Engagement has the currency of the realm in sports, and gaming has long provided a path for teams, leagues and sanctioning bodies to find fans who not only interact with what’s on the field but also what’s on the screen. But increasingly, everyone is chasing a new currency: Community.
For years, EA Sports’ FIFA series was how the soccer body decided to engage gamers and get those not already attending and watching matches or buying merch to do so. Nowadays, its video game platform of choice is Roblox and Gamefam’s FIFA Super Soccer (it was Super League Soccer before a branding change in December). Thanks to Roblox’s ubiquity, you can play it on just about any machine that plays games (consoles, PCs, smartphones, tablets ... heck, like Doom, I wouldn’t be surprised if it someday played on my fridge).
Chris Volk, FIFA’s director of gaming and esports, told me earlier this week amid the World Cup that the turn to Roblox a few years ago was about engaging with a different sort of player than those picking up EA’s game every year — they were seeking the next generation of fans. And those youngsters were increasingly turning to Roblox over console platforms, and playing with their friends in ways they hadn’t before.
“We estimate at roughly 1.8 or 2 billion gamers to the football affinity. So that naturally brings us to the questions. Where do they sit? What kinds of games do they play? And the answer is basically everything from hyper casual to triple-A and everything in between,” Volk said.
So, how did FIFA land on Roblox?
“There was one kind of vertical that was very important for us to understand. What’s the size of the opportunity for us as FIFA, but also for us as a football organization, how can we help our constituents, the member associations, to lean in and also get in front of this audience?” Volk said.
The second point: “Sports fandom usually forms between the ages of 8 and 12. I think the sweet spot is around 11. That’s a very important data point for us.”
And why soccer may have the biggest fandom of any sport around the globe, Volk said FIFA didn’t want to take that for granted. It wanted to help foster it. And where were kids spending their time? With over 160 million daily active users, it was Roblox.
Another aspect of FIFA’s gaming strategy that goes hand-in-hand with Roblox? Ditching the walled garden of publisher exclusivity. Yes, FIFA Soccer might have been on multiple console platforms, but with EA locking down the naming rights, it meant the soccer body couldn’t work with others on games.
“We’re finding the right partners, such as Gamefam in this case, and the right platforms, like Roblox in this case, for this specific cohort. We will measure the performance and see what works and what doesn’t work,” Volk said.
It’s been working with Gamefam and FIFA Super Soccer. It has over 1.1 billion gameplay sessions since its 2023 launch, averaging 1.5 million sessions a day ahead of the World Cup (stats since the tournament kicked off still need a little time to bake).
And the stat FIFA may dig the most: 74% of FIFA Super Soccer players 11-13 are footy fans.
“The latest number was around 68% of players said they definitely or probably will watch the FIFA World Cup. So that’s huge, right?” Volk said.
Some are even playing together while watching World Cup matches.
“Ultimately, Roblox has become more than gaming. It has become community,” Gamefam Chief Business Officer Ricardo Briceno said. “What you go and do in Roblox and in FIFA Super Soccer is play the game, but it is different in that you play the game with your friends. You play as yourself with other people on your team. It’s very much a social and community experience.”
Community, after all, is now the currency of the realm.