Live audio continues to heat up. The most recent sign of growth? America’s most popular league and Clubhouse are joining forces.

Starting Monday, the NFL will host a series of rooms on the live audio app featuring pre-draft player analysis, mock drafts, a conversation with University of Alabama alumni, and more. 

The partnership is Clubhouse’s first with a major sports league. The company hired a head of sports partnerships, Sean Brown, earlier in April.

Clubhouse, recently valued at a reported $4 billion, is still invite-only and exclusive to iOS. The app has seen enormous growth since debuting in March 2020, tallying more than 10 million downloads.

Since Clubhouse hit the scene, Twitter, Facebook, Discord, LinkedIn, and Slack have all launched their own live audio products.

Spotify, in particular, is making an aggressive push into sports-related audio. It acquired The Ringer and its vast podcast network for close to $200 million last year and live audio hub, Locker Room, in March.

Last year’s “virtual draft” was the most-watched NFL Draft ever, reaching more than 55 million viewers over three days.

The NFL recently scored $113 billion for a decade of broadcast deals with CBS, NBC, Fox, Disney, and Amazon — indicating interest in the game remains high.

Now, the league and Clubhouse just need fans as excited about discussing the next crop of NFL talent as they are about watching them.

UFC is once again ahead of the curve.

The MMA promotion company was among the first to host no-audience competitions last year. On Saturday, it hosted one of the first full-capacity indoor events.

UFC 261’s packed crowd of 15,269 fans in Jacksonville produced a rarely-seen visual since shutdowns began in March 2020. Masks were not required, and a significant amount of spectators opted not to wear one, including Tom Brady and YouTube star-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

There have been two other U.S. sporting events with large crowds, both outside:

• WrestleMania totaled 51,350 fans over two nights at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on April 10-11. 
• The Texas Rangers had a full-capacity crowd of 38,238 for their season opener at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

Ticket sales for UFC 261 brought in around $3.3 million. Kamaru Usman successfully defended his welterweight title with a stunning second-round knockout of Jorge Masvidal.

Many states still do not permit full-capacity outdoor events, let alone indoor ones, but Florida has consistently pushed the envelope on opening up. Jacksonville was also host to UFC 249 last May.

“It’s time to get back to normal,” UFC president Dana White told Rolling Stone. “… you can’t deny it felt pretty [expletive] good to be in Florida this week and be normal.”

The world’s biggest streaming service is creating a documentary series about Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only Black full-time driver.

Wallace, who has no top-10 finishes after the first 10 races of the season, drives for 23XI Racing. The team, which will feature prominently in the Netflix doc, is owned by Michael Jordan.

• Netflix has distributed documentaries about Pelé, IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, Ronda Rousey, and Vince Carter.
• Jordan was the subject of ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” which also aired on Netflix.
• Its “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” series is three seasons in and has helped double F1’s social media presence.

Wallace, 27, has had a unique impact on racing. In 2020, he successfully petitioned NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its events. Weeks later, amid racial justice protests around the country, he claimed he found a noose in his garage, but an FBI investigation found that the rope had been there before Wallace began using the garage.

Jordan thinks we could see Wallace begin to reach his potential as a driver during the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series.

“We would have not invested in him and picked him if he didn’t have the talent to win,” said Jordan. “By the end of the year, I think he’s going to have an opportunity and probably will win at least a couple of races.”

“Cyberpunk 2077,” developed and published by Poland-based CD Projekt, was riddled with bugs upon its release in December — a major surprise given the $130 million budget and eight years of development.

“This was a huge lesson for us, one we will never forget,” said Adam Kiciński, president and co-CEO of CD Projekt.

Swift backlash ensued, but 13.7 million copies were still sold through the end of 2020, making it one of the most successful titles in CD Projekt’s history.

Due to the technical issues that initially made “Cyberpunk” unplayable for many, CD Projekt offered full refunds, while Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store. However, only 30,000 refund requests were submitted.  

Setbacks aside, “Cyberpunk” helped CD Projekt generate $556 million in revenue in 2020 compared to $138 million in 2019. 

Another CD Projekt title, “The Witcher 3,” had its second-best sales year since its release in 2015. The game has sold over 30 million copies total. 

Patches have been released for “Cyberpunk” since its shaky debut, and CD Projekt will continue to support it going forward.

“I don’t see an option to shelve ‘Cyberpunk 2077,’” Kiciński said in an interview with Reuters. “We are convinced that we can bring the game to such a state that we can be proud of it and therefore successfully sell it for years to come.”