Some key figures:

  • In 2020 in the US, more than 50% of children under 16 were playing Roblox
  • In August 2021, the platform had 48.2M daily users (+32% YoY)
  • In August 2021, 167 and 170 million dollars in revenue were generated (+100% YoY)
  • Over the year 2020, each Roblox player spent an average of $57.7 on the platform


Simply put, Roblox is a library of online mini-games accessible on smartphone, web browser and console. The universe maintained by the platform is a colorful and whimsical one which, as a result, has long pigeonholed Roblox as a simple children's game site. Nevertheless, the platform does much more than just list a bunch of games to attract 8-12 year olds.

An infinite catalog 

One of the particularities of Roblox lies in its unique model regarding the development of the mini-games present in its library. Indeed, Roblox gathers a crazy amount of games but does not develop any. Just like with Lego, users create their games and then publish them on the platform. In short, on Roblox, you don't just have fun playing games, you also have fun creating them. To do this, the platform provides a set of development tools - Roblox Studio - that almost anyone can learn to use, including children. The scripting language for developing games is called Lua. A simple language to learn that Roblox tries to democratize as much as possible via developer forums. With all these tools, developers don't have to worry about logistics like setting up servers; they just create the game.

As a result, many developers, including children, are able to create games and earn large amounts of money. As explained earlier, although access to the platform and games is free, the economy on Roblox is very developed. Various "in-game" purchases can be made - mainly virtual clothes and accessories. For example, in the Adopt Me! mini-game, where players adopt and care for pets, players can buy eggs that will hatch pets. To make transactions, children must purchase the game's virtual currency, Robux. When a developer earns enough money in Robux, he or she can use a program called Developer Exchange to convert Robux into real money./p>

What about independent developers?

However, while this model sounds like a win-win, it's arguably not really the case. Developers only receive a quarter of the revenue generated by their games. And while Roblox claims to be distributing $220 million to developers by 2020, most of them are development professionals. So, the idea of a catalog of games created by the community is quite far from reality. But why are there no independent developers left? The reason is very simple, developing a game on Roblox requires thousands of dollars of investment - sums that are inaccessible for most young people. In order to develop games that really have the potential to become a hit on the platform, and generate money,  you need to spend at least 100,000 Robux, or $1,000 to buy. For a big multiplayer game, it costs a million Robux, or $10,000. Then comes the question of visibility. To appear at the top of the catalog, which has several million titles, you still have to spend Robux on internal advertising on the platform. And because advertising spaces are limited, the system works with auctions - there is no limit to what you can invest. Some forums report that a "first price" slot is between 5 and 10 000 Robux. For big studios that want to be visible, the amounts are much higher. If Roblox maintains this myth of a platform of passionate creative enthusiasts, the truth seems quite different.

A promising future

This content creation system for the video game industry is a godsend. Content is created by players, for players. Thus, by giving a small part of the profits to the creators, Roblox pockets money without having to incur development costs. This new way of creating highly profitable content for game publishers could be the future of the industry. Roblox's main competitors, namely Minecraft and Fortnite, also have this method of creating content for less money. And if this model makes you think of social networks, it could be that these platforms are slowly moving towards it.

By developing metaverse universes, that is, virtual worlds in which users play, communicate, entertain, learn or even work and earn money, Roblox could be the future of social networks for young people. This is exactly what Marc Zuckerberg thinks and he wants to create something similar with Meta.

Like Fortnite, which hosted virtual concerts of Travis Scott (12.3 million people live), Ariana Grande, Diplo or Dillon Francis, Roblox is developing this universe by mixing real and virtual experiences. For example, the Electric Daisy Carnival took place from October 23 to 25,, the first music festival in the Roblox Metaverse. Recently, the company also launched a unique partnership with Chipotle allowing Roblox players to order burritos from the gaming platform.

While this may sound terrifying or exciting, there are many innovations in the video game industry and the development of metaverse is still in its infancy. Is there a market for these products? Is it still too early? 


To sum-up:

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A +30% year-on-year growth of Daily Active Users (DAU)
A growth of the turnover superior to the DAU growth. That is, users who spend more and more.

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An extremely high valuation
A business model that is still highly loss-making