The Telegram tap-to-earn craze finished last year ice-cold, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a new game racking millions of players on the messaging platform as 2025 got underway.
Zoo has drawn in over 16 million players in a matter of weeks, based on Telegram’s own app data, and it delivers a super-streamlined riff on Microsoft’s classic Zoo Tycoon franchise—albeit with a crypto twist in the form of an impending token airdrop.
Will this be the game that thaws out the Telegram gaming market? I’m not yet convinced, but here’s why I’ve been plugging away at Zoo for weeks.
Zoo tasks you with… well, building your zoo. You’re given an empty map with multiple types of terrain and zero animals, but tap an empty space, and you can buy an animal enclosure and start attracting visitors to your upstart park.
Doing so will earn in-game Zoo tokens, which the developers say will translate 1:1 to on-chain ZOO tokens in the airdrop.
And then it’s rinse and repeat.
'Zoo' Tips Guide: How to Earn the Most Tokens Ahead of the Telegram Game Airdrop
Zoo is the buzzy new Telegram game that promises players a share of an upcoming airdrop—simply for jumping in a few times a day and building up their own zoo with as many animals as possible. It’s a slightly different concept to the many tap-to-earn games we have seen over the last year, but just like them, it’s all about maximizing your efficiency to get the biggest airdrop allocation possible. When you first open Zoo, you are met with an empty field and are tasked with turning it into a thrivi...
Zoo is a dead-simple resource management game where you can earn a small amount of Animal Feed (in-game currency) daily by logging in and completing simple tasks—like the riddle and rebus puzzles or animal-themed personal quizzes—and then spend it to buy new enclosures, upgrade them for greater earnings, and feed your furry friends.
It’s repetitive, no doubt, and the need to log in every couple of hours to feed your pets to keep the airdrop earnings going can be annoying. Also, the developers have been pushing expensive new animals that you’d probably have to spend real crypto (Toncoin or TON) or Telegram’s Stars currency to purchase, which will surely skew the airdrop allocations.
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At the start of 2024, the first Telegram tap-to-earn game was a curiosity—an enigma. By the end of the year, the success of Notcoin had spawned a mini-industry that had drawn substantial demand. And yet, as quickly as Telegram gaming came, it also went, and it increasingly feels like its moment has passed. When Notcoin launched back in January, we barely knew what to make of it. Why were people incessantly tapping a coin within a messaging app on their phones? Would there be a real on-chain toke...
On the other hand, I’m optimistic that Zoo might bulk up its too-simple gameplay or at least lean further into its embrace of crypto memes and weirdness. Including the iconic Doge and Pepe as zoo animals is a fun touch, and I’d love to see more of that in future updates.
Is there a reason for such optimism, however?
Zoo said it will end its mining phase on January 31, meaning any progress made after that point won’t play into the airdrop. That’s a quick cycle, even for a crypto game, with Zoo only just having launched in December.
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Airdrop season is in full swing, with apps, protocols, and other projects seizing upon bear market vibes and regulatory shifts to finally drop their tokens—and potentially reward millions of crypto users in the process. What exactly is an airdrop, though? When it comes to crypto tokens, an airdrop is typically a way for a project to reward its early users and contributors by giving them a share of a newly launched token, all while spreading the tokens far and wide for decentralized governance. W...
On the other hand, perhaps it will always be just this: A lightweight engagement machine that will pay off with an airdrop of ZOO tokens in a few weeks and then spin its wheels, attempting to keep players paying attention while the token price dwindles.
Telegram game airdrops haven’t paid off particularly well for players in recent months, but who knows? Maybe Zoo has stumbled on the winning formula. Maybe not.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
