Hamster Kombat Unveils Ambitious 2025 Roadmap Amid Airdrop Backlash

• Hamster Kombat will be rolled out on iOS, Android, and desktop devices in Q4 2024.
• The HMSTR token is down 30% following the airdrop and token listing.
• Hamster Kombat’s Season 2 airdrop is planned for Spring 2025.

Just moments before the long-awaited Hamster Kombat airdrop, the team has unveiled its plans for the remaining few months of 2024 and into 2025.

Now that the “biggest token airdrop in crypto history” has finally come to pass, can Hamster Kombat continue to entertain and incentivize players? Well, judging by the results, probably not because players are furious.

Hamster Kombat Roadmap

With the Season 1 airdrop finally behind them, Hamster Kombat has updated its Q4 2024 roadmap, extending into the summer of 2025.

For starters, Season 2 of Hamster Kombat begins in Oct. with the implication that players can begin competing for a second airdrop. This will see the “rapid expansion of” its game library as it adds news titles for players. It also includes payment on-ramps so players can make purchases directly within the game.

However, most interestingly, Hamster Kombat is looking to extend its presence beyond Telegram and plans to launch a persistent web app (PWA) for Android, iOS, and desktop in November. That same month, plans are also in place to bring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into the game. This will also see the “first cohort” of games by external devs launched within Hamster Kombat.

More games and additional token utility will be realized throughout the winter. By Feb. 2025, players can expect the “first competitive clan championship” to kick off on Hamster Kombat “2.0”. The Season 2 airdrop is ambiguously scheduled for spring.

Airdrop Flops

Players are feeling conned . Judging by the response online, Hamster Kombat has simultaneously pulled off the biggest airdrop in crypto history, as well as being one of the most disappointing airdrops of all time.

Many players who played for months have received just a few bucks, which is agreeably a substandard reward for their effort. That’s a tough pill to swallow, especially given that players can only access 88.75% of their airdrop allocation until mid-2025.

Making matters worse, within moments of launching on major crypto exchanges, the  HMSTR token  is already  down over 30% and trading at $0.008. Naturally, this has seen the Hamster Kombat meme’d into oblivion.

Is there a future for Hamster Kombat? Probably. But to what capacity remains unknown, as millions of players aren’t happy with the results.

Players Fall Off

As expected, the number of people playing Hamster Kombat post-airdrop has shrunk. But with the backlash against the airdrop spreading like wildfire, the Hamster Community is in mass exodus  across all social media .

Bizarrely, a verified Hamster Kombat news account on X – @DailyKombatdaily – which had amassed some 50,000 followers, has just shut its account down. It comes just 20 minutes after sharing the live countdown of the game’s declining socials.

As  Web3 experts alluded to , the risk of burning players and losing their trust with a poorly managed airdrop rollout can cause significant damage to the crypto scene.

Just as the NFT crazy saw millions become disenfranchised by half-baked projects and schemes that brought new users and fresh capital to crypto, Telegram’s tap-to-earn superstars are off to a bad start.

After drawing record numbers of players to crypto, Telegram’s tap-to-earn superstars may leave a legacy akin to the Bored Ape Yacht Club  or other NFT collections that failed to deliver on their many promises.

Trust in Tapping

Catizen, another tap-to-earn Telegram-based game, recently rolled out its first airdrop, and similarly, players were left frustrated and feeling cheated. The most contentious part of the airdrop was that the Catizen team changed the airdrop allocation/points weighting just moments before the airdrop.

Hamster Kombat followed suit and then told players that they’d had to wait 10 months following the airdrop to unlock the remaining 11.25% of their airdrop. This was the first sign that things weren’t looking great.

While it’s great that Hamster Kombat is eyeing 2025 with great hope, there’s a chance that the HMSTR airdrop has been a massive blunder. But will it stain Telegram gaming and see “tap-to-earn” relegated to a small subcategory in crypto? Probably.