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 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.
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.
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
