NFL Rivalsan officially licensed mobile football game from Mythical gamesannounced Friday that the second in-game season will kick off on September 5, alongside the real National Football League (NFL) season kickoff.
Mythical Games said the mobile game attracted more than 5 million downloads and more than 115 million plays in its first season. The second season, called ‘Year 2’, will introduce new game modes, ‘distinctive’ pack drops and new ways for fans to interact with the sport.
Earlier this week, Mythical also announced that it has inked a deal with current Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs, who named NFL Rivals the team’s official mobile game. The alliance includes branding opportunities for the game at the team’s Arrowhead Stadium, along with other collaborations.
“We have a series of activations, in and out of game, to deepen our player engagement with the NFL Rivals brand and the football season.” John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games, told us Declutter“We want the player community to be an integral part of this game, which means more engagement and interaction with our great players.”
Your mythical 2024 NFL Kickoff IS @Real10jayy__ #UNO #NFLRrivals🏈 pic.twitter.com/LCLNuLBcyg
— NFL Rivals 🏈 (@PlayNFLRivals) August 27, 2024
In the football game for iOS and Android, players act as team general managers (GMs), playing and trying to win matches against the league’s teams. While it functions at its core as a traditional free-to-play game, NFL Rivals is built around optional NFT player cards, with the studio adding an in-game marketplace last August to streamline the process of trading the digital collectibles.
The addition of an NFT marketplace took the game to a new level, Linden believes, adding “another dimension” to NFL Rivals that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. He believes the introduction of a new player-vs-player (PvP) mode will have a similar effect on the future of the mobile game.
“The upcoming and highly anticipated PvP mode should be the biggest upgrade to NFL Rivals since the market went live, and it’s the one we know our players are most excited about,” Linden added.
The Mythical CEO said that about 20% of players “have done that.” have upgraded their game-provided wallet to a real Web3 wallet” to interact with NFTs, which are minted on the Mythos Chain, built on Polkadot. DDaily secondary market transactions have increased from a few hundred a day last year to more than 8,000 a day ahead of the launch of the second year, he added.
“All of this points to a very bright future for NFL Rivals and Web3 gaming in general,” said Linden.
Edited by Andrew Hayward