Top TON & Telegram ‘Tap-to-Earn’ Game Banana Hits 5 Million Users In 3 Weeks

The incredibly additive “tap-to-earn” Telegram Mini-Game Banana has hit yet another milestone on its meteorite rise to cult-like status. Just three weeks after its launch, it has grown its user-base to more than five million players, cementing its status as one of the fastest-growing games on the TON blockchain. 

The game, backed by CARV, creator of a modular data layer for AI and gaming, has become one of the TON blockchain’s biggest success stories yet, entering the Telegram Mini-App ecosystem with a bang when it gained one million users just 72 hours after its launch. Already, Banana counts more than a million daily-active users, with 1.4 million connected social media accounts. All told, its players have completed a staggering 45 million in-game tasks, underscoring the immense enthusiasm for its addictive gameplay. 

The Banana game is yet another example of the popularity of the “tap-to-earn” game genre that’s taking the TON and Telegram ecosystems by storm. The highly simplistic game is fully integrated with the Telegram messenger app and built on the TON blockchain, which enables the tokenization of in-game assets. 

The gameplay involves the player collecting bananas, each one of which is an NFT, with unique attributes and rarity levels. By repeatedly tapping on each banana, players can collect PEELs, which is the game’s native cryptocurrency token. Later, they can trade their PEELs for rewards including points (which make them eligible for a future airdrop) and USDT rewards. 

Players will likely come across dozens of regular “yellow bananas”, but now and again they may get lucky and come across something that’s much rarer, such as “gold” and “holographic” bananas that deliver much greater rewards. 

The CARV protocol is central to Banana’s appeal, providing a novel data layer that gives players unprecedented data sovereignty, meaning they have full control over their in-game data. Furthermore, CARV also gives players the ability to monetize this data, meaning further opportunities to share in the value generated by their in-game activity. 

Banana’s success follows in the footsteps of other incredibly popular tap-to-earn games on Telegram and TON, including Hamster Kombat and Notcoin, which have attracted hundreds of millions of users between them. While Banana still has some way to go before it reaches their level, its incredible growth to date suggests it has the addictive and appealing characteristics required to ultimately hit such heights. 

The other takeaway from Banana’s rapid growth is that it further enhances TON’s status as one of the most important blockchains for gaming. So-called GameFi has become one of the most important segments in the blockchain industry, enabling players to earn real value from their gaming efforts and own their in-game assets. TON’s unique status, namely its tight integration with Telegram, has resulted in it becoming one of the most popular gaming blockchains. The relationship means TON has an easy way to onboard Telegram’s user base of almost one billion people globally. 

CARV Chief Growth Officer Leo Li said today’s milestone is significant, not only because it shows the success of the Banana game, but also because it’s a sign that CARV itself is helping to usher in a new “data era” that’s empowering the future of gaming and AI. 

“Reaching 5 million users proves the power of incentive-aligned games on TON,” he explained. “The rise of games like Banana demonstrates the immense potential when you combine Telegram’s vast user base with incentive-aligned gameplay.” 

Looking forward, Li not only hopes to see Banana grow to the level of Hamster Kombat and Notcoin, but it also wants to step up its involvement with the wider TON blockchain ecosystem. 

“The success of Banana is just the beginning,” he said. “We’re excited to continue pushing the boundaries of combining engaging gameplay with user-centric data.”