Case Study: Riyadh Season engages global players with UNIT9’s Treasure Hunt app

Riyadh Season launches global treasure hunt with UNIT9, driving 100k downloads and a $1.6M prize

Riyadh Season, a major annual cultural festival, sought to boost global excitement and participation for its 2023 event. The challenge was to create an engaging, large-scale digital experience that could connect a worldwide audience to the festival's many offerings. UNIT9 addressed this by developing the Riyadh Season Treasure Hunt app, an immersive mobile platform featuring puzzles and augmented reality.

UNIT9 built a complex Unity-based application for iOS and Android, which featured 40 puzzles across nine themes released in eight distinct phases. The solution blended digital gameplay with real-world exploration, encouraging users to interact with social media and physical event elements. The app was a major success, achieving over 100,000 downloads and engaging a global audience in a two-month journey. The campaign culminated in a live finale where the top ten solvers competed, with one winner claiming the $1.6 million grand prize.

Riyadh Season