Cirque du Soleil Finds New Fans in the Metaverse

• Cirque du Soleil is using The Sandbox to extend its brand into the metaverse, reaching younger digital audiences through immersive, playable versions of Luzia and Mad Apple.
• The platform creates deeper, repeatable engagement with Cirque’s IP through quests, social play, and digital collectibles that keep the brand present between live shows.

The Sandbox is a virtual world where users build and explore 3D spaces, own digital land, and trade virtual assets. The platform has attracted a growing community, with more than 580,000 unique players in its most recent season and millions of users worldwide since its launch, according to the company.

Cirque du Soleil has made a big push in the metaverse through two experiences on The Sandbox platform that provide greater audience engagement with its attractions and expand its brand. The Sandbox introduced the immersive experiences inspired by Cirque du Soleil as part of Alpha Season 6. The experiences are based on the Cirque du Soleil shows Luzia and Mad Apple and are accompanied by digital collectibles, such as costumes, which aim to extend the experience of live Cirque shows into the digital world.

“Stepping into the metaverse with The Sandbox is another way for us to reinforce our new mantra, ‘from show time to all the time’,” said Marc-André Pitre, Project Manager for Cirque du Soleil, in an interview for Remix Reality. “Our goal is to reach our customers between shows through playable worlds, avatars, and collectibles. This deepens fan engagement and even helps us enrich our own IPs by forcing us to see our show from a different point of view.”

Pitre sees immersive experiences as a way to expand Cirque du Soleil’s user base. “We’re looking to reach younger digital-first audiences, a demographic that isn’t the typical Cirque du Soleil customer,” he said. “Metaverse experiences make Cirque du Soleil’s creativity playable, social, and re-engageable;  they reinforce our new brand architecture and positioning and keep our IP present in daily life while staying true to Cirque’s artistic DNA.”

When we asked Sébastien Borget, co-founder and global ambassador of The Sandbox, about the special appeal of his metaverse platform, he explained, “The immersive content and social gaming platform is a perfect playground for brands like Cirque du Soleil to reach and engage fans in new ways. It gives brands the creative freedom to bring their brands to life in ways only possible in a customizable, 3D immersive world.”

Borget told us that the experiences are designed to drive active engagement between brands and the audiences they want to reach. Using prompts, quests, and social activities, fans craft meaningful and memorable moments with new and beloved brands beyond what can be achieved by passively scrolling on social media. 

“Cirque’s metaverse extends the fun beyond the stage and into something they can experience every day from their home and with their friends around the globe through its social and multiplayer gameplay mechanics,” said Borget. “Both games are designed to offer new experiences each time players return, boosting re-engagement and allowing Cirque du Soleil to remain top of mind. Users can explore the shows from a more immersive perspective, as they assume the role of different characters and work together to solve challenges, all inside 3D environments that mirror the sets in real life.”

With an average total playtime per user of 85.7 minutes, according to Borget, players spend almost as much time interacting with the experience as they would at a show in real life. The extended session length can be attributed to the multitude of quests built into the game, as well as its inherent social nature, which inspires players to play with their friends and complete tasks together.

A key part of the immersive experience is the virtual costumes as digital collectibles. The ten Cirque du Soleil mannequins are a blank slate that users can turn into exotic costumes inspired by outfits worn in the Cirque du Soleil shows. “Players can store their avatars in their wallet and wear them in other experiences besides those of Cirque du Soleil, encouraging cross-platform awareness for the brand,” Borget explains. “This helps create new opportunities for added exposure and cross-promotion of the Cirque brand,” he points out.

According to Borget,  just two weeks into the nine-week Alpha Season, player engagement and traffic remain stable, as evidenced by an average total playtime per user of 131 minutes, demonstrating that people are interacting with the experience, brand, and season for an extended period of time.

“The response to the Cirque du Soleil experiences in The Sandbox has been highly positive, with strong engagement from both existing fans and new audiences discovering Cirque du Soleil for the first time,” said Borget. “Early feedback highlights how the experiences successfully capture the spirit of Cirque’s live performances while translating them into a playful, interactive setting that encourages creativity and social connection.”

Ultimately, Borget believes that by blending artistry, technology, and community, Cirque du Soleil’s debut in The Sandbox marks a new chapter for the brand, celebrating imagination and expanding how audiences can connect with its world-renowned creativity.

While it is still early days for Cirque du Soleil in The Sandbox, the company is optimistic about its use of the platform. “We are not expecting immediate returns in ticket sales.  However, our foray into immersive gaming with The Sandbox is more of a way to pull customers into our world, giving them a glimpse of what we do and who we are,” said Pitre. “It’s about reach and another touchpoint for new and returning fans. Luzia just launched, and our Mad Apple experience is coming soon. I can’t share figures right now, but I have to say that we were pleasantly surprised by player engagement and the overall interest in our avatars. We’re also very happy with the fantastic work that The Sandbox people have put into the games-it’s stunning!”