selling their crypto, which led to a decline in active user bases. This cycle of quick financial gains without real gameplay depth frustrated both developers and players alike.

As a result, the community that was meant to thrive on these platforms was often diluted by short-term airdrop hunters and "Wen TGE?" (When Token Generation Event?) requests, which placed pressure on developers to launch tokens without a long-term plan for sustaining their value. These issues have led to a sense of disillusionment with P2E, and engagement has been hard to maintain.

Introducing Play2Win: A Sustainable Gaming Model

Enter Play2Win, an emerging movement in the TON GameFi ecosystem, offering a fresh take on the gaming experience. Unlike traditional Play-to-Earn models, Play2Win focuses on multiplayer tournaments where players compete against each other for crypto rewards. The system is designed around the idea that if players enjoy the game, they will keep returning, naturally increasing the size of the prize pool and creating a sustainable, self-funding model.

In Play2Win, rewards are determined by skill and performance rather than financial input. This model encourages healthy competition, where the prize pool grows as more players join, and only the top performers win the rewards. Importantly, developers also receive a portion of the prize pool, creating a viable revenue stream that doesn't rely on giving away free crypto or speculation on volatile assets.

How Play2Win Works

• Multiplayer Tournaments: Players participate in tournaments and challenges that are fun and skill-based. The more players join, the larger the prize pool becomes, making each competition more rewarding.

• User-Funded Prize Pools: Players contribute to the prize pool through entry fees and engagement, ensuring that the rewards are funded by the community rather than a central entity.

• Viral Referral Links: As tournaments grow, so do the rewards. Players can invite others using referral links, ensuring that the tournaments remain viral and engaging.

This model promotes long-term engagement by fostering a competitive environment that prioritizes skill over simple financial incentives, creating a more sustainable ecosystem for developers and players alike.

The Growing Power of Skill-Based Gaming

Skill-based gaming is booming, with a market valuation of $34 billion and an impressive CAGR of 13.50%, far outpacing the 5.57% growth seen in traditional mobile gaming. Players are drawn to skill-based games for their challenge, strategy, and rewards, and the integration of Web3 technology can elevate this experience by making game mechanics transparent and decentralized.

Skill-based games often have strong monetization systems and can attract broad player bases. However, traditional systems usually keep profits within centralized platforms, limiting opportunities. Web3 gaming has the potential to bring transparency to the monetization process, enabling both players and developers to benefit from open, on-chain systems.

Telegram and TON: The Advantage of Global Reach

The power of Telegram as a platform for distribution cannot be overstated. Telegram-based projects like Hamster Kombat and Notcoin have already demonstrated the potential for massive user bases, amassing millions of subscribers. However, the success of these projects was often short-lived due to repetitive engagement models that relied too heavily on free-to-play mechanics and airdrop speculation.

By contrast, Play2Win offers a pay-to-play, skill-based format that prioritizes fun, competition, and rewards that are tied to player performance. This shift to a model that values engagement over passive grinding has the potential to sustain players’ interest over the long term.

But can Play2Win generate the kind of massive trading activity seen in markets like Solana's memecoin sector? Memecoins accounted for an estimated 30% of all decentralized exchange volume in 2024, averaging $15 billion in monthly trades. To match that volume, Play2Win would need to attract 150 million users, each spending $100 per month on tournaments.

Some TON-based apps, like Tonkeeper and Wallet, have already reached impressive user numbers, with Tonkeeper boasting over 70 million monthly active users and Wallet approaching 100 million. However, the challenge lies in converting this scale into paying participants.

Play2Win’s Early Success on TON

The Play2Win concept is already gaining traction with notable TON-based projects:

Onton x Elympics: A newly launched Play2Win model on Onton, TON’s largest events platform, offers multiplayer tournaments where players compete to win crypto rewards. The integration of Elympics’ infrastructure allows Web2 games to become Web3-enabled with crypto prize pools and referral links.

• How it Works: Players can join skill-based contests, track their performance on on-chain leaderboards, and enter new tournaments using NFT-based ticketing.

• Play – Win – Repeat: Performance determines success, and the system ensures provable fairness using on-chain protocols, allowing players to earn real crypto rewards.

MIOMI Game: MIOMI is a Web3 eSports platform where players can fund and participate in toncoin-based tournaments for popular games like Counter Strike, DOTA, and FIFA. Already, the platform has seen impressive results, including:

• $84M+ in prize pools created by users

• 3.28M+ matches played

• 600K registered users with 150K new wallets created on TON

With 70K monthly active wallets, MIOMI showcases the potential of skill-based gaming on the TON blockchain.

Get in the Game: Why Play2Win is the Future of Web3 Gaming

The core idea of Play2Win is simple: create fun, skill-based competitions with user-funded prize pools that provide consistent rewards. By focusing on player-driven engagement and integrating viral referral systems, Play2Win creates a gaming experience that remains attractive and sustainable over time.

As Web3 gaming continues to evolve, Play2Win offers a promising path forward, providing a revenue model that doesn't rely on speculative hype. Instead, it taps into the real power of competitive gaming, skill, and community building.

Will Play2Win be the solution to the Web3 gaming ecosystem’s sustainability issues? Time will tell, but the signs are promising, and with Telegram’s vast user base and the strength of the TON ecosystem, it’s poised to make a significant impact.

Pay to play, Play to win.