From the Virtual Ring to the City: IBA Boxing Game Powers an AR Show

The IBA Boxing Game team created an AR show held on May 18 in Nizhny Novgorod. We brought digital boxing to a new scale, combining a gaming universe, augmented reality, and the atmosphere of a live sporting event.

“Night of Champions” brought together the technology industry and professional boxing. The evening featured bouts involving members of the IT community and professional fighters, with augmented reality adding another dimension to the spectacle.

For our team, this project took IBA Boxing Game beyond its familiar virtual setting. Using the game as our foundation, we created an AR show that gave digital boxing a new dimension: a virtual showdown became part of an event in a real city.

Boxing on the Scale of a City Square

At the heart of the concept was the “Battle of Digital Giants”: a clash between enormous digital avatars of real boxers against the backdrop of Nizhny Novgorod. To watch, spectators were invited to point their smartphone cameras at the space above Oktyabrskaya Square. On their screens, virtual figures appeared against the familiar cityscape, facing off in a boxing match.

This scale changes the way digital sports are experienced. The boxing match extends beyond the virtual arena, while the surrounding architecture provides a visual reference that conveys the sheer size of the digital characters. The smartphone becomes a window through which spectators discover an additional layer of the action.

The spectacle draws on the universally understood drama of sporting competition: two opponents, the tension of a fight, movement, and personality. Augmented reality brings that drama into an unexpected setting and gives it a scale impossible to achieve in a conventional ring.

IBA Boxing Game as the Foundation for a New Format

IBA Boxing Game connects players across devices. It is a cross-platform multiplayer game in which smartphone and computer users can compete against one another in real time.

The AR show grew out of this concept. We used IBA Boxing Game as the foundation for a distinct entertainment format designed for a live audience. Through augmented reality and urban space, the game world gained another way to connect with spectators.

For us, this marks an important step in the project’s development. It demonstrates how a sports-based game can inspire new experiences: bringing people together at a venue, enriching event programmes, and introducing digital boxing to audiences who may not previously have been interested in video games.

The connection to sport remains central. Boxing defines the project’s character through rivalry, focus, the drive to win, and the emotional intensity of a bout. In AR, these qualities take on a new visual form.

The AR show for “Night of Champions” marked a significant milestone for our team. Building on IBA Boxing Game, we created a standalone format that extended virtual boxing beyond the familiar on-screen match.

This experience opens up possibilities for further development, including sports shows, urban events, and projects in which digital characters become part of real-world surroundings. We see this interaction as an opportunity to introduce new audiences to boxing and create new ways to experience its excitement.

In Nizhny Novgorod, we demonstrated what this approach can look like: the city becomes the backdrop for a digital bout, the smartphone becomes the viewing device, and IBA Boxing Game becomes the foundation that brings sport, gaming, and augmented reality together.