The competition saw nearly 40,000 Australians competing for $200,000 worth of prizes over a three week period.

In this time period nearly 5 years worth of cumulative hours were spent playing ‘Game of Phones’, with players traveling approximately 239,500 kilometres carrying prises.

Virgin Mobile’s Nicole Bardsley stated that, “Virgin Mobile’s ‘Game of Phones’ has received exceptional interest from the Australian public, generating more than 2.5 million screen views across both Android and iOS, and driving more than 103 million online impressions throughout the duration of the game.”

Bateman, the eventual winner, dedicated his university holidays to playing the game, walking away with $50,000 to spend on a dream vacation with the entire Virgin family at his disposal to help create his holiday.

“After dedicating over eight hours a day to playing the game, developing my strategy and chasing prizes across Perth, it was mind-blowing to hear that I had beaten almost 40,000 other players to become ‘The King’ of ‘Game of Phones’,” said Bateman.

The success of the campaign comes after a brand refresh in August of this year, with the telco adopting a more customer-centric strategy, a refreshed look and a ‘we look after our own’ ethos.