A casual mobile game, Bitcoin Miner, that allows players to earn satoshis (the smallest denomination of bitcoin) in partnership with Zebedee has this week ventured north of 1 million downloads! So, what is it, how can you play, and why is this yet more evidence of casual gaming?
This week has seen a lot of discussions about mobile and casual gaming in Web3. Just yesterday, I discussed Jungle’s seed round and their strategy of hoovering up mobile games to integrate blockchain into. It’s a topic I have discussed regularly in the past few years, and an excerpt from my 2022 article about Burn Ghost Games is relevant here:
You might scoff at casual games. Boomers tending pixel crops or word puzzles on Facebook, for instance. Well, to scoff would be a mistake. We love to talk about onboarding in Web3, but when it comes to the games industry, there were two catalytic events that onboarded so many new “gamers” that now over one-third of the world’s population play games. The first was mobile gaming and the second was casual gaming. Us traditional gamers have recoiled in disgust at both, yet here we are, mobile gaming having more players than all other platforms combined and casual gaming capturing demographics thought to be uncapturable.
— Burn Ghost Raises $3.1M: Why Casual Gaming Is Crucial to Web3
This then led to an interesting conversation just a few weeks ago with Burn Ghost CEO, Steve Curran on episode 57 of the Mint One podcast. Here’s a brief clip of that discussion with Steve:
Will casual games be vital to Web3 adoption? 👀 @TokenGamerNews thinks they will!
Watch the full episode of @Mint1Pod here: https://t.co/Jcd72gmBPw pic.twitter.com/905037v0AD
— NFT Insider (@NFTInsider_io) March 10, 2023
The takeaway is that casual games and mobile games — and casual games are often mobile-based — are a fantastic way to onboard users into Web3. One game is now unrivaled proof of that: Bitcoin Miner.
What Is Bitcoin Miner: Idle Tycoon?
Bitcoin Miner: Idle Tycoon by Fumb Games is a simple but addictive “Play-and-Earn” mobile game where users earn satoshis by playing. These satoshis can be redeemed directly to the game’s partnered wallet, Zebedee, a Web3 gaming platform and toolset that allows developers to integrate earning mechanics in their games. This isn’t the first time we’ve covered Zebedee; I wrote an article back in January about a chess app that allowed you to earn satoshis by playing.
Bitcoin Miner has just hit a milestone that both they and Zebedee ought to be proud of: over 1 million downloads across iOS and Android. I would love to know how many BTC has been paid out in total!
It really is that easy 😏 pic.twitter.com/lC0PA3AnmV
— Bitcoin Miner ⛏ (@BTCMinerApp) January 25, 2023
Bitcoin Miner is a blend of a standard P2E clicker, an idle game where you log in periodically for maintenance, and something in the tycoon genre. The truth is, with over 1 million downloads, Bitcoin Miner is unambiguously one of the most successful P2E games on the market.
To play Bitcoin Miner on iOS or Android, or to join the Fumb Games Discord, click here.
Lead image by Shubham’s Web3 on Unsplash
