At the heart of every WWE live event and broadcast experience is the interaction between fans and the Superstars they love – and love to hate... The passion and energy each fan brings with them into the arena elevates every WWE show to a level that hasn’t been able to be replicated through a screen – until now. The fans fuel the action in the WWE ring, which in turn further drives their engagement and excitement, both in the arena and for home viewers.

With COVID-19 causing the shutdown of live events all over the world, WWE continued to be the only sports and entertainment property to produce ongoing, weekly live events, without fans in attendance. The challenge for WWE was being able to continue delivering the same unparalleled live arena experience to fans.

Understanding the need to continue innovating and breaking new ground during these extraordinary times — WWE created WWE ThunderDome, a live arena for 1,000 virtual fans at any given time, including an enhanced set design and advanced proprietary technology.

Featuring VIRTUAL SEAT technology – an ultra-low-latency, cloud-based, interactive audio and video streaming platform that brought thousands of fans back into the WWE arena in real time, at the same time – WWE ThunderDome delivered WWE’s live arena experiences to fans during the COVID-19 pandemic from the comfort of their home.

WWE ThunderDome is a first-of-its-kind large-scale interactive live platform which audiences had never seen or experienced before. Fans were not only able to see the action, they were able to experience it, becoming a part of the show and interacting live with WWE’s Superstars – as if they were there in person – because they were there in person.

Nothing beats the raw energy of a WWE live show. The passion and excitement fans bring into the arena is palpable. It’s the core of the WWE brand experience and the fuel that powers every event. The fans inspire their favorite WWE Superstars and the WWE Superstars inspire the fans.

WWE experimented with new ways to add more energy into live TV programming, looking to innovate the fan experience. The solution was WWE ThunderDome, which recreated the in-arena atmosphere and energetic experience that is synonymous with WWE. Through Virtual Seat, an immersive real-time, multi-user streaming platform developed by WWE and their technology partner, 1,000 passionate fans were brought back into the arena — the largest application of the technology in the world – together with pyrotechnics and other visual innovations not able to be utilized with live audiences.

WWE ThunderDome features a state-of-the-art set, video boards, pyrotechnics, lasers, cutting-edge graphics and drone cameras to provide viewers with a reimagined live event spectacle.

The Virtual Seat system uses proprietary real-time data compression technology to minimize the bandwidth required to send and receive 1,000 simultaneous two-way video streams, delivering an ultra-low latency user experience with unparalleled control, moderation, scalability and customization of content. Being web-based, fans don’t need to download any software, so they could use any web-enabled device, anywhere in the world, with a broadband internet connection.

With that low latency critical to delivering the experience, the entire system was exhaustively tested to optimize both web-based video transport and on-premise media server systems, eliminating all possible points of processing overhead, bringing latency down to just milliseconds.

Audience management capability also allows up to 5,000 participants per show, with a VIP room providing access to celebrities and partners.

Fans from all around the world have enjoyed what WWE ThunderDome has to offer, with more than half a million from 226 countries and territories registered to date.

In addition to premier pay-per-view events, more than 70 primetime episodes have been filmed live in WWE ThunderDome and it has been used for TV specials honoring US servicemen and women and their families and a special two-hour event for WWE partners in India.

The launch of WWE ThunderDome not only halted declining ratings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has grown viewership of flagship programming by 9%.

In 2020, WWE continued to produce live content in new ways, successfully increasing audience interaction and engagement, adapting its business to the changing media environment, and delivering record revenue and profit for the year.