Qatar is nearing its own population in World Cup ticket sales.

The host nation — whose population was roughly 3 million as of Oct. 14 — has sold 2.9 million tickets, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Monday. 

• Around 7% of total stadium capacity remains unsold for the 32-team, 64-game tournament.
• Additional tickets will be released before the tournament kicks off on Nov. 20.
• The countries driving ticket sales are Qatar, the United States, Saudi Arabia, England, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, France, Brazil, and Germany

Qatari officials said that between 1.5 million–1.7 million people had applied for the mandatory pass, which functions as a visa, match ticket, transport ticket, and allows for fan zone access. 

The country expects more than 1 million foreign visitors and hundreds of thousands of domestic fans to attend the tournament.

Citizens Booted from Homes

The demand for accommodations has caused a huge spike in prices, and landlords are pushing renters out to cash in on the surge. 

One foreign resident said that she was given a week to leave her apartment, moved to a hotel, and then to a temporary apartment. Similar apartments might typically rent for $2,500 per month but are going for $1,700 per night with a minimum 14-night stay.

The plug on G4 TV is being pulled. Again.

Comcast is reportedly shuttering the gaming-focused network only a year after its relaunch. 

“We worked hard to generate interest in G4, but viewership is low and the network has not achieved sustainable financial results,” said CEO of G4 parent company Comcast Spectacor Dave Scott. 

• G4 originally launched in 2002 under NBCUniversal and Dish Network.
• The network ceased operations in 2014 due to the popularity of online video content.
• In November 2021, it relaunched under Comcast Spectacor.
• G4 had secured deals with Twitch, Xfinity TV, Verizon FiOS, and Philo. 

The end of G4 comes amid issues plaguing the gaming industry, including the return of outdoor recreational activity, the ongoing semiconductor shortage, and global supply chain disruptions. 

U.S. consumers spent $12.4 billion on video games in Q2 2022, a 13% drop year-over-year. 

Microsoft saw its gaming revenue fall by $259 million in fiscal Q4 2022, while Sony’s Game & Network Services segment reported a 2% decline in sales for the first quarter ending June 30.  

Not the First Time 

Comcast-owned NBCUniversal canceled the Olympic Channel on Sept. 30 after a five-year run. At the end of 2021, the linear channel reached roughly 47 million homes.

Media

| by Justin Byers

Olympic Channel’s 5-Year Run Ends

NBCUniversal is shuttering the Olympic Channel after a five-year run.

July 5, 2022

The decision was a byproduct of NBCUniversal’s reevaluated programming strategy amid increased sports-related content on USA Network and streaming platform Peacock.

In December 2021, NBCUniversal ceased operations of NBC Sports Network, which originally launched in 1995 as Outdoor Life Network.

The Kansas City Current ousted the Houston Dash in Sunday’s NWSL playoffs quarterfinal in front of the biggest crowd in the league’s postseason history. 

That record lasted just five hours.

While the afternoon match drew 21,284 fans to Houston’s PNC Stadium, the evening’s quarterfinal game at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium — in which the Wave beat the Chicago Red Stars — drew 26,215.

• Last month, Snapdragon set the record for best-attended regular-season NWSL game with 32,000 fans.
• The league drew a total of 1,042,063 fans during the 2022 regular season, an average of 7,894 per game.
• The total smashes the 10-year-old league’s previous record of 792,409, set in 2019.

Brand Play

The Wave’s Alex Morgan, who scored the team’s game-winning goal on Sunday, had 27 endorsement deals in 2022 — more than any NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, or NHL athlete, according to SponsorUnited.

Morgan is part of a trend: Endorsement deals with women’s teams and leagues grew 21% year-over-year in 2022. Deals with individual athletes rose 18%.

Women have also flexed their earning power through the rise of NIL deals for college athletes. While football has dominated the NIL landscape with 49.6% of all deals as of September, women’s basketball was third among all categories with 12.6%.

Shares of online game creation platform Roblox surged 20% on Monday behind a monthly metrics report that detailed favorable user growth. 

Roblox — which has seen its shares fall roughly 65% from their all-time high of $137.72 — reported 57.8 million daily active users in September 2022, a 23% increase year-over-year. 

• Estimated revenue for the month was between $170 million-$180 million.
• The company estimated bookings were between $212 million-$219 million.
• Hours engaged by users reached 4 billion, up 16% compared to September 2021. 

Roblox reported more daily active users in August 2022 with 59.9 million and 4.7 billion hours engaged, but the drop was attributed to the return of schools. 

The California-based company generated $591.2 million in revenue in Q2 2022, a 30% uptick compared to the same period last year. Bookings reached $639.9 million during the quarter, down 4% compared to Q2 2021. Net cash from operating activities was $26 million in Q2 2022.

In October, Roblox secured a landmark deal with FIFA to offer users free-to-play access ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to “FIFA World” — a virtual environment in the metaverse.

Far Fall 

Roblox went public in March 2021 after multiple delays via a direct public offering. In its first day of trading, the company saw its stock jump 54% from its reference price of $45 to $69.50 at market close. The strong debut would give Roblox a market cap of roughly $45 billion.

Markets

| by Owen Poindexter

Roblox Finally Goes Public

After multiple delays, video game platform Roblox went public on Wednesday, following…

March 10, 2021

The gaming industry took a step back in 2022 following a surge of interest at the height of the pandemic, and Roblox felt the hit with a market cap of $26 billion as of October 2022.