The activation will be tied to the NFL’s in-game commercial, airing Sunday on NBC and within Roblox

Just in time for the Super Bowl, the NFL is looking to make a splash with younger viewers by bringing the franchise into Roblox.

The league announced today the start of NFL Tycoon, a game on the Roblox platform where users will be able to build and play in their own NFL-centered world. Players will get to be “team owners” running their franchises by building stadiums and filling out teams, and playing against each other to rise on the leaderboard. The NFL will be the first major sports league to have a persistent experience on Roblox.

The NFL is the latest brand to be drawn to Roblox for the platform’s popularity and resonance with younger consumers. Vans, Ralph Lauren, Forever21, and many others (https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/whats-next-roblox-brand-partnerships-metaverse/2397146) have invested in persistent Roblox worlds, and were impressed with the reach and engagement they saw.

For the NFL, connecting with young gamers could be a way to connect with a subset of current NFL fans, as well as boost viewership as those gamers get older. In 2021, the league’s regular-season games averaged 17.1 million viewers across TV and digital platforms—its highest regular-season ratings in six years, the league announced in January (https://adage.com/article/media/nfl-viewership-rises-10-close-games-bring-fans-back/2392766).

“We see Roblox as an extension of NFL’s real-life engagement platforms for emerging social connectivity where fans can learn the game and business side of NFL football,” Joe Ruggiero, the NFL’s senior VP of consumer products, said in a statement. "This is a new frontier of how fan engagement will evolve for the League, and we are excited to be a part of this dynamic space that will continuously evolve over time with new experiences.”

NFL Tycoon, as a persistent experience, extends beyond Super Bowl Sunday. Throughout the year, the game will host virtual live events and activations that coincide with the NFL calendar. The first will be “Destruction House,” a mini-game within NFL Tycoon, done in collaboration with metaverse development studio Melon.

The Destruction House was inspired by the NFL’s own pre-Halftime Show Super Bowl commercial, which will air on TV and in Roblox on Sunday. Roblox players will be able to compete against each other to destroy an everyday neighborhood house, allowing them to unlock and purchase new and limited-edition virtual goods based on the Big Game.