In the wild, tomatoes sprout like that. But certainly your seedlings were way overcrowded.

Some people who start a great many tomatoes from seed sprinkle the seeds quite close together in a light seed-starting medium. But they quickly transplant them into much less crowded quarters (like one seedling per small pot or 16 oz. plastic cup). Notice how young the seedlings are in the second video:
nctomatoman's dense seed planting technique
a closer (and slower) look at transplanting

It's also possible that some of your sprouts couldn't get their roots through the tomato skin. Or -- depending what type of growing medium you used -- there could have been drainage issues or they might have died from damping-off.

Possible that way? Sure. Whether they will then grow into plants all depends on the growing conditions you give them.

As already mentioned - transplanting them into individual cells or pots, a good potting mix, some nutrients and water (sterilized compost has nothing in it), and they will grow.

It is far from the ideal method of course but with lots of care it can work.

Dave

That's why a tomato fruit has so many seeds.
A few will make it in the wild without help, most don't.

Mother nature at work.

If you did plant the whole tomato without cutting it somewhere and some seeds germinated, OK, but having planted the whole tomato without cutting it a rotting process would have started with that tomato to expose the seeds. And that rotting process of all the tomato components I'm sure would have killed any that germinated.

You can take the seeds out of a fresh tomato and without processing them plant them and they will germinate OK. But as others have said, it just isn't the best way to germinate tomato seeds and get good results by planting a whole tomato.

Carolyn

I routinely squeeze a bad tomato into a pot, spreading the mess out as best I can then cover them with a thin layer of soil. As soon as they germinate, I pick them out and transplant them into a separate pot. Seems to work.

Well, I had a nice surprise this year......I hadnt been able to find green zebras this year.....3 plants popped up.....literally out of no place....I had them planted 2 years ago and they gave me a wonderful surprise this year