K-Pop group NCT 127 will be the latest acts to perform in a free virtual concert on the Roblox gaming platform starting on January 27.
The NCT 127 Concert Experience is claimed to be the first-ever dedicated K-pop experience and concert on Roblox and the largest group performance by any band on the platform, according to a press release issued on Wednesday (January 18).
The show follows previous performances by Elton John, 24kGoldn, David Guetta, Ava Max, Lil Nas X, The Chainsmokers, and Twenty One Pilots.
Fans of NCT 127 will be able to watch the group perform their songs including hit tracks like Kick It, Sticker, and the title track from their studio album 2 Baddies in a virtual setting.
The experience features a neon Seoul city-themed environment and obstacle course, as well as a metaverse scavenger hunt spanning a number of popular Roblox experiences.
The concert experience, created in partnership with development studio Dubit, is now live on Roblox, with virtual performances by the band scheduled to run from January 27 to 29.
“127 Day is so special to us because it is all about connecting with our amazing fans from around the world, and what better way to do that than to perform to millions of you all at the same time on Roblox. Wherever you are in the world, come and join us for a concert performance like no other on January 27th and experience NCT 127 like you’ve never seen us before,” says NCT 127.
The NCT 127 Concert Experience comes as NCT 127 is set to release Ay-Yo, a repackaged version of their fourth studio album 2 Baddies, arriving on January 30.
NCT 127 — whose members include Taeil, Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Mark, and Haechan — will be touring the US and South America with stops across the US, Chile, Columbia, and Mexico and three back-to-back shows in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The band has 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, over 15 million Instagram followers and more than 8.8 million Twitter followers.
But NCT 127 is only among a few bands from South Korea to delve into the metaverse space.
BTS and BLACKPINK in 2020 collaborated with Naver’s Zepeto metaverse to hold meet-and-greets with fans, while aespa last year held a live concert and fan meet-and-greet on Zepeto.
“The metaverse has already offered artists the ability to devise unique experiences, enabling them to reach mass audiences without the need to go on tour or for fans to leave the comfort of their own environment,” music industry veteran Samuel Arvidsson, Chief Commercial Officer at Stockholm-based metaverse developer, The Gang, said in a MBW op/ed in November 2022.
“The metaverse will open up new ways for artists to introduce themselves to new fans,” added Arvidsson.
In May 2022, Spotify launched a virtual world on Roblox called ‘Spotify Island,’ as the music streaming app makes its foray into the metaverse.
But despite the popularity of metaverse in the tech and music industry, Roblox was no exception to the macroeconomic headwinds affecting many companies.
In December 2022, the company estimates its revenue to have slipped by about 1% to 6% year over year to between $189 million and $199 million, according to a release on Tuesday.
That is despite the company reporting an 18% jump in daily active users in December to 61.5 million and a 21% increase in the hours engaged to 4.7 billion.
Roblox’s estimated bookings in December likely surged 17% to 20% YOY to about $430m to $439m.
The company attributed the drop in its revenue to the strengthening of the US dollar against foreign currencies last year, particularly the Euro and British Pound.
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