The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is excited to announce a new partnership with Walkabout Mini Golf™—the “ultimate VR mini golf experience and the most loved multiplayer game in virtual reality—which has joined the WMF as a Gold Sponsor in 2023. The WMF is the umbrella organization of minigolf sports associations worldwide and continental associations in Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Walkabout Mini Golf™ is a popular virtual reality miniature golf game developed by Mighty Coconut.  It is available across a variety of virtual reality platforms (with the Meta Quest being the most popular) and enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of players of all ages weekly in over 40 nations across the world,, and is available in several different languages.

The base game features a variety of courses with 16 included (8 themes with both a hard and easy mode) and as of this announcement another 16 downloadable content (DLC) courses.  The themes range from types you’d expect on any in-real-life (IRL) courses like jungle, pirates, and windmills to more elaborate partnerships with movies like Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and games like Cyan’s Myst as well as Lost Cities and Jules Vernes series ongoing. While it’s heralded for being intuitive and immensely playable solo, with plenty of atmosphere to spend hours exploring, a popular aspect of the game is the socialization of playing with others either casually or in any number of competitive events that have been set up by players across the platform.  There are hundreds of thousands of social and competitive Walkabout players around the world who play for bragging rights, prizes, and charity.

“I’m excited about this partnership because it creates a connection for the WMF to eSports and the 'metaverse', which are both hot topics these days and expanding markets,” says WMF Media Chair Pat Sheridan. “I think minigolf is in a unique situation in that the virtual side of the game through Walkabout is so close to what we have IRL. It’s not just a controller in your hands where you’re moving players around, but you’re actually swinging a putter with impacts the same as you’d expect from the physical world. In fact there’s many players who are successful both in the real and virtual world because of that consistency aspect. In addition, it’s completely accessible once you have the headset.  You can play it standing, sitting, in any type of weather - it adds an extra dimension that you might not be able to get on a real course.

“I got hooked on the game about 18 months ago. I was immediately impressed with both the physics and the feel of swinging the putter.  The reaction of the ball and everything made it feel about as close to being on the real life lanes as possible.   While the design may not be as familiar to competitive players around the world, it replicates the broader aspects of miniature golf extremely well. That’s not to say it can’t get competitive in the game either.  You have to have the same skills of understanding your shots, pace, placement, etc to win in those games as you would outside on the course.”

The WMF is developing and growing minigolf as a competitive sport, while also helping to promote the benefits of the game as a fun and accessible leisure activity. With their dedication to being a “sport for all” the partnership with Walkabout helps to drive all of these ideals forward. 

“Partnering with the World Minigolf Sport Federation is an acknowledgement that miniature golf is indeed on the upswing and that today’s players around the world see the sport not in strictly traditional terms, but as a sort of state of mind,” says David Wyatt, head of business strategy for Mighty Coconut. “Like our global player community, we don’t see Walkabout Mini Golf as being in competition with real-life mini golf. We see the game as part of the continuum of mini golf and we are excited to bring more people into both forms of gameplay so they can enjoy the game year round with people all around the planet.”

This year the WMF has several major championships on the 2023 schedule.  The World Adventure Golf Masters (WAGM) tees off in June in Austria, while the Youth European Championships happens in early August in Italy.  The marquee event for 2023 is the Minigolf World Championship General Class in Sweden in late August. Gold Sponsors will be prominently on display for all of these events.  Information about all WMF sponsors can be found on the sponsors page and you can see the list of major international tournaments on their championships page.

About Walkabout Mini Golf

Walkabout Mini Golf has received critical and player praise for its lush environments, true-to-life physics, and curated social experience with a self-paced, intergenerational appeal to advanced and novice players alike. You can find information about Walkabout Mini Golf™ on their website and can join the discussion on any of their player communities. The New York Times called Walkabout Mini Golf “an adorable mini-golf game that is unexpectedly convincing” and the Washington Post’s review heralded the title as “A magnificent collection of challenging holes set in fantasy locations”.

Notably, the game has earned a nearly perfect five-star rating with over 5,500 reviews on Meta Quest—the marketplace leader—and player engagement boasts a 2-Hour Usage Rate for more than 50% of users (around 10 times the standard), meaning they play Walkabout Mini Golf until their battery runs out. 

About the World MiniGolf Sport Federation

The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is the umbrella organization of Minigolf sports associations worldwide and continental associations in Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Founded in 1980, The WMF is a member of GAISF (Global Association of International Sports Federations), AIMS (Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport) and TAFISA (The Association For International Sport for All). The WMF represents 65 national associations as full members and more than 38,000 registered players worldwide.  The members of the WMF organize over 1,500 tournaments each year.