change the game

Probably from the ability of a player of a team sport who has been brought on to the field as substitute to alter the outcome of the game.

• "Today, Moore is in transition from a communications-product company to an information-management company, selling information-management systems— […] How has this changed the game for Moore salespeople?"
• "Brave and resourceful, creative and effective, will be the hallmarks of the transformative CEO. For the transformative CEO has no choice but to change the game, and to change the game forever."
• "Four years before Fury Road, the Welsh director Gareth Evans made the berserker Indonesian fight movie The Raid: Redemption, changing the game by reducing the action movie to its simplest elements, telling it with visceral style."
• "“Crazy Rich Asians” simply changes the game. It shows that minorities don’t need Spandexed suits or powers to be bankable (though one could argue that the comedic team of Ken Jeong and Awkwafina are superheroes in their own right). They can be glamorous and sassy and intimidating and genuine – and still relate to virtually all audiences."
• "“If we were able to get a really high vaccination rate, that changes the game completely,” said Hassan Vally, an associate professor in epidemiology at La Trobe University in Melbourne."

• game changer
• game-changing