NBA 2K isn’t just a basketball video game, it’s a platform for gamers, hoopers and tastemakers to come together and create what’s next in culture. For NBA 2K20, we created a campaign rooted in the notion of the “next.” Every beat of the campaign was meant to push either the category, the game or the culture forward. Including, the annual ratings release. Every summer, NBA 2K shares a list of that year’s player ratings via social media. Last summer, we wanted to turn what’s traditionally just a tweet, into a moment in basketball culture. So, we wrote a full-on ratings release show and streamed it live on Twitter. Sixty minutes of rating reveals, insightful interviews with 2K insiders, special super star guest drop ins and social engagement opportunities for viewers during every segment.

Every summer, NBA 2K tweets a list of player ratings. For NBA 2K20, we took it to the next level by turning that tweet into a moment in culture with a 60-min live show that trended #1 on Twitter.

How do you generate excitement year after year for a game launch with no major development updates? Amplify the most beloved recurring aspects of the game, so that fans can have a deeper experience with them. Through social listening we identified that the release of the "player ratings" was generating a ton of talk value around the game and even the NBA. 2k ratings had become a proxy for a player's real-world value. This insight revealed an even bigger one. 2k was at the epicenter of the biggest age-old question and passion filled debate in sports - who's the best, who's the goat, who is better than who? And with this, we knew we were sitting on something big.

We wrote a full-on ratings release show and streamed it live on Twitter. Sixty minutes of rating reveals, insightful interviews with 2K insiders, special super star guest drop ins and social engagement opportunities for viewers during every segment.

With 48K concurrent viewers and over 825K total views, #2KRatings trended #1 in the U.S. and #2 in the world.