Sports, gaming, and NFTs key drivers behind Q1 2025 growth on Flow

Messari has launched its State of Flow Q1 2025 report, highlighting Flow’s performance so far this year. Launched by Dapper Labs in 2020, Flow was one of the earliest pioneers in implementing account abstractions and UX enhancements. In Q1 2025, the consumer-facing network advanced this work, expanding its partnerships with several cross-chain bridges, including LayerZero, Axelar, and deBridge. Flow is now integrated with over 100 chains, enhancing composability and onboarding for developers. Although often overseen among the thousands of other consumer chains today, the report indicates good forward momentum for Flow, particularly in terms of its NFT ecosystem, the most active sector on the chain. Despite challenging macro market conditions, both sales and user acquisition around NFTs on Flow were up 7% QoQ in 2025. Particular brands and IP driving this momentum include NFL, NBA, Disney, Barbie, Hot Wheels, UFC, and more, all of which unlock new ROI through gamified, mobile-first fan experiences. NBA Top Shot , NFL All Day , and their IP-based NFTs are the two dominant collections. Together, these made up 80% of its $8.1 million of NFT trading volume in Q1. Notably, both NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day NFTs can also be used to compete and play in prediction competitions, challenges and tournaments. Part of Flow’s Q1 growth is also thanks to the network’s collaboration with OpenSea , which saw the NFT marketplace going live on Flow in February 2025. With this integration users are able to trade NFTs and earn XP on the platform using Flow Wallet. In March, Flow’s leading NFT collection NBA Top Shot became tradable on OpenSea, after which it was ranked in OpenSea’s top five trending collections for four weeks. In terms of games, Flow emerged into the sector in 2023, but hasn’t quite found its sweet spot yet. In line with the popularity of sports content on the network, it’s no surprise that football fantasy game Metaverse Football League ( MFL ) is the most successful game. In Q1, it generated $1 million, up 130% QoQ, in secondary-market volume across Packs and Players. Average daily active addresses on Flow also increased 144% QoQ, and daily transactions were up 10.6% from Q4 2024. Finally, the DeFi sector saw some record highs too, with Flow’s TVL hitting an all-time high of $44.4 million, led by protocols like KittyPunch and MORE Markets. These offer new investing and trading opportunities, something that widens Flow’s use case beyond NFTs. Discover more about Flow via Flow.com .