From time to time airdrops continue to be launched by various platform developers who will launch the altcoins they own. Maybe you have just entered this forum for a while so you say that this year is different from previous years. because in my experience every time the airdrop is launched and there is no difference between this year and last year.
I think what differentiates this year from previous years is that there were many successful and viral airdrop projects this year. You can see examples such as JUP, NOT, or MANTA which give $100 to $1000 to each participant. This is a little different compared to previous years where most airdrops ended in failure and successful airdrops only gave a few dollars to their participants.