A Swarm of New Stay-at-Home Cyclists Is Ruining a Virtual Biking Utopia
Congestion has crippled virtual games like ‘Call of Duty’ and cycling app Zwift
On a Friday morning in April, Eric, who declined to give his last name for privacy reasons, logged into Zwift, a virtual cycling game, and lined up with thousands of cyclists from around the world to compete in Haute Route. The Haute Route is a grueling three-day race that, due to the pandemic, had recently transitioned from the real world to Zwift’s digital cycling utopia.
Eric was excited. As a Zwift user since 2016, he regularly participates in the game’s events to prepare him for real-world racing. But as the flag dropped on the start of Haute Route, Eric’s frame rate suddenly dropped too, rendering the game into a virtually unplayable slideshow as it struggled to process thousands of riders all trying to ride at once.
He tried to wait it out, letting hordes of people pass him in the hopes that a less crowded screen would make Zwift playable again. When that didn’t work, Eric tried to restart, which ultimately locked him out of the event. His race was over before it even started. It wasn’t his legs that failed him — it was the lag.
