Beyond Reach: Why Trust is the Real KPI for the AFL on Roblox

The AFL - Australian Football League decision to enter Roblox this week marks a smart and inevitable move into youth spaces, but it also sits at the centre of one of the more complex questions in sport marketing right now: how do you balance innovation with responsibility when your audience is still in school?

From a strategy perspective, the logic is sound. Roblox has around 2 million monthly Australian users in the Gen Alpha and Gen Z bracket, and sport organisations have spent years trying to reach that same audience through clinics and school activations. Building a digital presence in a world they already inhabit is efficient, forward-thinking, and frankly overdue.

It also connects neatly to the AFL’s broader participation story. In 2025, footy participation surpassed 600,000 registered players nationally, a record, driven by double-digit growth in QLD and NSW. Women and girls now make up more than 22% of grassroots football, coaching numbers are up 9%, and initiatives like Kids Go Free Month lifted junior attendance by nearly 13%. This isn’t a sport searching for relevance; it’s one looking to sustain momentum with the next generation, and Roblox represents a new, logical way to do that.

The simplicity of the AFL’s digital design, obstacle courses, branded levels, and nods to AFLW and AFL Finals make sense as a low-risk entry point. It doesn’t overpromise, but it allows the AFL to test what kinds of interaction resonate in immersive environments. If successful, it can become a digital bridge to real-world play: from a Roblox level to a Sherrin in the backyard, to a local NAB AFL Superkick sign-up.

But Roblox isn’t neutral ground. It’s a platform where the average Australian child spends more than 2 hours a day, and where parental concern is almost as high as usage. It’s also an ecosystem navigating growing attention around safety, privacy, and monetisation. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has introduced new protections for under-16s, while research from the University of Sydney shows that many children struggle to understand in-game spending systems. None of this undermines the AFL’s move, but it does heighten the importance of how it’s done.

That’s why the benchmark here shouldn’t be reach or impressions; it should be trust. If parents and educators see the AFL’s presence as making Roblox safer, more transparent, and meaningfully connected to real-world play, then this project succeeds.

The next generation’s relationship with sport will form as much through digital immersion as through physical play. Leagues that thrive will enter these environments with humility, creativity, and care, treating digital responsibility as part of their brand identity, not an afterthought. If the AFL can make this both safe and meaningful, using Roblox not as a campaign but as a connector, it won’t just be an activation. It’ll be a blueprint for how sport can live where kids already play, imagine, and belong.