Over a million people played VR football
NFL Pro Era is the fastest-selling sports title in VR history. Google Ventures is now leading a $20 million investment in the studio.
Google Ventures is the investment arm of Alphabet and operates independently from Google. In addition to GV, many other investors participated in the Series A round, including Dream Sports, Wise Ventures, JDS Sports and Alumni Ventures. Some celebrity investors have invested into the studio again, including LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter.
The studio StatusPRO announced that the two NFL Pro Era titles have over one million users across all platforms and that they spend an average of 41 minutes per game, which is said to be more than double the industry average. NFL Pro Era is also said to be one of Meta Quest's top ten titles in terms of sales.
The venture capital will be used to develop new sports titles and improve modes, features and underlying technologies.
StatusPro is a relatively new studio. It was founded in 2020 in Los Angeles by two black former football players, Troy Jones and Andrew "Hawk" Hawkins.
The first NFL-licensed VR game, NFL Pro Era, was released in 2022, followed by NFL Pro Era II in 2023. The latter allows up to 11 players per team to compete against each other. Both games are available for all major headsets and platforms: Meta Quest, Playstation VR 2, SteamVR, and Pico.
"The investment from GV, Dream, and all other syndicates in the round, further validates the opportunity to leverage emerging technology to innovate the way fans interact with their favorite sports and define a new form of engagement that brings current and future fans closer to the game", says CEO Troy Jones.
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