Verizon’s Virtual Gridiron was the first-ever virtual reality sports game that lets fans play head-to-head against an opponent in real time.

Players took control of defense or offense for three downs. After choosing a play pulled from NFL playbooks, they experienced the action from the first-person perspective of players on the field. From the huddle to the end zone, fans got an inside view of an NFL game that only players had seen until now.

Beyond all this, a select few fans had the chance to challenge some of the NFL’s biggest stars on our virtual field.

Virtual Gridiron was filmed with former NFL and college players at the University of Phoenix Stadium. The plays, uniforms and snap-counts were authentic. Four types of 360-degree cameras, including the first Skycam used for VR, generated never-before-seen views.

Virtual Gridiron was the highlight of Verizon’s space at Super Bowl LIVE. It featured four pairs of stations, each with an oversized helmet equipped with speakers, a VR headset and a rumble-plate base.

We proved Virtual Gridiron’s authenticity and upped the excitement by having select fans play against NFL stars, including Odell Beckham Jr. and JJ Watt, and shared it on Facebook Live.

At Super Bowl LIVE, 5,817 consumers interacted with the game and played over 87 hours of live activation, and 5,612 of those consumers played head-to-head.

Our livestreams of NFL players playing the game against fans and each other had 140,000+ views and made ~3.6 million impressions through their social media distribution on Verizon channel.