Game On: The Hottest Upcoming Gaming Token Airdrops

UPDATED: Gaming airdrops are heating up, with Nifty Island, Nyan Heroes, and Apeiron revealing plans after the buzzy XAI token launch.

Airdrop season is in full swing, with apps, protocols, and other projects seizing upon signs of an impending bear market 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.
When it comes to blockchain networks and tokens primed specifically for gaming, there are some pretty compelling airdrops on the horizon in the months ahead. Here’s a look at what’s coming for gamers—there may still be time to get involved and score some tokens ahead.

Xai

Xai is a “layer-3” gaming network built on Arbitrum, itself a layer-2 Ethereum scaling network, and it just launched its first airdrop wave on January 9. The drop was originally planned for December 27, but then was delayed into early January.

Xai Gaming Token Surges 35% as Airdrop Value Hits $140 Million

The Xai gaming network on Ethereum scaler Arbitrum launched its initial airdrop last week, serving up some 125 million XAI tokens for early users and supporters. Over the weekend and into early Monday, the token spiked to new heights, boosting the value of said airdrop for those who held or have newly claimed the tokens. XAI is up 35% over the last 24 hours alone, hitting a new all-time high price of $1.12 as of this writing, per data from CoinGecko. The token debuted last week at a price of about.

Created in collaboration with Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs, the Xai network dropped its first XAI tokens to owners of certain NFT projects, along with Sentry node operators that purchased a Sentry Key. Ultimately, some $70 million worth of tokens were handed out in this initial wave, with the collective value spiking as high as $151 million the following week as XAI buzz grew. More rewards are expected in a future "Season 2" airdrop. Eligible users can claim their XAI now.

Pixels

Pixels, currently the buzziest game on Axie Infinity's Ronin sidechain for Ethereum, has officially revealed its airdrop plans. The retro-style online role-playing game is using a "play-to-airdrop" approach, with founder Luke Barwikowski writing that the game will benefit players who finish "challenging tasks" or "contribute to the ecosystem’s growth" in other as-yet-unspecified ways.
NFT Revolution

PIXEL Token Launch 'Very Close' as Pixels Game Sets Play-to-Airdrop End

Pixels, a popular web-based farming and social game that uses Ethereum sidechain network Ronin, announced that it will end its Play-to-Airdrop 2.0 campaign on Friday, setting the stage for the long-awaited PIXEL token launch and distribution to players. The Play-to-Airdrop 2.0 initiative, which lets players climb the in-game leaderboard for a chance to earn PIXEL tokens, will finish tomorrow, January 19 at 3 p.m. ET, the developers announced Wednesday. In a livestream, Pixels founder Luke Barwik.

The top 7,000 players on the leaderboard as of 3pm ET on January 19 will qualify for tokens, following a check to clear out any bots that manipulated the airdrop. Another 1,000 random players who met a certain points threshold. Another 20,000 players from an earlier play-to-airdrop wave are also eligible. Barikowski said in a January 17 livestream that the PIXEL token launch is "very close" and that there will not be another play-to-airdrop season before then.

Portal

Portal is undoubtedly one of the buzziest airdrops on the horizon, though it has also been controversial. The multi-chain gaming token, designed to bridge the gap between Web3 games across various blockchains, has incentivized crypto users to earn credit towards the airdrop by creating, sharing, and interacting with Twitter content—which they’ve done en masse.

Portal Airdrop Set for January as Gaming Token Nears Launch

Portal is moving to bridge the gap between crypto games and blockchain networks with a single token and platform. And now we know when its token is set to be airdropped. The Portal airdrop will take place in January, the project’s official Twitter account announced Monday, with the current Crystal Dash airdrop farming game set to conclude then. At that point, users can “convert their shards into airdrop” and claim Portal tokens. Launched in late November, Crystal Dash is a promotional campaign.

As obnoxious as that can be, there’s still a lot of hype around what Portal is building. Much of the team comes from the Overlord and Creepz NFT team at SuperDuper, they’ve recruited a Rockstar Games co-founder and other advisors, and have lined up allies like major talent agency WME and NFT marketplace Magic Eden.
Portal says the airdrop is coming in January 2024 following a recent presale period and the launch of the latest version of its Crystal Dash airdrop farming experience.

Saga Protocol

Saga is a new blockchain network designed primarily for gaming, so it makes sense that the way to potentially earn a share of the upcoming airdrop is by playing games. In December, Saga launched a “play-to-airdrop” campaign across several games running on testnet, with the top leaderboard finishers set to earn a share of SAGA tokens.

Saga Airdrop Coming Ahead of Blockchain Launch—Here’s Who Is Eligible

Saga—an upcoming blockchain protocol that allows developers to launch their own “chainlets”—has revealed who will be eligible for the planned public airdrop of its SAGA token. Not to be confused with the Solana Saga phone, Saga is a gaming-focused crypto tech firm that's about to launch its own mainnet. Saga cofounder Jin Kwon shared in a post that while “snapshots” have already been taken to determine most of the general public’s eligibility, aspiring genesis airdrop recipients will be able too.

In fact, Saga CEO Rebecca Liao told Decrypt’s GG that some players might ultimately earn “double airdrops,” since games may also launch their own tokens and award them to early users. The Saga mainnet is set to go live in spring 2024, with more competitions set to take place in the coming months.
Saga has also revealed that some users on Polygon, Avalanche, Cosmos, and Celestia will also be eligible to claim tokens in the airdrop. Furthermore, Saga is launching a "Three Kingdoms" play-to-airdrop campaign across games on Solana, Polygon, and Avalanche, including heavy hitters like Parallel, Shrapnel, and Gas Hero.

Saga Expands Airdrop Rewards to Solana, Polygon, and Avalanche Games

Saga, an upcoming gaming-centric layer-1 blockchain network, announced this week that it will offer play-to-airdrop rewards in partnership with games that are running on other major blockchains, including Solana, Avalanche, and Ethereum scaling network Polygon. The “Three Kingdoms” play-to-airdrop campaign offers the ability for players of games on those three networks to potentially claim a share of the upcoming SAGA token launch, which is planned for this spring. Saga co-founder and CEO Rebecc.

Nifty Island

Launched in open beta on January 17, Nifty Island is a new sandbox-style game that mashes up the feel of Animal Crossing, Roblox, and Fortnite's Creative mode, letting you customize your own island and play with other users. And it offers a play-to-airdrop campaign with many different ways to potentially earn ISLAND tokens.

'Nifty Island' Is Already Better Than Most NFT Sandbox Games

Tired of voxel-style crypto games? Want a sandbox game that pays homage to your favorite NFTs—and lets you build your own custom island for free? Enter Nifty Island. Nifty Island has already made a splash among crypto gaming fans, many of whom are incentivized to check out the game because of its promised future airdrop where gamers could, basically, get free money in the form of tokens. But airdrops aside, Nifty Island is actually a good game given its current beta state, living up to my expect.

According to a tweet thread, Nifty Island will award users points based on factors like how much they play, how many players they refer into the game, and which other NFT assets they own in connected wallets. It's unclear when the token drop will happen, but people are flooding in to get a potential share of the ISLAND launch ahead.

1/ The Nifty Island Open Beta is up and running & Play-to-Airdrop is underway! 🪂
Here are more details on P2A, collector tiers & more! pic.twitter.com/P9u3wghn7f
— Nifty Island 🏝 (@Nifty_Island) January 18, 2024

Nyan Heroes

Solana hero shooter Nyan Heroes, which features cats piloting giant mech suits, is set to launch its early access version in February and debut a play-to-airdrop campaign alongside it. Details are still to come, but the Overwatch-like shooter—which is listed in the Epic Games Store—will award NYN tokens to early players. Owners of Nyan Heroes NFTs will be eligible for even greater token rewards.

Solana Shooter ‘Nyan Heroes’ Reveals NYN Airdrop Plans

Just days after launching on the Epic Games Store, Solana-based hero shooter Nyan Heroes has revealed plans to launch a “play-to-airdrop” campaign around its early access game release, giving players the ability to earn token rewards as the game rolls out. Nyan Heroes plans to launch an early access playtest in February amid an airdrop campaign that will reward players with NYN, the game’s native ecosystem token. The early access test will be released as a free-to-play PC game and apparently ear.

Apeiron

Along with Pixels, here's another game running on Axie Infinity's Ronin chain that's doing an airdrop campaign. Apeiron is billed as a glossy mash-up of classic god games (like Populous) and card-battling "roguelite" experiences, delivering an experience that's sure to require careful strategy.
NFT Revolution

‘Apeiron’ God Game Begins Airdrop Rewards on Ethereum Scaler Ronin

Ethereum gaming network Ronin has been buzzing in recent months thanks to the rise of Pixels, along with announcements around Axie Infinity. Now, one of the newest games to launch on the sidechain aims to pull in players with an airdrop campaign. Apeiron, an original NFT game—billed as a hybrid of the “god game” genre and “roguelite” games with card-battling elements—launched its “play-to-airdrop” campaign on Tuesday, offering players in-game incentives that can lead to earning ANIMA tokens.

In January, Apeiron revealed a play-to-airdrop campaign that will reward players of the Epic Games Store battle demo with points towards the future ANIMA token drop, along with incentives for completing other actions or owning certain NFTs. Click here for more details.

Mixmob

Solana gaming platform Mixmob plans to launch an airdrop for its MXM token following the rollout of Racer 1, a card-based mobile racing game on iOS and Android. MixMob CEO Simon Vieira told Decrypt that it will airdrop tokens to active community members and players who utilize the game's racing, referral, staking, and wagering features. MixBot NFTs owners will also be included.
NFT Revolution

Solana's MixMob Launches 'Race-to-Earn' Game Ahead of Airdrop, Saga Phone Perks

Crypto gaming startup MixMob has released its first Solana-based game, Racer 1, a card-driven strategic racing experience where players can bet on matches or play and earn tokens for winning races. The launch comes ahead of plans by MixMob to airdrop tokens to the community. Racer 1 is a “race-to-earn” game where players can also choose to stake (or lock up) their MXM tokens, according to the game’s litepaper. The game is playable on iOS and Android devices, as well via desktop web browsers and.

No timeline has been set for the airdrop as of this writing, but Mixmob also plans to offer an exclusive airdrop for Solana Saga phone owners, including exclusive tournaments and other perks for those users.

Notcoin

Here's a potential upcoming airdrop that has yet to be 100% confirmed. Notcoin is a gaming project that runs on messaging app Telegram, and claims that it has racked up over 5 million users in just over a week. Those users have frantically mashed a button to collectively "mine" over 1 trillion Notcoin, as of this writing.

Trillions of 'Notcoin' Farmed in Telegram Meme Coin Game—But There's a Catch

What makes a game a game? For some, it’s playable characters and quests. For others, it’s cards. And for crypto traders, it can be as simple as a clickable button that lets you “collect” an untradeable, unreleased meme coin to climb an internet leaderboard—and potentially reap future rewards. Notcoin is a meme coin that, for now, is just an idea. It may be minted on the TON blockchain in the future, but for now the project is more of an internet marketing plot than a real cryptocurrency. Notcoin.

Well, sort of. Here's the thing: Notcoin isn't a real cryptocurrency yet. But the TON Foundation, which oversees the network that Notcoin is building on, says the team is planning a token launch. That's a pretty good sign that some sort of airdrop is in the works for early users, though no official criteria has been set as of this writing.