Ronin PoD Season 3: Axie and Craft World lead RON builder payouts

Ronin wrapped Proof of Distribution (PoD) Season 3, paying 163 registered builders from an algorithmic score of onchain app activity. Trade coverage dated August 13, 2026 puts Axie Infinity and Craft World at the top of a top-heavy RON board, with Ragnarok Landverse America in third. For players, that board is a live activity map of which Ronin titles moved gas, NFTs, and DEX volume this month, not a personal claim page.

Background

PoD is Ronin's monthly builder-reward loop: studios and apps earn RON when their contracts generate scored activity, instead of the older passive staking-emission path. RON is also the gas token on Ronin. Scores pull from Dune data that weigh gas usage, user activity, retention, NFT volume, DEX liquidity, and smart-contract execution.

Web3Raider covered the early PoD seasons in Ronin Honor Score and Proof of Distribution. This article follows that July piece with the Season 3 leaderboard wrap only.

What happened

Season 3 closes (August 13, 2026 coverage)

Printhereum⁠ (opens in new tab) and matching write-ups on BlockchainGamerBiz⁠ (opens in new tab) and EGamers⁠ (opens in new tab) report that Season 3 paid 163 builders.

Reported top of the board:

The same reports say the five highest-ranked apps took a commanding share of a pool of more than 236,000 RON (framed as more than $11,800 at coverage-time conversion). Treat the dollar figures as dated press conversions, not a live FX quote.

Mid-board catalog titles

Beyond the podium, Printhereum⁠ (opens in new tab) places:

• Pixels around #7 (~1.4M contract calls, ~21,055 RON, score 141.0), held back by weak snapshot growth despite solid DEX activity.
• Wild Forest ~#14, Chicken Saga ~#15, and Fableborne ~#16, with mid-tier scores tied mainly to NFT transaction volume.

Most of the RON stayed near the top

The same coverage says scores fell sharply after about rank 20. From rank 23 to 35, many apps took the same small share for little more than baseline gas, with little or no DEX or NFT trading in the score. Press framing for Season 04 tells builders to push multi-channel engagement, retention, and trading volume, not contract calls alone.

Who it affects

Players

You still do not claim PoD RON as an individual. Studios do. Practical use of Season 3 data:

1. Treat the public PoD board as a ranked list of apps that moved real activity this month.
2. Cross-check catalog titles you already follow (Axie Infinity: Origins, Craft World, Pixels, Wild Forest, Chicken Saga, Fableborne) against mid-board ranks before you assume a quiet feed means a quiet chain month.
3. Use the board as a discovery map, then open the game page for networks, docs, and socials before you grind or trade on hype alone.

Collectors

NFT volume is an explicit PoD input. Higher mid-board ranks for titles with busy item markets are a signal about trading throughput, not floor prices. Do not buy assets because a studio ranked well.

Builders on Ronin

Register for PoD, watch Sybil review windows between seasons, and plan Season 04 around retention and marketplace depth if you want a larger share. Follow Ronin docs⁠ (opens in new tab) and the Ronin blog⁠ (opens in new tab) for official season parameters when Ronin publishes them.

At a glance

On Web3Raider

Closest pages:

• Ronin platform
• Ronin network
• Blockchain hub: /blockchain
• Games hub: /games
• Related titles: Axie Infinity: Origins, Craft World, Pixels

What to watch next

• Official Ronin Season 3 / Season 04 posts and the live PoD leaderboard
• Whether mid-board NFT-heavy titles keep climbing without DEX depth
• Ronin blog⁠ (opens in new tab), Ronin docs⁠ (opens in new tab), Ronin on X⁠ (opens in new tab)

Bottom line: Read Season 3 as a ranked activity report for Ronin builders. Use it to see which catalog games moved gas and NFTs this month, then wait for official Season 04 parameters before assuming the same weights repeat.