Hamster Kombat (HMSTR) down over 76% since launch as users shift to Paws

Hamster Kombat’s token has fallen 76% since the viral telegram clicker game airdropped millions of tokens to its players.

HMSTR hit an all-time low of $0.00228 on Nov. 3, as per CoinGecko data, and while it has since rebounded to $0.0024, the token remains down by over 47% in the past 30 days.

Poor network engagement and a dwindling user base are the key reasons behind this prolonged downtrend that began the day after the token was airdropped to the public.

Initially, Hamster Kombat gained traction as a mini-game on The Open Network (TON) and Telegram’s private messaging app, drawing comparisons to other popular projects like Notcoin (NOT). 

During its pre-launch phase, Hamster Kombat was one of the fastest-growing Telegram mini-games which attracted over 150 million users to its official platform despite delays in listing the token.

HMSTR struggles after token generation event

The HMSTR airdrop was one of the most eagerly awaited events this year, with more than 300 million users engaging with the tap-to-earn game at its peak. 

Of these, approximately 131 million users met the eligibility requirements to claim, a news that wasn’t well received by the community as many users claimed they were wrongly disqualified.

The number accounted for just 43% of the game’s user base.

However, when the tokens were distributed, player frustration compounded as users noted their rewards were minimal—often valued at $10 or less even after months of gameplay time—leading some to label the airdrop as “dust.”

Just a day after launch, the price of HMSTR dropped roughly 50% as players rushed to liquidate whatever they had earned.

This latest price drop coincides with reports that Hamster Kombat’s user base has dropped significantly, declining from 300 million players in August to only 41 million currently active users.

Data from the analytics platform IntoTheBlock confirm this development as the project’s active addresses have also taken a massive hit.

Right after the game’s token generation event on September 26, active addresses on the platform peaked at around 772,330 on Sept. 27.

Since then, the number was down more than 38% as of press time.

Further, the mini-game token’s active address ratio chart, which is a metric to gauge the number of HMSTR holding addresses, also took a nosedive to a 30-day low of a little over 0.34% active users on Nov. 5.

Market commentators believe that the significant decline in HMSTR’s user base and its falling price may lead crypto exchanges like Binance, which has listed the token, to consider delisting it due to inactivity and low trading volumes.

Meanwhile, this could also spell more losses for HMSTR holders as more users liquidate their holdings.

Despite the lackluster performance, the community sentiment metric on CoinMarketCap remained bullish.

The token was also the third-largest Telegram app with a market cap of over $157.7 million, although it was significantly below levels seen at launch.

Users are flocking to Paws

As Hamster Kombat struggled with low user activity, a newly launched competitor dubbed Paws saw its user base soar to record numbers.

It’s been just eight days since launch and the game already has a user base of over 20.5 million.

The game takes an approach similar to that of Hamster Kombat, and rewards players with its PAWS token for completing basic tasks, and the age of their Telegram accounts.

The project’s telegram group had over 9.4 million subscribers while its X account boasted over 1.1 million followers.

Users now await the token launch event as they continue collecting in-game tokens, while the project already hinting at upcoming developments.

However, like many of its predecessors, Paws could also face a similar fate if it fails to retain its users as it is quite evident that simply completing basic tasks isn’t enough to keep players engaged, as users typically look to profit from the airdrops and move on to the next big thing.

Dogs, a telegram game that shares a referral-based model identical to Paws, saw its token price plummet following launch.

At press time, the token was down over 68% since it started trading.

Other Telegram games like Catizen and Notcoin have also suffered similar losses.

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