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.. Saga Protocol. Saga is a new blockchain network designed primarily for gaming, so it makes sense that the way users could potentially earn a share of the airdrop was by playing games. Following “play-to-airdrop” campaigns across several games running on testnet, as well as other networks, the SAGA airdrop claim launched on March 6.. Nearly 200,000 unique wallets are eligible for the drop, with play-to-airdrop winners alongside people who staked the respective native currencies of Avalanche, Cosmos, Celestia, and Ethereum scaler Polygon in certain timeframes as detailed in the official eligibility guide. The chain has since opened up eligibility to certain NFT communities, including holders of Bored Apes and CryptoPunks.. Right now, eligible users can claim their allocations, but the Saga mainnet isn’t live yet and the token generation event has yet to happen. But a Saga rep tells Decrypt’s GG that the “event will start soon,” plus Saga has teased the debut of a mainnet trailer during the Game Developers Conference on March 19. So keep an eye out.. Notcoin. Notcoin is a gaming project that runs on messaging app Telegram, and it has racked up over 26 million players who are frantically tapping a shiny coin to mine trillions of Notcoin.. What’s the point? Well, it’s not a real crypto token yet—but Notcoin plans to mint the token on The Open Network (TON) in the next few weeks and offer tokens to players based on the virtual coins they mined in the game. Don’t ease up, though: The project has started purging Notcoins earned from inactive accounts that haven’t been used in 30 days at a rate of 5% per day.. On March 7, Notcoin launched pre-market trading for coins in large quantities, including 10 million and 100 million Notcoin. Users’ coins can be turned into NFT vouchers that can be traded and later redeemed for NOT, letting traders speculate on the potential value of the upcoming token.. BlockGames. BlockGames is the latest gaming platform to turn to Twitter (aka X) to build momentum for its token launch, akin to Portal and its own aggressive airdrop farming campaign. The mobile-centric gaming platform is incentivizing users to share and interact with BlockGames content on Twitter in an effort to earn BLOCK tokens ahead. The SocialFi campaign is hard to miss if you’re on Crypto Twitter.. Nifty Island. Launched in open beta in January, Nifty Island is a 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.. 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.. Nyan Heroes. Solana hero shooter Nyan Heroes, which features cats piloting giant mech suits, will hold an early access playtest from March 26 to April 9 via the Epic Games Store on PC—and the play-to-airdrop campaign around it is already underway.. The Overwatch-like shooter’s campaign will award “MEOW” points to users, which will eventually translate into NYAN tokens for eligible early players. Owners of Nyan Heroes NFTs will be eligible for even greater token rewards.. Upland. Long-running metaverse game Upland, which lets you buy property and play in locales based on real-world cities, is set to launch an Ethereum token tied to its in-game Sparklet coin, finally letting players take their earned value out of the game.. In the run-up to the Ethereum token launch, the EOS-based game is beginning its “Share and Build” campaign, tapping into similar strategies as Portal and BlockGames by incentivizing users to spread the word across social media.. 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.. 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.. BloodLoop. BloodLoop, an Overwatch-esque 5v5 hero shooter running on Avalanche, debuted its play-to-airdrop campaign on March 4. Over the course of three months, players will be able to test out the game and potentially earn a share of millions of BLS tokens via weekly competitions.. You’ll have to play some amount of the game, though, as BloodLoop’s Twitter account says you’ll need to complete quests on a “battle pass” to unlock airdrop eligibility. Over 100,000 players have reportedly signed up already, making this a potentially buzzy one to watch.. Shuffle. Crypto casino Shuffle is planning three airdrop waves for its SHFL token on Ethereum, in an effort to reward users from its first year of operation. The online platform, which supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other coins, kicked off the first airdrop wave on March 14. Overall, Shuffle says 28% of its token supply will go to airdrops.. Earn Alliance. Earn Alliance is a crypto game discovery platform that not only aims to turn players onto new games, but also reward them for doing so. The platform is nearing the culmination of its long-running airdrop campaign, and it rewarding users with “care packages” for connecting Steam, Epic Games Store, and other accounts.. It then pulls data on your gaming habits from those accounts and recommends more relevant crypto games to play—and effectively “pays” you for the data with care packages that will yield ALLY tokens in the future. Users can start opening up the packages on March 28, and there are “upgrade tickets” to be earned by completing quests and such in the meantime.. AI Arena. AI Arena, a game that pairs Super Smash Bros-style brawling with artificial intelligence smarts, just completed a play-to-airdrop campaign with 40 million NRN tokens up for grabs. Another 40 million tokens will be allocated for the game’s NRN prize boxes. The game challenges players to train AI combatants that fight automatically on their behalf. Following the conclusion of the latest play-to-airdrop competition wave, AI Arena’s developers are sorting through the data before the token drops.. WUFFI. The WAX blockchain has been promoting the upcoming airdrop for a “gaming meme coin” called WUFFI, albeit with the token name WUF, which will apparently start on WAX and then expand to Solana at some point.. WUF took a snapshot of eligible holders on January 31 ahead of an eventual first airdrop wave, but no timing has been confirmed for the actual drop. Numerous WAX games and apps have pledged to support the incoming token.. Edited by Ryan Ozawa.. Editor’s note: This story was originally published on December 27, 2023 and was last updated with new info on March 16.. Stay on top of crypto news, get daily updates in your inbox.. Your Email