Player's Bowl
Open the game- Brand
- Ohio Players
- Year
- 2024
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Racing & Sports
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- Warner Records
Objective
The Black Keys built the game to prime the release cycle for "Ohio Players" (Easy Eye Sound / Nonesuch, out April 5, 2024), turning the album cover's vintage bowling-alley photography into something fans could actually play with. It doubled as a push for the lead single "Beautiful People (Stay High)": pre-save and streaming links sit right next to the game, and the track scores every session. The site rolled out alongside an offline piece of the same bowling concept — a release-night show at LA's oldest alley, Highland Park Bowl.
Solution
Pull up playersbowl.com on your phone and you're dropped straight onto a lane with "Beautiful People (Stay High)" playing behind you. You pick a ball, line up your shot, and roll it toward the pins — but obstacles sit between you and a clean strike, so you keep swapping balls and angles to find a path through. Each frame adds to your score, and the band dangles "cool goodies" as a prize for playing well. Right under the game are a Pre-save button for the album and icons for Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube, so a good roll leads straight into streaming the record. Try opening the site on a desktop instead, though, and there's no game at all — just a bowling ball in sunglasses next to a QR code telling you to scan it with your phone.
- 1
On desktop, the player lands on a promo splash screen for the album with a sunglasses-wearing bowling ball, an "Ohio" logo, a sound toggle, and a QR code instructing them to scan it with a smartphone camera to play.
- 2
On mobile, the player enters an arcade bowling game where the goal is to roll a ball down a lane and knock down all the pins for a strike, with obstacles blocking the direct path.
- 3
The player selects among different balls and combinations of them, testing which ones scatter the pins past the obstacles.
- 4
The session is scored, with the aim of rolling up as high a total as possible.
- 5
A toggleable audio track plays the single "Beautiful People (Stay High)" from the album during play.
- 6
From the same page, the player can pre-save the album and jump to Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or the band's Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, alongside the album's release date.
- 7
Playing is billed as a chance to win unspecified goodies, though no further contest rules are given.
