Gym Class VR

Gym Class is a free-to-play virtual reality sports game developed by IRL Studios for Meta Quest headsets.⁶ Founded in 2021 by Paul Katsen, Justin Hubert, and Matthew Harris, the game launched on Meta's App Lab platform in 2022 and accumulated nearly one million downloads before its official Quest Store release later that year.¹ The game holds a 4.9-star average from more than 90,000 ratings on the Quest Store and has expanded from basketball into baseball, boxing, football, paintball, and soccer.⁶ Founders, Inc. participated in the company's $8 million seed round in 2022.²

Founding and early development

Paul Katsen, Justin Hubert, and Matthew Harris began working together in 2019 to build a social experience through digital sports.³ Katsen previously led product for Twitter's Home feed, which served roughly 200 million daily active users, and had co-founded Blockspring (Y Combinator S14), which was acquired by Coinbase.⁵ Hubert, a 3D artist based in Long Beach, California, had led VR art development at Insperience, Walmart's Store No. 8 innovation lab.⁵ Harris had led VR and gaming teams for several years prior.³

The team incorporated as IRL Studios and went through Y Combinator's Winter 2022 batch.⁵ Gym Class debuted on Meta's App Lab, a distribution channel for early-stage Quest games that bypasses the main Quest Store's strict curation requirements.¹ The game's physics-based basketball gameplay and full-body kinematics drew rapid adoption, reaching nearly one million downloads and a user rating just shy of 5 stars from more than 14,000 reviews while still on App Lab.⁷

Funding

In August 2022, IRL Studios closed an $8 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.² Y Combinator participated, along with Founders, Inc., Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Balaji Srinivasan, Zaza Pachulia, and other angel investors.¹ Andrew Chen, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said at the time that he believed "games, virtual worlds and digital sports will be the new social networks."²

The company later received additional investment from NBA players, bringing total funding to nearly $9 million.⁴ Kevin Durant's 35 Ventures, Andre Iguodala, Lonzo Ball, Danny Green, and the Golden State Warriors all invested.⁶⁴

NBA and MLB licensing

In February 2023, the NBA entered a multiyear licensing agreement with IRL Studios and took an equity stake in the company.⁴ The deal added branded courts from all 30 NBA teams into the game, along with team-branded digital apparel, accessories, and basketballs.⁴ An in-game NBA Bundle launched at $19.99, with revenue shared between the league and IRL Studios.⁴ At the time of the deal, Gym Class had surpassed one million downloads and ranked as the most popular sports game on Meta Quest, ahead of StatusPro's NFL-licensed Pro Era and the PGA Tour-licensed Golf+.⁴

In June 2025, Gym Class added an officially licensed MLB Bundle with immersive ballparks for all MLB teams, virtual crowd animations, fireworks, and unlockable team uniforms.⁸ The same update introduced an NBA Playoffs 2025 Pass offering team-branded cosmetics and in-game currency.⁸

Game design and expansion

Gym Class began as a basketball-only title with physics-based shooting, passing, and dunking mechanics on an NBA regulation-sized court.⁷ Matches support multiplayer sessions where players physically squat, jump, and swing their arms, and the game uses full-body inverse kinematics to translate these movements onto in-game avatars.² Katsen described the product to TechCrunch as "more of a social hub than a simple game," focused on the sport and culture around basketball.¹

The platform has since expanded beyond basketball into baseball, boxing, football, paintball, and soccer.⁶ The company has more than 90,000 user ratings on Meta Quest with a 4.9-star average.⁶ In 2026, IRL Studios began expanding Gym Class to mobile platforms with companion apps on iOS and Android, allowing players to stay connected away from their headsets.⁶

Viral growth and TikTok

The game's initial growth was driven in large part by TikTok, where gameplay clips of dunking and trick shots spread organically.¹ This attention preceded the game's official Quest Store launch and contributed to its nearly one million App Lab downloads before the title had even left early access.¹ The company's official TikTok account, @gymclassvr, has continued to post gameplay content and has accumulated over 52,000 YouTube subscribers as of 2026.⁵

References

1. YC and a16z back virtual reality basketball app Gym Class(accessed Apr 18, 2026)
2. Quest's Most Popular Basketball Game on App Lab 'Gym Class' Secures $8M(accessed Apr 18, 2026)
3. Gym Class Closes $8 Million in Seed Round Led by Andreessen Horowitz(accessed Apr 18, 2026)
4. NBA invests in Gym Class VR with licensing deal, equity stake(accessed Apr 18, 2026)
5. Gym Class: Connecting the world by simulating it | Y Combinator