Peloton Launches Long-Awaited Gamification Feature ‘Lanebreak’

NEW YORK CITY, United States – Peloton’s long-awaited first foray into gaming-inspired fitness was announced last week, with new bike experience, Peloton Lanebreak, being rolled out across the US, Canada, UK, Germany and Australia.

The new feature – initially released in beta mode last summer – is the connected fitness giant’s latest effort to keep its members engaged, motivated and, crucially, in the saddle as demand for its hardware has slowed faster than expected.

The in-app workout sees riders control a virtual wheel on a floating digital track. Think Mario Kart meets Peloton. Players “switch lanes” by turning the resistance knob left or right, gaining points for various levels and bursts of output that support each lane change.

Levels range in length, from 5-20 minutes, and difficulty, and include tracks set to playlists featuring select artists, including David Guetta, Dua Lipa and exclusive David Bowie remixes that can only be found on the Peloton platform.

“Lanebreak is a gaming-inspired, rhythm-based workout rooted in something core to Peloton’s DNA: music,” read a company statement from David Packles, Peloton Senior Director, Product Management. “Members can choose levels based upon genre or artist and each level is individually designed to follow the flow of the music and goal of the workout.”

The statement continued: “Peloton teamed up with three acclaimed artists: electronic musician and DJ, Honey Dijon; Grammy-winning song-writer and rock star, St. Vincent; and Grammy-nominated electronic artist and producer, TOKiMONSTA, to release remixes of three iconic David Bowie songs.”

Peloton revealed they also collaborated with Warner Music Group as its exclusive music launch partner for the Lanebreak experience.

While gamification isn’t a new concept within the fitness world – with brands such as Zwift and Strava using leaderboards, badges and other unlockable awards to retain users – this approach has started to gain ground driven by the undeniable influence of the consumer gaming industry, forecast to be worth more than $200 billion by 2024.

For now, Peloton Lanebreak is reserved solely for the Peloton Bike and Bike+, rather than the company’s treadmill or mobile app, and designed to complement its wildly popular instructor-led classes.

However, with the advent of virtual reality fitness and the predicted rise of a Wellness Metaverse on the horizon, it surely won’t be long before Peloton embraces the potential of mixed reality to enhance the user experience far beyond the 2D experience currently available on their tablets.

Nike and Amazon will likely have a keen interest in the popularity of Peloton Lanebreak too, with rumours swirling that the two established giants of the sports and tech worlds are weighing up a bid for the 2013-founded company.