The next sports format to be valued at a billion dollars will not emerge from a boardroom, it will crystallise within the creativity of Roblox’s virtual experiences. I’m convinced of it.
Roblox, a social gaming platform with 150 million daily active users who collectively play for billions of hours per month – is potentially also the world’s largest experimental sports laboratory. A Petri dish from which a new sporting idea will grow and ultimately make the leap from URL to IRL.
Traditional sports evolved over centuries. Their growth was determined by physical limitations, geography and the relatively slow spread of information, and for these reasons they have a unique set of foundations. However, in 2025 and beyond it’s my hypothesis that the next successful sporting format will follow a different trajectory – one that begins in virtual worlds, scales with near-instant global reach and grows with unlimited creative possibilities.
Let’s look at the signs that indicate the conditions from which a new sports format might grow. Some are already in place.
Creator-led platform
We know there are millions of potential players, but the sheer number of creators on Roblox – around 2.5 million – also increases the likelihood that a new sport will emerge.
They are the platform’s format innovators, but more than that they are in tune with Gen Z and A behaviours and how those 150 million daily users engage with games day in, day out. This puts them at an advantage in being able to deliver formats that are ‘sticky’ with social-gamer sports fans.
And don’t forget that many developers are themselves fans; imaginative sports creators who are unencumbered by the legacy constraints that hold back innovation in the real-world sports industry. Unlike many leaders there, Roblox creators don’t think in terms of how it’s always been done in sports – that’s a powerful trait.
Recognition and revenue
More than 60 per cent of Roblox users are over the age of 13 and millions of them have been playing on the platform for years. It’s a familiar and established social space among Gen Z and A, and it’s here to stay. It’s also worth noting that for many Roblox users still in their teens, the sports they will choose to follow and play in real life are not yet set firm.
Therein lies the opportunity for new and engaging formats to emerge.
Users love to try new types of game. In 2024 they played over 500 million hours of sports games – everything from basketball 3v3s to golf in outer space, to parkour on a bike. Experimentation with new variables in games is encouraged, and playing with others (known as ‘co-play’) underpins the algorithm. If your game is social, it will be more popular. The most successful sports games blend innovation with being social and many already incorporate leagues and mass participation events attracting millions.
What they also have is proof of revenue, which is another building block for sports formats to sustain IRL. One fan-made football game, Blue Lock: Rivals, was said to be generating hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of Robux (the platform’s virtual currency) per month at its height. The Roblox corporation itself generated $3.6 billion in revenue in 2024 with $920+ million paid out to creators. If a new game-based format were to start being played at scale in real life, the potential for commercialisation is far bigger. The financial incentive to build a popular sports IP, one that ultimately makes the leap from the digital to the real world, is already there.
Will players develop fandom for a new sport from a game?
It may seem crazy to older sports fans, but a ‘social-first’ fan revolution is underway. If you look at the shifts in how younger generations engage with sports, you begin to understand why Roblox is fertile ground for a new billion-dollar sports IP.
Because contrary to what many believe, Gen Z and A aren’t rejecting sport, they’ve simply moved on from how it has traditionally been served. They exist in an age where information, entertainment and community are available instantly and constantly. They get frustrated when sports media is controlled, gated, and ‘one-way’. Only 28 per cent of Gen Z watch live sports on broadcast compared with 47 per cent of older cohorts according to Digital Content Next, and almost half have never been to a professional sporting event.
“The most successful sport games already incorporate leagues and mass participation events attracting millions”
A generational shift
New sports audiences are digital-first. Their sports media diet is creator-led, social-first and algorithmically surfaced on TikTok, YouTube and Roblox. It isn’t passive; it’s social, immersive and participatory. At a time when it feels like traditional sports media don’t allow the fan in, Roblox does.
Despite the drop in traditional engagement, Gen Z and Alpha’s passion for competition is alive and well online. Figures from market research company Attest show that 81 per cent of Gen Z in the US spend at least an hour a day on social platforms; 50 per cent spend more than three hours.
A separate study by parental control software firm Qustodio showed that Australian children who are on Roblox use it for an average of 137 minutes a day. While some time is idle scrolling, it’s also where sport fandom lives, is being played and shared.
Look at golf. Look at GolfTok and Bryson DeChambeau’s ‘Hole-in-one over house’ challenge. Look at Good Good Golf on YouTube. Look at Super Golf! on Roblox.
Golf was not a youth-friendly sport yet it’s enjoying a revival powered by social platforms, creators and gaming. It’s proof that with the right game loop, storytelling and platform fit, any sport can find a fanbase – even an old one.
So imagine what could happen if a new sport was built from the ground up for these behaviours. Designed not for in-person attendance or TV as their primary engagement, but for Roblox players and social video watchers.
Speed as a superpower
One of Roblox’s superpowers is how quickly ideas can iterate. New sports leagues in the real world usually need years and millions of dollars to perfect formats, find or build facilities and secure media deals. On Roblox, developers build, test, refine and launch in weeks, with millions of users providing instant feedback. Successful game launches will also see thousands of game clips distributed across YouTube and TikTok. It’s a level of agility and speed that simply doesn’t exist in real life.
To me, this shows the opportunity for a generationally aligned strategy for a new sports format. One based on testing and learning, while building a community, who amplify game content and become a fanbase for whom – at some point – the pull is so great that they organise to play in physical spaces.
Are the conditions right now?
Let’s look at League of Legends. Born from gaming, LoL sold out Madison Square Garden and filled it for two nights in a row. It was never intended to pack a stadium, but it did.
Then there are two successful IRL incumbents that are taking a social-led approach: The Kings League and Baller League. Whilst they leverage platforms like YouTube well, they still require in-market infrastructure and expensive production to scale. This isn’t something that a Roblox-native format has to worry about: it would have no logistical constraints as the ‘venues’ can be adapted at little cost, the game refined at speed and global distribution is the default.
In their unique ways, League of Legends and incumbents like Baller League and Kings League walked so that a new, Roblox-first sports IP could run.
The unprecedented speed of iteration in digital environments, the built-in distribution without geographic barriers to fandom, and a generation growing up without a solid line between the virtual and physical means that the question is no longer if a billion-dollar sports format will emerge from the Roblox ecosystem, it’s when.
To date, though it’s acknowledged that Roblox sports games can act as a digital accelerant towards participation, there’s little evidence of a new format outside of the standard football, dodgeball, volleyball and golf games translating into real-life leagues.
But I’ll place my stake in the ground: a billion-dollar sports format will be born on Roblox in the next decade. And don’t be surprised if it happens sooner.
Jo Redfern is an award-winning creative strategist and founder of Futrhood Media, which specialises in helping IP owners engage younger generations across social video and gaming.
