Why the US Open is building a tennis metaverse inside Roblox

As the US Open comes to a conclusion, the tennis tournament is teaming up with other major tennis events to keep the excitement rolling inside Roblox. It’s a demonstration of the power of gaming — and the metaverse — to build bridges across intellectual properties and their fandom.

At this year’s US Open, the United States Tennis Association opened the first-ever dedicated gaming space inside New York City’s Billie Jean King Tennis Center, giving visitors the chance to play a smorgasbord of tennis video games including the official US Open Fortnite and Roblox experiences. During the official “fan week” prior to the start of the tournament, over 1,200 people passed through the space on a daily basis, according to USTA senior director of digital strategy Brian Ryerson.

“We realize, when it comes to Gen Z and even younger folks, sports fandom is changing,” Ryerson said. “They engage with sports in a very different way, and they want to be a little bit more hands-on in that engagement, and video games just translates that so well.”

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