Peloton Rides Are Video Games Now

Ask any Peloton user what they like about their bike, and most answers would probably include some reference to a Peloton instructor rather than the bike itself. It’s been written many times before, but it's worth noting again: Peloton’s big draw is a combination of the instructor personalities, pick-me-up mantras, and music playlists. As the company wades through the hardware muck and a massive corporate restructuring, its special sauce—and source of recurring revenue—is still its software platform.

So it makes sense that Peloton’s first big new feature in a long while is a software feature. What’s more interesting is that it involves no instructors at all. The new feature is called Lanebreak, and it turns a Peloton bike ride into a game. Think Mario Kart meets Peloton; riders pedal along a floating virtual track, encountering prompts and challenges along the way. Lanebreak was first announced last summer, and some subscribers were able to access the software then in its beta form. Now it’s rolling out as a software update to Peloton bikes in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, and Australia.

You can check out the competition in between rides, but not during.