Published on: 03/02/2023

NFL to hold first-ever virtual Super Bowl concert on Roblox next week

The NFL will hold the first-ever virtual Super Bowl concert on the metaverse platform Roblox on February 10.

Roblox users can freely watch the concert in Rhythm City — a musical, social experience developed on the metaverse platform by Warner Music Group. Hip-hop star Saweetie will perform in the virtual concert.

“I’m really excited to bring this iconic moment to the metaverse and share my music with a whole new audience in such a unique way,” Saweetie said.

This concert is a part of a welcoming celebration for Super Bowl Sunday. After the initial launch, the organizer will replay the concert 31 times every hour until D-day.

Software company Intuit sponsored and developed the concert in collaboration with game developer Gamefam, the co-developer of Rhythm City. The two companies also helped the NFL design NFL Super Tycoon, which will launch on February 11.

NFL Super Tycoon is a Roblox experience where players can experience being an NFL team owner. There, players perform various tasks, including managing taxes, payroll and team cash flow. They will use Intuit’s products to do their job.

NFL vice president of video gaming Ed Kiang said the upcoming virtual concert would be “an anchor entertainment event bringing fans together in the metaverse.” Over recent years, the NFL has been pushing for an immersive sports experience for fans.

Last August, the organization launched NFL All Day — an NFT collectible platform built on the Flow network — a collaborative effort with Dapper Labs. The NFT collection has so far generated more than $70 million in sales.

The NFL also offered NFT ticket stubs for more than 100 games in partnership with the ticketing platform TicketMaster in the regular season. Users can mint those NFTs on Flow.

Roblox as a marketing platform

Although some people are still wary about Roblox and the metaverse sector in general, many brands have launched their own content on the platform.

Fashion retailer H&M recently launched the Lootopia Experience on Roblox, allowing players to gather materials to tailor unique garments for their avatars. They can also participate in in-game fashion shows to showcase their sense of style to other players.

Chipotle has also tapped into the Roblox metaverse to create a virtual experience of working in a Mexican-style restaurant. There is a Burrito Builder game where players gather ingredients to create a bowl of burritos and serve customers.

Roblox is not built on Web3, meaning it does not offer blockchain-based techs like NFTs and decentralized tokens. Its mechanism emphasizes user-generated content (UGC) in a closed environment, which tech analysts have dubbed “proto-metaverse.”

The platform differs from metaverse platforms built on Web3, like The Sandbox and Decentraland, which have interoperability and offer various blockchain features.

Despite its lack of crypto offerings, Roblox is still one of the most popular metaverse platforms, particularly among the youth. The platform reported a total of 57.8 million daily users last September, a significantly larger number than Decentraland’s 10,000 active users.

Although Web3 is supposed to be integral to the metaverse, experts said the implementation still hit several roadblocks. Most users have complained about slow performance and overall poor user experience when accessing the metaverse on a blockchain network.

Animoca CEO Robby Yung said it would take a decade or more for Web3 to be seamlessly integrated into the metaverse.

Regardless of the difficulty of achieving Web3 integration, users will find more economic value in using the technology when blockchain use in the metaverse becomes more widespread. Platforms can reduce their fees to give users a more affordable metaverse experience.