The AEW All In show broke world records for wrestling attendance, and mobile was front and centre for their promo.
If you’re not in the world of professional wrestling fandom, you’d be forgiven for not knowing about the stunning events at AEW All In. The company’s first, landmark UK event drew a record-breaking 80,000+ spectators… and mobile was front and centre for those in attendance.
The show itself of course concentrated mainly on the matches and high drama between wrestling personalities such as Maxwell Jacob Friedman, CM Punk and Kenny Omega. But during the pre-show, wrestler Saraya – who would go on to win the AEW Women’s Championship at the show – plugged the company’s new mobile game.
This new title, AEW: Rise to the Top took pride of place in the video, to an audience tens of thousands strong.
In an earlier press release, vice president of licensing and games for All Elite Wrestling, Mark Caplan commented, “AEW is proud to partner with ESGG to bring the excitement of our unique brand of professional wrestling to mobile gamers around the world. This game helps advance our strategy to connect our TV and PPV broadcasts with the interactive games space. We couldn’t have done this without the original creative vision of Game Masons’ development team, and the joint production and marketing efforts of ESGG and AEW.”
All Mobile Wrestling
Coupled with the massive, highly-attended arena show, it’s a strong indication of how AEW (All Elite Wrestling) is pursuing the growth of their multimedia brand. With mobile forming a key part of that plan. The game, made in collaboration with Canadian developer East Side Games and Game Masons, launched into beta the same day as it featured on the AEW show, although it was first announced a little earlier in August.
AEW has pushed into the games space with high-profile titles such as AEW: Fight Forever, and as an upstart promotion (wrestling company) to dominant brand WWE, it has sought to challenge them on their own turf. WWE’s 2K series still brings in massive sales, and their presence on mobile is no slouch either with titles such as WWE Champions boasting 10 million downloads.
What’s particularly interesting about this appearance, is that it signifies how quickly AEW – first started in 2019 – has scaled to challenge companies including the WWE in terms of multimedia presence. With a growing catalogue of mobile games such as AEW Figure Fighters, the company’s standing is growing not only in the world of wrestling, but in the pockets of players.
Tying in the beta launch to one of their biggest – if not the biggest ever – shows in wrestling only further indicates how important their mobile strategy is.