On Christmas Day, Warner Bros. will debut its highly anticipated sequel, “Wonder Woman: 1984.” Audiences, however, didn’t have to wait for the film to stream on HBO Max or visit a theater to experience the heroine's DC Comics world. As part of its marketing strategy, Warner Bros. turned to popular video game platform Roblox to create an entire universe for the platform’s 36.2 million daily active gamers.
In June, Warner Bros. and DC created “Wonder Woman: The Themyscira Experience” on Roblox as a way for viewers to explore Diana Prince’s Amazonian homeland while playing minigames, winning badges and dressing up avatars with virtual gear and clothes inspired by the movie. Since the delay of the film’s release, the experience has been updated with more minigames and a greeting to gamers from Wonder Woman herself: Gal Gadot.
The results are promising: The experience has had more than 18 million visits from new and returning users, with millions of virtual items won by players, according to public Roblox stats.
Themyscira is one of the more elaborate branded experiences on the platform as brands seek to reach consumers where they are: immersed in social-driven video game worlds, a trend enhanced by the pandemic keeping people home and on their smartphones. From concerts to scavenger hunts, brands across categories have been experimenting with launching virtual experiences on Roblox, garnering millions of views with each effort.
In November, Lil Nas X became the first major artist to use Roblox for a fully virtual concert. The event from Columbia Records brought in 33 million views following four performances, compared to the 45.8 million viewers Fornite saw last April with its Travis Scott concert. Also in November, Roblox had its first book launch party with Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player Two,” his sequel to the bestseller “Ready Player One.” The author partnered with the platform to create a treasure hunt and virtual Q-and-A. In total, the event brought in more than 20 million views. A month before, Atlantic Records hosted an album launch party with performances for pop artist Ava Max that had 2.5 million visits.