Lots of big-name athletes saw their social media followings get big boosts during the recently concluded Summer Olympics. But Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, probably the Games' biggest global star, one-upped everyone else in the digital realm, too, with the rapidly accelerating popularity of his new mobile game Bolt!.
The game broke the 1 million user mark the same day that Bolt, the athlete, anchored the Jamaican 4x100 relay team to a record-setting gold medal in London. Bolt!, the game [iTunes link], is now being downloaded once per second, according to John Shahidi, CEO of Rocklive, the company Bolt partnered with to produce the app, which was released in mid-July. Shahidi also says the new users are coming from all over, and the free game is among the top 3 most popular App Store offerings in 25 countries including England, France and Australia.
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Bolt has gained more than 1 million Twitter followers since Bolt!'s release and, according to Twitter, accounted for the Olympics' two most tweeted moments -- his victories in the 100 and 200 meter dashes. But with a mobile gaming offering as well, he's already began to partially answer one of the main questions Olympic athletes face after gaining massive social followings thanks to the Games' once-every-four-years-spotlight: Now what?
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Much of Bolt's promotion has come via social channels, including Twitter shoutouts from Mike Tyson and other celebrities. In an email last month, Bolt told Mashable he had an active role in the game's development.
"I stayed involved during the whole process and was beta testing the game for a few months before it launched," he wrote. "I was really excited to finally launch the game this week, and am proud of the product we all worked so hard to create."
But Bolt is actually just one of a handful of sports stars to release their own cartoon-like, self-branded mobile games with RockLive. Since November 2010, the startup has put out similar offerings with NFL receiver Chad Johnson, Tyson and international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.
“What we’re finding is athletes really want to get more eyeballs and build their followers online, because that’s where the world is going,” Shahidi told Mashable in December. “Games are a new way for them to expand their reach worldwide.”
Image courtesy UsainBolt.com
This story originally published on Mashable here.