Telegram Ads in Web3 Gaming & GameFi: 2026 Research Report
Deep analysis of Web3 gaming advertising on Telegram: Axie Infinity, Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, The Sandbox, Pixels, and more — creative arc, geographic concentration, and regulatory context.
Why Web3 Gaming Dominates Telegram Advertising#
Web3 gaming has generated more Telegram sponsored ad creatives than almost any other crypto vertical. The reasons are structural: Telegram's user base skews toward Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East — exactly the regions where play-to-earn (P2E) economics are most compelling. A player in the Philippines or Vietnam can earn a meaningful income from a well-designed P2E game during a bull market, and Telegram is the community infrastructure those players use daily.
Between 2021 and 2026, Telegram Ads Spy has indexed over 130 creatives across the top Web3 gaming platforms. The vertical shows a distinct creative arc — from aggressive income promises in 2021 through asset-ownership positioning in 2022–2023, to Telegram-native tap-to-earn mechanics in 2024, and finally toward "real game with real economy" messaging in 2025–2026.
This report documents that arc using primary ad creative data from the Telegram Ads Spy archive, with platform-by-platform breakdowns and geographic concentration analysis.
Telegram-Native Gaming: Notcoin, Hamster Kombat and the Tap-to-Earn Wave#
The most significant development in Web3 gaming advertising on Telegram was the emergence of Telegram-native games — applications built entirely inside Telegram's mini-app infrastructure, requiring no wallet setup, no token purchase, and no friction to start.
Notcoin (NOT) generated approximately 25 creatives in the Telegram Ads Spy archive, concentrated heavily in Q1–Q2 2024. The creative hook was blunt: tap a coin inside Telegram, accumulate NOT tokens, convert to real money when NOT lists on Binance. The $NOT listing on Binance in May 2024 drove a massive advertising spike — Telegram Ads Spy observed a near-tripling of Notcoin ad volume in the two weeks surrounding the listing. Creative aggressiveness: 9/10. Copy examples ranged from "tap now, withdraw later" to direct APY-style return claims.
Hamster Kombat (HMSTR) followed the Notcoin playbook and scaled it further. With approximately 20 creatives indexed, Hamster Kombat became the largest Telegram-native game by user count in 2024, reportedly reaching hundreds of millions of players. The HMSTR token listing drove a second major advertising wave. Creative pattern: viral social proof ("everyone in crypto is playing"), urgency mechanics ("limited time to earn before listing"), and Telegram-specific CTA ("tap to open game right now").
The tap-to-earn wave demonstrated that Telegram's sponsored ad network is uniquely suited to gaming products that live inside Telegram itself — the friction between ad click and game engagement is near zero.
Play-to-Earn Pioneers: The Axie Infinity Arc#
Axie Infinity is the canonical play-to-earn case study, and Telegram Ads Spy's ~30 creatives capture its full arc across four phases:
Phase 1: Peak (2021). Creatives targeted the Philippines and Vietnam almost exclusively. Copy promised specific income figures — "$500/month playing Axie" was not unusual. Sky Mavis, the Vietnamese developer, had created a genuine economic ecosystem in which scholars (players without capital) borrowed Axies from managers and split SLP token earnings. The scholarship model drove enormous community growth on Telegram.
Phase 2: Collapse (2022). SLP token inflation and the broader crypto bear market destroyed the P2E income model. Axie advertising volume on Telegram dropped sharply. The few remaining creatives shifted tone — away from income claims toward "building the future of gaming."
Phase 3: Rebuild (2023). Axie Origins launched as a redesigned game with improved gameplay. Advertising returned with AXS staking narratives — "earn AXS by competing, stake for passive yield." Creative aggressiveness dropped from 8/10 to 5/10 as Sky Mavis adopted more conservative messaging.
Phase 4: Reference Brand (2024–2026). Axie Infinity is now the reference P2E brand — cited in competitor ads, used in comparison pieces, and still advertising on Telegram at lower volume but higher brand sophistication. The lesson absorbed: sustainable tokenomics outperform hyperinflationary scholarship models.
Metaverse & Land: The Sandbox and Decentraland#
The Sandbox (~20 creatives) represents the metaverse land investment angle. Creative hooks centered on LAND NFT scarcity ("only 166,464 LANDs will ever exist"), celebrity partnerships (Snoop Dogg, Adidas, Gucci, The Walking Dead), and SAND token utility within the virtual world. Advertising peaked in late 2021 through early 2022 during the metaverse hype cycle.
The Sandbox's creative strategy was notably less aggressive (6/10) than Axie Infinity — positioning was investment/ownership rather than income generation. Copy emphasized "build your business in the metaverse" and "own a piece of the virtual economy" over direct return claims. This reflected The Sandbox's corporate partnership model and its higher-income, Western-skewing target audience.
Decentraland appeared in the archive at lower volume, focusing on virtual events, gallery openings, and branded experiences. Creative tone was cultural rather than financial.
AAA-Quality Challengers: Illuvium and Gods Unchained#
Illuvium (~8 creatives) deployed a distinctive positioning angle: "this is a real game, not click-to-earn." Trailers and creative assets emphasized Unreal Engine 5 graphics, creature-capture gameplay, and a complete economic ecosystem across multiple game modes. The ILV token was positioned as the economic layer beneath a game people would play regardless of token price. Creative aggressiveness: 6/10.
Gods Unchained (~10 creatives) pioneered the "own your cards" narrative that distinguishes Web3 card games from Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering Arena. Built on Immutable X (now Immutable zkEVM), Gods Unchained offered free-to-play access with truly owned NFT cards that could be traded on secondary markets. Creative copy specifically called out "Hearthstone players: your cards belong to you now." Advertising was concentrated among English-speaking audiences and existing card game players.
Pixels: Casual Web3 Gaming on Ronin#
Pixels (~15 creatives) represents a significant 2024 category: casual Web3 gaming accessible to mainstream players. Built on the Ronin blockchain (the same infrastructure as Axie Infinity), Pixels is a farming/crafting game with Stardew Valley aesthetics. Creative aggressiveness: 7/10.
The advertising strategy was explicitly "casual first, crypto second" — creatives led with game screenshots and farming mechanics, with token/blockchain details appearing only in the fine print or secondary copy. This reflects an industry-wide shift toward hiding crypto complexity from potential players who would otherwise be deterred.
Creative Arc: From "Earn $500/Month" to "Real Games"#
The five-year creative evolution in Web3 gaming advertising maps to distinct market phases:
2021 — Income Claims. "Play Axie Infinity, earn $500/month." Direct income figures, scholarship narratives, poverty-escape framing for Southeast Asian markets. Extremely aggressive (8–9/10). Largely unsustainable.
2022–2023 — Asset Ownership. Post-crash pivot: "own your in-game assets," "your items have real value," "trade what you earn." Income claims dropped; NFT ownership positioning rose. Aggressiveness fell to 5–6/10.
2024 — Tap-to-Earn (Telegram-Native). Notcoin and Hamster Kombat created a new category with near-zero friction. "Tap in Telegram, earn on Binance." Aggressiveness spiked to 9/10 for listing-adjacent campaigns. Geographic targeting broadened to global.
2025–2026 — Real Games. Illuvium, cross-chain gaming platforms, and rebuilt P2E games emphasize gameplay quality. "Real game, real economy." Aggressiveness moderate (5–7/10). Audience increasingly includes mainstream gamers not primarily motivated by income.
Geographic Concentration#
Web3 gaming advertising shows the strongest geographic concentration of any crypto vertical in the Telegram Ads Spy archive:
| Region | Key Platforms | Primary Languages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philippines | Axie Infinity, Pixels | Tagalog, English | Scholarship model origin; "Axie scholars" still active community |
| Vietnam | Axie Infinity, Sky Mavis | Vietnamese, English | Sky Mavis HQ; developer + player base |
| Indonesia | Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, P2E broadly | Indonesian, English | Large Telegram gaming community; mobile-first |
| Turkey | Notcoin, Hamster Kombat | Turkish | High inflation economy → P2E income attractive |
| Nigeria | P2E broadly, tap-to-earn | English | Growing Web3 gaming community; remittance parallel |
Philippine and Vietnamese creatives from 2021 were the most income-specific of any geography in the archive — reflecting genuine economic conditions where P2E earnings represented significant income multiples relative to local wages.
Regulatory Context#
Web3 gaming occupies a relatively favorable regulatory position compared to other crypto verticals. Game mechanics themselves are generally not regulated as securities. However, several jurisdictions have scrutinized the token layer:
P2E tokens as securities. The SEC and equivalent bodies in some jurisdictions have questioned whether P2E tokens — particularly those with explicit income-generation mechanics — constitute investment contracts under securities law. Axie's SLP and AXS tokens have been subjects of regulatory inquiry. Most projects have responded by emphasizing gameplay utility over investment return.
NFT classification. In-game NFTs (Axie creatures, LAND parcels, Gods Unchained cards) sit in legal grey zones in most jurisdictions. Some regulatory frameworks distinguish between NFTs with gameplay utility and those purely held for appreciation.
Tap-to-earn mechanics. Notcoin and Hamster Kombat's listing-adjacent advertising raised questions in some jurisdictions about whether "accumulate tokens before listing" constitutes an unregistered securities offering. No major enforcement actions had resulted by the date of this report.
Overall risk profile for Web3 gaming advertising: medium-low compared to DeFi, CEX, or prediction markets. The game framing provides regulatory distance from pure financial instruments.
Top Advertisers by Creative Volume#
| Platform | Estimated Creatives | Creative Aggressiveness | Primary Angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axie Infinity | ~30 | 7/10 | P2E income → asset ownership arc |
| Notcoin/NOT | ~25 | 9/10 | Telegram-native tap-to-earn, Binance listing |
| The Sandbox | ~20 | 6/10 | Metaverse land, SAND token, celebrity partners |
| Hamster Kombat | ~20 | 8/10 | Tap-to-earn successor, HMSTR listing |
| Pixels (Ronin) | ~15 | 7/10 | Casual farming game, Web3-lite positioning |
| Gods Unchained | ~10 | 5/10 | "Own your cards," free-to-play |
| Illuvium | ~8 | 6/10 | AAA graphics, real game, ILV token |
What Researchers Can Use This Data For#
The Telegram Ads Spy Web3 gaming dataset supports several research applications:
- Advertising trend analysis: Track how P2E income claims evolved post-crash. Compare creative aggressiveness before and after major token listings.
- Geographic market entry research: Identify which platforms made region-specific creative investments (Tagalog copy = Philippines-first strategy).
- Competitive intelligence: Compare creative volumes and aggressiveness scores across competing platforms during the same market phases.
- Regulatory research: Map advertising claims to regulatory inquiry timelines. Which claims disappeared after SEC attention?
- Academic research on crypto marketing: Primary source data for studies on speculative investment marketing, income-claim regulation, and platform-specific advertising ecosystems.
Live data is accessible via /api/v1/ads?vertical=web3-gaming.
How to Cite#
Telegram Ads Spy research (2026). Telegram Ads in Web3 Gaming & GameFi: 2026 Research Report. tgadsspy.com. https://tgadsspy.com/blog/telegram-ads-web3-gaming-gamefi-2026
Methodology#
Data sourced from the Telegram Ads Spy archive of Telegram sponsored ad creatives collected via the gramesh API (/channels.getSponsored). Creative counts are estimates based on deduplication by random_id and text_hash. Aggressiveness scores (1–10) reflect the degree of income-specific claims, urgency mechanics, and regulatory proximity in observed creative copy. Geographic concentration based on observed language targeting and channel category data.
Archive updated continuously. This report reflects the state of the archive as of April 2026.
Related Reports#
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Cite this article
tgadsspy research (2026). Telegram Ads in Web3 Gaming & GameFi: 2026 Research Report. tgadsspy.com. Retrieved from https://tgadsspy.com/blog/telegram-ads-web3-gaming-gamefi-2026
Licensed CC-BY-4.0 — reuse allowed including commercial, attribution required.
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