Key Points
- The countdown to Ronin’s Opening has begun – In this Year-in-Review, you’ll see why the Ronin Empire is ready for a new era of expansion. Part 1 covers key metrics and compares 2024 to the previous year.
- The Ronin Empire’s Expansion – Builders who came to Ronin over the past year have already racked up notable successes including exponential growth in player bases, oversubscribed token sales, and even #1 rankings on Dapp Radar, the Apple App Store, and Google Play Store. Learn about these victories in Part 2.
- The Road Ahead: More Than a Gaming Chain – Ronin’s Opening is an evolution that calls for a new league of alliances. To prepare, we’ve aligned ourselves with builders like Binance, Coinbase, Chainlink, Dune Analytics, and more. In Part 3, you’ll see how we set the stage for a landmark 2025.
The countdown to Ronin’s Opening has begun. Soon, the blockchain that launched Axie Infinity and ignited Pixels’ meteoric rise will be permissionless. That means anyone, anywhere will be able to build on Ronin. Over the past year, we’ve been laying the foundation for this landmark event – and the stage is almost set.
In this Year-in-Review, you’ll see why the Ronin Empire is ready for a new era of expansion. Of growth. Ronin’s Roaring 2024 was just the beginning to Ronin’s Roaring 20’s. So grab a cup of coffee, lock in, and let’s talk about what’s happening:
We're gonna ship so much, you may even get tired of shipping.
— Jihoz.ron 🍚 (@Jihoz_Axie) November 29, 2023
And you'll say, 'Please, please. It's too much shipping.'
We can't take it anymore. Sky Mavis, it's too much.
And we'll say: NO IT isn't. We have to keep shipping. WE HAVE TO SHIP MOAR. pic.twitter.com/kjfamFmAeU
An evergreen tweet from Sky Mavis co-founder Jeff “Jihoz” Zirlin.
Part 1: Ronin by the Numbers
Last year, daily active addresses (DAA) peaked at 2.27M or so. That’s about 10x growth in a single year.
2024 NFT volume also surged by 134% to $71M USD compared to 2023. This was fuelled by the launch of dozens of new collections on Mavis Market.
Legions of new users also discovered Ronin over the past year. Check the chain: RON holders soared from 3M to over 18M.
In Q1 2024, both Binance and Coinbase listed RON. A June Ronin x Coinbase Learn campaign also brought hundreds of thousands of new users to our movement, and was a key driver behind the 6x increase in holder count.
The Dune Index measures onchain adoption across three key metrics: transaction fees, number of transactions, and USD transfer volume. Ronin continues to rank as a top blockchain, reaching 11th place as of January 3rd, 2025.
Why are so many users coming to Ronin, and what are they doing once they get here? To start, 17 new games became available in 2024 alone, and total NFT collections available grew by 5x in the past year. If you’re a Web3 gamer, the past year has been chock full of opportunities to play and earn. Let’s zoom into that:
Part 2: The Ronin Empire’s Expansion
2024 has been a year of new alliances – from Fableborne and Lumiterra to Forgotten Runiverse and beyond. These strategic partnerships introduced fresh experiences to our community and heralded Ronin’s Opening in 2025. Many of these games are also straight-up fun to play.
Top Web3 Games that Migrated to Ronin
At the dawn of 2024, there were a handful of playable games available on Ronin. Over the past year, more high-quality games began to appear.
- Pixels DAU peaked above 1.3M, and even received a feature in the New York Times.
- Lumiterra’s NFT collection hit over $1.65M in NFT volume volume across CBT 1 and 2
- Forgotten Runiverse logged over 1.4M hours played and ranked #1 RPG on DappRadar after a two-week open beta test (OBT)
- Fableborne even won Best Mobile Game at the GAM3S.GG Awards! There’s a reason so many gamers call Ronin home.
Ronin Forge: Trailblazers for Open Ronin
Ronin Forge launched as an early access program for Web3 game studios in June of 2024. Builders received a small grant, light-touch support, and a direct portal to the Ronin community. We accepted seven teams out of countless applications, and welcomed a new wave of Web3 gaming communities to our movement as a result. However, this was more than a series of new alliances.
The success of Ronin Forge games like Cambria is proof that Ronin is a great place to build. If teams have the ability to execute, they can capture massive market share by launching on or migrating to Ronin. The Ronin Effect is evolving. Real users are here, and Ronin’s infrastructure just works.
Successful Gaming Token Launches on Ronin
• In February, Pixels launched $PIXEL on Ronin. Binance listed the token, and other exchanges from KuCoin to OKX did the same. The $PIXEL market cap grew to an all-time high of $695M USD.
• In March, Apeiron hosted the first public token sale on Ronin – powered by Impossible Finance’s Token Launchpad. Users staked over $74M USD in wRON.
• In December, Wild Forest hosted a public sale for the $WF token and there are over 34,000 $WF holders today.
• Again in December, Kaidro launched $KDR and Bitmart listed the token. Daily trading volume has gone as high as $21M USD.
Part 3: The Road Ahead — Gaming, Then Everything
In January of last year, we proclaimed that Ronin was the fastest-growing blockchain in the world. Key words: last year. Today, Ronin is ready to onboard builders beyond gaming – and that journey has already begun. Dune Dashboards are LIVE. Chainlink CCIP supports bridging to Ronin. More consumer dApps will soon be available once our allies at Community Gaming launch Forkast in Q1 2025. We’re in the midst of a metamorphosis. A transformation. Ronin is becoming more than a gaming chain.
Ronin’s Opening is an evolution that calls for a new league of alliances and stronger security than ever. That’s why community validators voted to integrate Chainlink CCIP as the canonical cross-chain infrastructure on Ronin. Chainlink will soon power all bridge functions on Ronin, which introduces the highest standard of bridge security and performance to Ronin. Today, lanes between Ethereum and Ronin as well as Base and Ronin are LIVE – and more lanes to more chains are coming soon.
We’ve laid a secure foundation for a thriving, permissionless ecosystem. Improved developer tools. More diverse dApps. Stronger security. Imagine an ecosystem with connections between games, consumer dApps, DeFi, and even AI Agents. That’s where Ronin is headed.
Easier and More Secure Onboarding
Onboarding is a common barrier to entry for new Web3 users, and we built Ronin Waypoint to solve that problem. Ronin Waypoint is a universal account and seedless wallet for the Ronin ecosystem – powered by secure MPC technology. Login without seed phrases or extensions, manage onchain assets, and make gas-sponsored in-game transactions across supported games without approval pop-ups. You can even buy crypto with fiat from your Ronin Waypoint account through our partners MoonPay, Transak, Ramp Network, or OnMeta.
What else is cooking for 2025?
Next year, keep an eye out for Forkast’s Q1 launch. This will mark the first consumer dApp in our ecosystem, and there will be tons of opportunities to earn rewards along the way. The Ronin Wallet is also beta testing a bounty feature where users will be able to earn rewards by completing quests with their Ronin Wallet. Stay tuned for more details!
Final Thoughts
2024 was a year of building and foundation-setting. Many Ronin games hit all-time highs and some even won awards. Industry leaders from Coinbase to Chainlink have started to deepen their roots in our ecosystem, and they’re just getting started. These victories push our entire industry forward, and set the stage for a landmark 2025. Ronin’s Opening is almost here. Soon, builders from around the world and every corner of crypto will be able to join our movement. Will you be ready when they get here?
