There are millions of X Games fans around the world. But unlike other sports, most fans never actually attend the X Games themselves. They watch from home or from out in the world. And that’s the insight that inspired our strategy: to make fans at home feel closer than ever to the X Games. It’s why we invented The HypeMeter—a real-time, interactive engine (live only during X Games events) that measures at-event, social, and mobile buzz to boil down each moment of X Games to a score from 1 to 100. For the first time, fans at home and at the event can actually cheer together, using Twitter, Facebook and mobile gaming—tapping a tablet or shaking a mobile phone—to add hype when the biggest moments happen. That’s it. Just shake your phone from your couch, and you’re cheering along with the live crowd. The HypeMeter then maps out an event based on how much hype individual moments have received, giving fans a new way to identify the biggest X Games highlights at a glance—and giving ESPN a new way to serve up their content. The launch of The HypeMeter helped drive some big year-over-year gains for XGames.com—including site visits up 72%, page views up 99%, and time spent up 57%. And ESPN was so impressed by The HypeMeter that they actually patented it. Now, they’re looking for ways to apply the technology for other sports. The HypeMeter proves how technology can be leveraged to keep a counter-culture brand cutting edge—without losing its edge.