Designing digital sports halls for Gen Z: play and scoring

An English summary of the 2026 Gen Z playbook: what young guests pay for, zone and equipment mix, club operations, event tiers and night session rules.

Many venues are carried by family guests during the day and sit empty at night, and the traffic they lose is the young adult segment. This summary covers how the 2026 guide turns that segment into an operating plan: why they pay, zone and equipment mix, club and event operations, and night session pricing.

Key points

Gen Z usually means people born between 1995 and 2010. Their single visit spend is commonly 10 25% lower than family guests, but they visit more often and produce more content, and can account for 40 60% of a store's annual revenue.
They pay for three things: playing with friends, a low barrier contest that still has a score and a winner, and content they can photograph and post. The equipment is only the carrier.
Their peak hours are weekday evenings and weekend afternoons into late night; traffic after 19:00 commonly takes 40 55% of the day and carries a higher ticket price.
Group play equipment belongs at the centre of the route where paths cross, single player equipment at the edge, one photo spot for every 200 300 sqm, and seats for roughly 25 40% of the people inside at one time.
Equipment mix by investment: traffic driving 30 45%, social 25 40%, profit making 15 25%, so every quick play station sits near something that adds a small second spend.
Events are the cheapest repeat visit tool: a weekly event for 40 80 players commonly costs 800 3000 RMB in materials and prizes and brings 30 40 teams back.
The guide lists six common mistakes, including treating interior styling as social design, offering single player equipment only, and running an event just once.

The night session is a separate product

The article treats the night session as its own offer rather than a later copy of the daytime one. It recommends selling time based passes and group packages instead of single ride tickets, so guests compare "three hours tonight" rather than the daytime price. Member only slots carry frequent guests, and a minimum group size or minimum spend stops discounted hours from undercutting the daytime price. Safety is listed as a condition of trading late: staff able to patrol every main equipment zone, posted notices and first time guidance on shooting, climbing and vibrating equipment, sound control toward neighbouring floors, and published behaviour rules for stranger group play.

The full 2026 guide is published in Chinese; contact SPORTS ANT if you need it explained for your project.