Roblox ‘For All Ages’ as Over-13 Users Jump
BY PYMNTS | AUGUST 9, 2023
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Roblox
Roblox says it’s not just for kids anymore. At least not kids under 13.
Speaking on an earnings call Wednesday (Aug. 9), founder and CEO David Baszucki said the gaming platform had seen strong daily active user (DAU) growth among users over 13.
“We’re no longer talking about aging up. We are a platform for all ages,” Baszucki said.
“Our 13 and over cohort is five times larger than our under 13 cohort. And our 13 and over cohort is growing at 33 percent year on year for DAUs. Our 17 through 24 cohort is growing at 36% year on year for both DAUs and hours.”
The company’s earnings report showed bookings — the term it uses to represent sales of its Robux virtual currency for in-game purchases — of $780 million, up 22% year over year, and up from $773 million last quarter.
A report by Reuters notes that number was below analysts’ estimates, sending Roblox’s share price down 20% Wednesday.
Developers, meanwhile, are on track to earn $800 million this year, as the company’s DevX payouts in Q2 were $165 million, up 16% year on year.
“And I want to highlight the growing variety of content on our platform. In the last 12 months trailing, the 10 highest-earning creators earned an average of $27 million each. These are growing and larger significant businesses,” Baszucki said.
“But at the longer tail, developer number 1000 is now growing two times faster over the last three years and is making $64,000 a year. That’s thousands and thousands of people making a living on Roblox.”
The CEO also discussed artificial intelligence (AI), which he says is huge for his platform.
“We have approached 14 billion hours of engagement on Roblox in Q4,” he said. “There are many, many, many areas that we’re already live on the platform with machine learning and AI stacks, and more to come.”
He added: “I want to highlight that we have 70 machine learning training stacks right now, we have trained, for example, our own translation model with 1 billion parameters. This is the model that helps auto-translate all experiences when a creator makes them.”
