In soccer, skilled players frequently scan their environment to identify nearby opponents, teammates, and potential passing options (Pokolm et al., 2022). Higher frequencies of visual exploratory activity, or ‘scanning’, has been linked to more successful actions with the ball in studies investigating elite women’s soccer (Feist et al., 2025) and male soccer in the English Premier League (Jordet et al., 2020) and youth European tournaments (Aksum et al., 2021). Extended reality technologies (XR) present new opportunities to measure sports performance in immersive, yet controlled environments. 360-video provides a cost-effective method to study visual exploratory activity (VEA) of players in consistent and controlled scenarios. Viewed through head-mounted displays (HMDs), 360-video can support understanding of how soccer players visually explore their surroundings to make decisions. This study aimed to i) assess the construct and face validity of a 360-video simulation for capturing VEA in women’s soccer and ii) understand players’ perceptions of acceptability and tolerability of the simulation. Eleven sub-elite women’s soccer players (M age = 22 years, SD = 5) and eleven novices (M age = 20 years, SD = 2) participated. Footage was recorded using a stationary GoPro 360 Max camera at eye height in six pitch locations. VEA was measured by the number of ‘scans’ away from the ball, prior to the ball arriving at the 360-video camera. Participants viewed 40 soccer videos in a HMD, with videos terminating following a pass from a teammate. Upon receiving the pass, participants simulated and verbalised an action response to continue play. Afterwards, participants completed an adapted presence questionnaire and answered open-ended questions on acceptability, physical fidelity, and tolerability of the task. Results supported construct and face validity, with findings indicating good acceptability, tolerability, and physical fidelity. Soccer players (Mdn = 0.31 scans/s) displayed significantly higher median scan frequencies than novices (Mdn = 0.06 scans/s, p = 0.001) and generated significantly more verbal action responses per trial (p = 0.028). 360-video provides an alternative, low-cost solution compared to virtual reality and a more immersive environment than video based footage using computer screens for visual-based soccer tasks. Practitioners should consider using first-person game footage as an individualised tool, incorporating additional contextual and perceptual factors to test and train soccer players perceptual-cognitive skills. Further research is needed to investigate 360-video as a tool for training and testing VEA in women’s soccer. More specifically, future research should endeavour to understand the effect pitch location and sided game format on VEA in women’s soccer players.