Hamster Kombat’s Layer-2 (L2) blockchain initially surged ahead of Solana in terms of transactions per second (TPS), only to now face a significant decrease in activity.
Within just two weeks of its debut, the Hamster Network has witnessed a staggering 99.9% drop in transaction volume, sparking concerns about its future sustainability.
Initially introduced in February 2025, the Hamster Network aimed to establish itself as a blockchain tailored for gaming, supporting decentralized applications (dApps) and games within its unique “Hamsterverse” gaming ecosystem.
In early March, BeInCrypto highlighted the Hamster Kombat L2 network achieving a record-high TPS of 34,021, surpassing Solana's metrics by 3.5 times.
The network announced its achievement proudly, stating, “34,028 TPS achieved by Hamster Network! That’s 3.5x faster than Solana! Big things are coming!" Hamster Kombat further teased an accelerator program for developers to build decentralized applications, promising an escape from high gas fees and scalability challenges.
Yet, as of March 13, the L2 scaling solution has dropped drastically to processing a mere 0.84 TPS and managing just 52,516 transactions in the previous 24 hours, a sharp contrast to its peak performance of almost 150 million transactions during its launch.
Moreover, not only has user activity declined significantly, evident through waning engagement in its clicker-style gameplay, but the number of monthly players has also dipped from 11.5 million to 10.3 million in a span of two weeks, showcasing a remarkable loss of 1.2 million users. Daily new account creations have also notably decreased, indicating a diminishing appeal.
Experts in the industry speculate that the network's initial success might have been primarily driven by excitement around its crypto airdrops rather than sustained interest in the blockchain's features. The struggle to retain players post-initial incentives is a common challenge faced by play-to-earn and tap-to-earn games, and it seems Hamster Kombat is similarly afflicted.
The recent downturn closely follows the conclusion of the “GameDev Heroes Combo,” an recurring in-game event with player rewards, emphasizing the drop in user activity without such incentives, casting doubts on the platform's long-term retention capability.
Despite these setbacks, the Hamster Kombat team affirms that their L2 network is still in its early stages and will undergo additional stress tests to gauge its full potential. Yet, the substantial decline in transaction volume and player engagement underscores the volatility of blockchain gaming projects.
Uncertainty looms over their ability to reinvigorate the blockchain's initial momentum and whether developers and gamers will persist in finding value in the platform.
As of the latest updates, the price of Hamster Kombat's native token, HMSTR, stands at $0.002144, exhibiting a nearly 4% decline over the past 24 hours, as per CoinGecko data.