Roblox is a game that has been around for almost two decades, although it only caught fire — like a lot of other forgotten games — during the COVID-19 lockdown era. While it has built a niche market and fanbase for itself, living in the shadow of its more famous cousins like CS:GO, League of Legends, Grand Theft Auto V, and Minecraft, the platform requires a certain level of creativity and dedication from players. As its Google Play Store description notes:
"It is the ultimate virtual universe that lets you create, share experiences with friends, and be anything you can imagine."
Roblox has been in the limelight for the past few years, during which time users have come up with some amazing creations and games that have piqued the interests of players globally. Recently, one Brazilian Twitch streamer took things to the next level, organizing a professional football tournament that has gone viral.
Like the highly popular RB Battles, Santos Masinha has come up with Copa Roblox, one of the most competitive events on the platform. This also continued the trend of Roblox tournaments expanding from minor-level championships to grand spectacles sponsored by famous brands.
Most importantly, these competitions offer gamers a fun and engaging structure that often copies real-world sports and competitions. Copa Roblox is one such event that has attracted some big broadcasting names and has been watched by thousands of viewers worldwide.
Santos Masinha, a game developer, has created this custom game based on another popular Roblox football title: Super League Soccer. Coming to the tournament, it has a 16-team knockout-stage format, with the streamer having invited pros from all over the world to compete for the label of Copa football champion.
What has caught the attention of fans, viewers, and his streaming colleagues is that the tournament consists of actual teams from the Brazilian and Argentinean football leagues. This list includes the likes of River Plate, Botafogo, River Plate, and Boca Juniors. Participants need to enter a custom Roblox experience that Santos Masinha created and play a complete football game to have a chance of progressing.
Such has been the response to this competition so far that matches involving the legacy teams in the two rival countries, like the Boca Juniors versus River Plate quarter-final fixture hosted on Saturday, have crossed the 100K estimated audience mark on Twitch. In fact, the live broadcast of this game became the most successful one on his channel to date, hitting 31K Hours Watched, 31K Peak Viewers, and 14K Average Viewers.
Moreover, some of these matches have caught the eye of locals and been telecast live at local pubs, with hundreds catching the action and being introduced to a whole new world of video gaming. Of course, it helps that the setup is so professional that the league has casters, commentators, content creators, and viewers hosting teams in a fully community-driven exercise.
All this success has also meant that the tournament has received large sponsors, massive news coverage, interest from celebrities, and seen professional footballers reaching out to Santos Masinha to compete in it. A few games are still left to be played, and if all goes well, the influencer could shatter a few more personal channel records and increase his stock in the manifold in the process.
The content creator's football tournament has also helped Roblox climb up the rankings ladder when looking at games played in the Portuguese language. Its watch hours and peak concurrent viewership counts have gone up by 15% and 338%, respectively, meaning that the game has become the tenth most popular over the past week.
In fact, between September 19 and 26, it did better PV numbers than the likes of Valorant, Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, and Rocket League. This has reinforced the fact that such tournaments and events within the platform have helped propel its steady rise over the past few years, culminating in a peak channel record achieved earlier this year.
All this shows that while it was a given that South America's passion for football and love for gaming would help Copa Roblox do well, the scale of its success is something that might provide streamers with a blueprint for organizing non-esports events that stay relevant among fans for years.
