Image Credit: Roblox

UK rock duo Royal Blood will play virtual gig as avatars at Roblox’s in-game awards show.

Online gaming platform Roblox has announced that UK rock duo Royal Blood will play a virtual concert during the 2021 Bloxy Awards. It’ll be the debut live performance of Royal Blood’s new single “Limbo”, along with a performance of two other songs.

What’s the Bloxy Awards, you ask? It’s Roblox’s celebration of the platform’s community of creators and players. Anyone can attend, travelling through “four distinct environments on a voyage across the Roblox Metaverse.” Royal Blood’s performance will come at the midpoint, in a space-themed virtual venue. Players will be transported from the awards room to the venue via in-world shuttles.

Royal Blood’s concert, produced in collaboration with Warner Records, ties into the Roblox’s dream for expanding its Metaverse, a universe of interlinked virtual worlds, taking inspiration from films like Ready Player One. There’s big viewership to be found for artists playing at Roblox’s music experiences – Lil Nas X’s virtual concert in November 2020 attracted 33 million views over two days and four shows.

It’s also part of Roblox’s strategy to expand audiences on the platform. Roblox started out life as a children’s gaming platform, and booking Royal Blood is a step towards securing an older audience. Music events on the platform often feature virtual merchandise, along with Q&A’s, quizzes and games, giving artists and record labels a fun way to engage with fans remotely.

Jon Vlassopulos, Vice President and Global Head of Music for Roblox, said: “The creativity of the Roblox community powers the experiences on our platform, and the social connections players make while sharing these experiences are deeply enriched by music. We’re thrilled to host Royal Blood as we celebrate the talent of our creators with the greater Roblox community in this immersive, out-of-this-world Metaverse experience.”

The 8th Bloxy Awards will take place on 27 March at 12pm PDT, and the show will replay every hour until 6 April. With the viewing figures at this year’s Grammy’s showing a continued downward trend, perhaps virtual awards ceremonies with avatars are the way forward. Last year the Bloxy Awards attracted a peak viewership of 600,000.