Frequently asked questions

Most running apps track your run and hand you a chart. Run on Realms turns running into a game you actually want to come back to: every run claims real territory on a live map of your city, you defend your realms from rivals, capture zones, and compete with your squad. If you want more than pace and distance — a reason to lace up today — it is the best running app for you.

Strava and Nike Run Club are excellent run trackers. Run on Realms adds a layer they do not have: territory. You do not just log a run — the ground you cover becomes a realm you own, defend and can lose to rivals. It is the difference between recording your run and playing for your city. Plenty of runners use a tracker and Run on Realms side by side. (Strava and Nike Run Club are trademarks of their respective owners; Run on Realms is not affiliated with them.)

We are launching in India first, but Run on Realms is built for runners everywhere — the game works on any street, in any city, anywhere in the world. The map is wherever you run. Join the waitlist to help bring it to your city next.

Runners who are bored of staring at pace charts, anyone who runs better with friends or a bit of competition, and people building a running habit who need a reason to run today. From first-timers to city-record chasers, the game scales to you.

Tracking apps were the last generation — they record where you ran and show you a chart. Run on Realms is the next generation: a live, competitive map where your runs claim and defend real territory, your squad locks down neighbourhoods together, and your whole city has a running leaderboard that actually matters. It turns a solo stat-logging activity into a connected, ongoing game.

Motivation is the hardest part of running, and charts do not fix it — games do. By making every run claim something real (territory, rank, bragging rights), Run on Realms gives you a reason to run today, not just a record of yesterday. We believe the future of running apps is play, not just tracking.

Yes — the game runs on real-world map data, so it works on any street, in any city, anywhere on Earth. We open cities in waves (starting in India and expanding outward), so join the waitlist to fast-track yours. The map is wherever you run.

A gamified running app turns each run into a game instead of just a stats chart. On Run on Realms, every run claims real territory on a live map of your city — you claim realms, capture zones, run with a squad, and climb leaderboards. Your city becomes the game board.

Yes. Run a complete loop around any area — a park, a block, your route — and the ground inside becomes your realm. Separately, every hex zone your GPS path passes through gets captured and filled with your colour. Run more, own more of the map.

You claim realms and you capture zones. A realm is a named territory you take by running a loop around it, then defend (and can lose to rivals). A zone is one hexagon on a city-wide grid that you capture simply by running through it. Realms are depth and defence; zones are breadth and exploration.

In spirit, yes — it is a real-world territory game played by running. But instead of catching creatures or moving pieces, your actual GPS runs claim and defend real streets. Out-run rivals to take their turf; rally your squad to hold yours.

Realms decay over time and rivals can out-run you to take them. Keep running your realm — alone or with your squad — to hold the top of its leaderboard. Possession is always earned, never permanent.

Yes — that is the heart of it. Form a squad, see your friends’ live GPS during a run (even on different routes), send live cheers, share run summaries in squad chat, and climb shared squad leaderboards together.

Yes. Ghost racing lets you race your past-best run or another runner’s ghost, pace-matched and overlaid on the map, so you always have someone to chase.

Every realm has its own leaderboard, plus squad rankings, city leaderboards, and city-vs-city challenges. Your rank becomes a real resume in your local running scene.

We use a Kalman filter to smooth noisy urban GPS for high accuracy, plus dead-reckoning that predicts your motion when the signal drops — under a flyover, in basement parking, between high-rises — so your loop closes and your run completes without a missing kilometre.

No — it uses far less battery than you might expect. We profiled every power path so you can track long runs without your phone dying.

GPS tracking works without a data connection — your run records locally and syncs to your squad and leaderboards once you are back online. Territory and stats are never lost to a dropped connection.

Yes. Your run’s start and end points are coarsened before storage, so your home address is never exposed — to anyone, including us. Data is encrypted, we never sell it, and we use no advertising or cross-site tracking.

Yes — we comply with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 from day one, including its cross-border rules. Data is hosted on encrypted servers in Singapore (co-located for low India latency). See our Privacy Policy for details.

Safety is a priority — coarsened location, private-by-default home area, and clear safety guidance. See our Runner Safety page for the full pre-run checklist, in-run awareness tips, and emergency guidance.

Yes — the free tier covers what most runners need: GPS tracking, claiming realms, capturing zones, squads, streaks and city leaderboards. Premium unlocks competitive depth.

Premium unlocks creating and customising your own realms, advanced analytics, ghost racing, unlimited squads, the full city heatmap and premium share cards. Founding runners get early Premium access at launch — final pricing will be announced at launch.

Run on Realms rewards you with territory, XP, levels, streaks and badges — not cash. Referrals can earn you free Premium time, but the core game is about owning your city, not payouts.

We are in closed beta with our founding squad across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar — with new cities joining weekly.

We are targeting a public iOS and Android launch in the next couple of months — the exact date will be announced soon. Join the waitlist to be first to know and to get early access before launch.

Absolutely. The free tier is beginner-friendly, and turning runs into a game (territory, streaks, squad cheers) is one of the most effective ways to build a running habit when motivation is hard.

Join the waitlist at runonrealms.com/waitlist. Founding access has been cut from 9,999 to just 999 runners — they get early access, early Premium features at launch, and a permanent Founding Runner badge that can never be earned again.