Bringing Fans Closer to the Action: Snapchat’s Spring of Sports

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From the opening moments of the 2026 Winter Olympics to Super Bowl LX and NBA All-Star, Snapchat captures the sports moments fans care about most-live, on the ground, and alongside the communities experiencing them. With a global community of 946M monthly active users, including 215M Snapchatters watching sports content each month on average,¹ Snapchat has become a premier destination for real-time sports engagement. From interactive Lenses to creator-led content and AR experiences, Snapchat's "Spring of Sports" brings fans closer to the action-whether at home or in the stadium.

Few understand the importance of meeting fans where they are better than Anmol Malhotra, Head of Sports and Media Partnerships at Snapchat. "What's changed isn't just the technology-it's fan expectations: they no longer want to simply watch a game; they want to participate, react, and experience it alongside their communities. That's why Snapchat has spent years building new ways to elevate sports fandom, and why major leagues continue to scale with us. When cutting commentary meets interactive experiences, that's where fandom truly thrives."

Here's how Snapchat showed up across the biggest moments in sports this spring:

From ski jumps to medal moments, Snapchat was a destination for fans to experience the coldest competition on Earth. Through content shared by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), official media rights holders and the various teams' official channels, Snapchatters around the world got closer to the action-going behind the scenes through athlete POVs, and tuning in to highlights and wrap-up shows featuring the best moments of the Games.

The IOC also brought Winter Olympics AR Lenses and Bitmoji accessories to Snapchat, making them available for the global community. AR experiences for the 2026 Winter Olympics reached over 110M Snapchatters worldwide and generated more than 307M total impressions.¹

These experiences included:

• Five IOC Winter Olympic Lenses featuring official marks, mascots, the Olympic rings, and more

• A gamified Team USA Lens that allowed fans to use their Bitmoji to compete in different Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports

• A Winter Olympics-themed Bitmoji collection featuring the 2026 Winter Olympics logo and style guide

• Custom Team USA Bitmoji outfits, including hats, sweatshirts, and jackets

• Camera Kit integration within the official Olympics app

Kicking off with Super Bowl LX, Snapchatters engaged with AR in North America on Super Bowl Sunday nearly 2B times.¹ We continued our three-year streak of integrating Snapchat Cam during the Super Bowl at Levi's Stadium, entertaining fans with augmented team helmets featured on the jumbotron.

Following a successful debut in 2025, Snapchat and the NFL ran it back and expanded the NFL x Snapchat Creator Program for Super Bowl LX. Snap Stars and NFL Creators, including Suni Lee, Kayla Nicole Jones, Ocky Way and Sidetalk, were on the ground throughout Super Bowl weekend and brought unique perspectives through Stories and Spotlight featuring behind-the-scenes moments and fan reactions. Super Bowl Sunday-related content in Spotlight received over 47M views, an increase of 79% year-over-year.¹

To connect Snapchatters everywhere, we launched a lineup of interactive AR Lenses and premium NFL content, including:

• NFL Super Bowl LX Lens: A turn-based game experience where a Snapchatter throws to a friend, then selects the recipient and sends a Snap. The friend then replays the throw and takes their turn trying to make the catch.

• Super Bowl AR Bar: A dedicated Super Bowl AR Bar on Snap during Super Bowl Sunday featuring all NFL Lenses, including a Football Face, NFL jerseys and more!

Before the action started on the court, we headed to the NBA Media Circuit to host a Snap AR Mirror Q&A. Hosted by Dipika, participating players responded to three pre-selected fan questions in addition to having NBA Lenses for the team members to have fun and make engaging pre-game content for those watching.

"NBA All-Star is one of the marquee events of our season and Snapchat plays a key role in immersing fans in the excitement of the weekend through an array of unique features and experiences on the platform," said Bob Carney, Senior Vice President, Social and Digital Content, NBA. "By collaborating with a highly connected network of creators who had behind-the-scenes access on the ground, we brought the best must-see moments of NBA All-Star to Snapchat's global audience."

Fans also got up close and personal courtside throughout the week thanks to the NBA sharing behind-the-scenes content through Stories and Spotlights. Additionally, the NBA integrated Snap's Camera Kit technology at their NBA All-Star events, including Rising Stars, Celebrity Game, Saturday Night and the official NBA All-Star Game.

And, for the second year in a row, we made sure there was no shortage of coverage by having Dipika and Tor'i Brooks cover off on all the need-to-know highlights from All-Star Weekend as part of our NBA x Snap Creator Program.

Our partnership with the CFP started in 2021 with geofenced filters and has continued to evolve over the years to include Snapchat Cam, Custom AR Lenses, and the use of Stories and Spotlights to bring fans closer to the starting line. In 2026, we upped the energy with our Snapchat Cam integrations incorporated into the quarterfinal and semifinal games for the first time, including the Playoff Quarterfinals at the Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl and the Playoff Semifinals at the Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.

More fanfare = more fun, so we expanded our custom helmet AR Lenses to cover all CFP teams so fans could represent who they were rooting for. To keep viewers in the loop, we brought content to fans' phones with our CFP National Championship-themed Story on the @SnapCreators profile in collaboration with Katie Feeney and the CFP social team. With the help of CFP, we also onboarded eight new athletic programs of universities to Snapchat with verified profiles for more coverage throughout the College Football Playoff, national championship game, and beyond. Speaking of the CFP, they brought the actions to fans firsthand with 140 Stories and 149 Spotlights on Snapchat for around-the-clock coverage.

We have more innovative AR experiences coming in preparation for the World Cup in June.

The fun's not over just yet-with the FIFA World Cup on its way to the US in June, we've already started rolling out fan activations across the platform to get soccer fans excited for the major games.

• US Soccer Jerseys: We partnered with the U.S. Soccer team for their World Cup jersey reveal with AR and Bitmoji options

• US Soccer Bitmoji Collection: For the first time ever, Snap launched a U.S. Soccer Bitmoji Collection featuring official U.S. Soccer merch and kits for fans to try on their digital avatars.

• Innovative AR Experiences: Our in-house innovation studio worked with U.S. Soccer to launch an innovative AR experience to let fans try on the team jersey and experience the team locker room in a portal lens.

From the stands to Snapchat, sports fandom lives on the platform-bringing people together to react, celebrate, and share in real time, from today's biggest games to the global moments ahead.

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