Tradelands Economic Update – June 3, 2025
In May, the economy added $1.82 Billion in transactions. The market saw daily fluctuations swinging from $100 Million down to $30 Million per day. The market also saw a peak demand on May 12th before steadily decreasing to under 10% be the end of the month. This was largely driven by the lackluster interest in Premium Tokens in the second half of the month and no new items being added to the market at the same time.
In short, the data shows the market is primed for the release of new items to the game. This seems to be in line with the developer’s direction, as their note at the end of the month suggested the Summer Release was ready and would include some large updates to the game. As we saw in the past, this most likely includes a new crate release, along with the likely release of a new monthly variant to the game.
The Maius Impact
The Maius was the variant released in May and it was applied to the Gargoyle. The change had minimal cosmetic changes to the ship but provided an additional deck of guns as well as two new chaser cannons. There were two variants available from the Premium Merchant, the standard variant and the Primus variant. The only difference between the two were the choice of wood and the compliment of cannons which used a unique variant of the Wicked Cannon Conversion Kit.
Unfortunately, the Premium Merchant versions of these ships under-performed market expectations. Looking at the Market Activity Report above, we see an almost immediate slide in demand for items in May. In the past, specifically in the case of the Mars variant, these variants were able to cause noticeable shifts in player buying behavior but the Maius does not demonstrate this. Moreover, the additional items that are obtained from the Premium Merchant versions under-performed their IPO as well. The additional premium cannons that come with the Primus variant did not perform above market value either, making it a purchase of preference rather than investment.
In our own analysis, done live for the first time, we also indicated that the ROI for the ships in May seemed lower than in the past few releases. The numbers we ran seem to indicate that the developers now understand how the value of the Premium variants are calculated and have adjusted expectations to avoid a situation where they are making some variants worth more than others. The Falcon variant from April is the shining example of this.
Premium Token Stabilization
The most common question that our group gets is “What is the price of Premium Tokens?” This item has been volatile ever since the issue around duplication was resolved at the end of 2024. We have seen a steady climb towards $400 per piece ever since. However, last month, and again this month, we have noticed stabilization of the prices, and in some cases, price reduction. In May, we saw prices hover between $345 per piece and $380 per piece.
However, any prediction we make on the rise or fall of Premium Tokens will depend on the future landscape of the game. If the ship variant released in June is on par with the Mars, we will see upward momentum on prices as buyers are willing to pay more for them. On the other hand, if it is a weaker than expected variant, like we saw in May, then it’s possible we may even see Premium Token prices fall in June.
Of course, that is only one aspect of it. Any release in crates will also have an impact on Premium Tokens, even though the tokens cannot be used to purchase crates. The reason for the impact is the Premium Tokens are viewed as a type of currency, similar to Doubloons, and are traded based on their value at the time for items that are purchased with Robux.
Wyvern Resurgence
The last item to mention is the resurgence in interest with the Wyvern Blueprint. This blueprint has largely disappeared from the market in Q4 2024. There are two general reasons for this:
- The available Wyvern Blueprint were used to purchase a ship, and are therefore no longer on the market.
- Since the blueprint was crate only, the availability of new stocks were limited to the number of remaining crates on the market as well.
Part of this resurgence is trolling by players. We also saw a lot of this in the waning days of 2024 when players who didn’t actually own a blueprint were trying to inflate prices to move the market in a specific direction. The charts show there is a lot of this occurring again, and yet prices are largely remaining in their inflated position for the time being.
I wouldn’t read too much into these prices for the time being. The real thing to note is this sudden surge in interest is likely predicated on something else. It follows a similar pattern to what we saw in the past with Ghost Morphs and Heartwood, where there is a sudden surge in price and demand prior to a re-release of these items. That’s because the re-release will reset the default price of the item. If we apply that trend to what we see on the market here, it means we are likely looking at a re-release of some previously unavailable ships (the Wyvern being the one we are showcasing here) back to the community.
