The Open Ronin Evolution
Ronin, the leading gaming chain in crypto, just opened its network to permissionless building. The move means anyone can now launch anything—not just games or NFT apps—on the chain.
1/ The Golden Age of Ronin Starts NOW!
— Ronin (@Ronin_Network) February 12, 2025
We have just submitted a transaction to break down the allowlist for deploying contracts on Ronin.
From this moment forward, Ronin is open.
Here’s what this grand opening means for our movement 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/Wmr3Pimaqb
Why it matters
- Launched in 2021 by Axie Infinity creators Sky Mavis, Ronin has become home to a growing number of non-Axie franchises and boasts impressive stats, like 1.7 million monthly active addresses and +$4 billion in all-time NFT volume.
- Ronin notched these activity levels while it was still in a curated, permissioned state. Now that the network is open to all builders, the Ronin ecosystem just became that much more attractive for developers of all stripes (AI, DeFi, etc.), and it's poised for a new wave of growth and experiments accordingly.
- Also worth noting is that this move is the first of two major evolutions for the Ronin ecosystem, with the second being the upcoming mainnet launch of the Ronin zkEVM, which will allow Ronin projects to release their own bespoke Layer 2 networks.
Top Ronin games to explore
With Ronin going permissionless, it's an interesting time to dive into some of the top titles on the chain. There are lots of options to choose from, so you can gravitate toward whatever suits your tastes.
I'd recommend some starting points like...
- 🏆 Axie Origins — The flagship Axie Infinity game, which you can play for free upon downloading and receiving your first starter Axies
- ⚔️ Cambria — A Runescape-inspired massively multiplayer online game (MMO) where you can win onchain stakes via PvP battles
- 🧭 Fableborne — A free-to-play mobile game with strategy and role-playing game (RPG) elements
- 🧝 Forgotten Runiverse — A free-to-play fantasy MMORPG by the creators of the Forgotten Runes Wizard's Cult, slated for a Q1 2025 early access launch
- 🐲 Kuroro Beasts — A team building out a trio of games atop Ronin, i.e. Kuroro Brawls, Kuroro Ranch, and Kuroro Wilds
- 🧱 Lumiterra — An open-world, multiplayer survival crafting game where players farm, battle, and collect mysterious creatures
- 🌴 Nifty Island — The multiplayer gaming platform is currently working on integrating its Play-to-Earn rewards system with Ronin
- 🏴☠️ Pirate Nation — The onchain pirate RPG is preparing to rollout free-to-play support for Ronin players
- 🌾 Pixels — The most popular title on Ronin, this is an open-world and free-to-play farming game
- 🏀 Rumble Kong League — A 3-on-3 basketball mobile game
The big picture
Cambria migrated to Ronin from Blast, Kuroro Beasts migrated from Arbitrum, Fableborne migrated from Avalanche, etc. Look for more titles to make similar leaps over in the coming months now that the network is wide open.
These moves make a lot of sense, seeing as how Ronin has great user retention stats, better even than top chains like Base and Solana. As 1kx partner Peter Pan recently put it, "Ronin users are the highest quality and highest retaining in crypto."
As more projects migrate over then and new native titles launch permissionlessly, it's no stretch to assume that there could be 100-200 games live on Ronin at this point next year.
But that's not all that's on the way, either. Now that any project can deploy on Ronin, it seems likely that the passionate Ronin user base can propel the network to becoming one of the biggest contenders in the consumer crypto arena with new non-gaming apps around DeFi, DePin, and beyond.