Super Bowl LV had few fans in the stands, few visitors to Tampa, and few parties at home. Our brief was to demonstrate the transformational power of Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband—the fastest 5G in the world—with mobile gaming as our proof point and the Super Bowl as our occasion. We were asked to create something entertaining for football fans, hardcore gamers, and mainstream consumers alike, so we knew we needed to go big, with an activation that exceeded the scale of the Super Bowl itself.

We used Verizon’s 5G network to build Verizon 5G Stadium in Fortnite — a communal space where millions of fans could come together. Verizon 5G Stadium was inspired by the real home of Super Bowl LV, Tampa’s Raymond James stadium, and welcomed 40 million fans to celebrate the Super Bowl, play new NFL-inspired games, and meet their favorite NFL players in the virtual stadium — avatar-to-avatar.

The Super Bowl is already an exclusive event, but the pandemic brought even more limitations to the fan experience. We needed to show how social media, the right partnerships and the power of Verizon 5G could bring the ultimate Super Bowl experience to millions of fans in a year where we were unable to enjoy all the in-person magic of the Big Game. By going virtual, we could actually create a more connected and accessible Super Bowl experience for fans than ever before.

We worked with a team of the best Fortnite builders in the world to bring Verizon 5G Stadium to life. Then in the week leading up to Super Bowl LV, we partnered with a massive group of entertainment, NFL, and gaming influencers to host 2 huge primetime livestreams on Twitch, with simulcasting across all of Verizon’s social channels. We re-created live fan interactions in-game through “avatar-to-avatar” meet and greets between fans and NFL players. And America’s biggest gamers connected with 40 million fans in the stadium, making this the most attended super bowl stadium in history.

40M players witnessed the stadium in-game, 5M+ tuned into the livestreams on Twitch, 1.5M played stadium games, all resulting in Verizon being the most discussed telco during Super Bowl week, and delivering Verizon’s largest activation in their history.