Telegram-based game Hamster Kombat’s airdrop announcement caused an avalanche of interest in the game. The Associated Press, one of the world’s largest news agencies, even covered the issue. “Iranians play Hamster Kombat every minute of the day. Taxi drivers even see waiting at a red light as an opportunity to play the game.”

Iranian admiral: This is a Western trap

The Hamster Kombat game has become so big that a senior Iranian military officer has commented on it to the state news agency IRNA. Habibollah Seyyari, a military officer with the rank of Rear Admiral, described the game as a trap set by the West, saying:

“Iran will hold presidential elections in a few days. The West wants to distract Iranians and influence the presidential election with such moves. This is like a war without cannons or rifles…”

Iran’s state-owned JameJam newspaper also criticized the game, saying, “They want to make people believe the lie that they can get rich overnight. There are those who believe that they can get something without working.”

Iran will hold elections on Friday to replace President Reisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

200 million users surpassed

Hamster Kombat developers announced on Monday that the game has been played by more than 200 million Telegram users. On June 14, the figure was around 150 million. Given that Telegram has more than 900 million users worldwide, that’s almost 1 in 4 of the entire Telegram user base.

Hamster Kombat’s announcement channel reaches 45 million members, ranking first in this sense. The second most populous Telegram group is TapSwap, another “click-to-win” game, with 24 million members.