Dave Baszucki, CEO of Roblox, announced the company’s ambitious goal of capturing 10% of the global gaming market’s revenue and reaching one billion daily active users.
Speaking at the tenth annual Roblox Developers Conference in San Jose, California, Baszucki outlined the company’s strategy, focusing on three key areas: supporting creators, fostering collaboration to scale their creations, and helping them grow their businesses.
More specifically, Roblox aims for 10% of all gaming content revenue to flow through its ecosystem, distributing that revenue among its creator community. Baszucki also introduced “Party,” a new feature designed to let friends more easily play their favorite games together.
Additionally, Roblox is launching an incubation project to develop a 3D foundational model that will enable generative AI creation on the platform.
Roblox is also offering new earning opportunities for creators, including integrating e-commerce, allowing creators to sell physical merchandise within experiences through partnerships like Shopify.
A higher revenue share for developers offering paid access to experiences was announced, along with a Creator Affiliate Program that rewards creators for bringing new users to the platform.
The San Jose event gathered thousands of developers, 3D artists, brands, and influencers who make up the global Roblox community. They learned about new features and products aimed at helping Roblox achieve its goals.
Currently, Roblox boasts 79.5 million daily active users, with the number continuing to grow, partly due to the ongoing challenges in the broader gaming industry, including widespread layoffs. Matthew Ball, CEO of Epyllion, noted the significance of Roblox’s user numbers, which far exceed those of Steam and PlayStation.
Roblox has seen double-digit growth in daily active users across all regions, with the U.S., Canada, Asia, and the rest of the world experiencing more than 20% growth in the second quarter of 2024. Of the 79.5 million daily users, 58% are aged 13 or older, a demographic that saw 26% year-over-year growth.
In Q2 2024, players spent 17.4 billion hours on the platform, a 24% increase from the previous year, while the company generated $893.5 million in revenue and $955.2 million in bookings, representing a 31% and 22% year-over-year increase, respectively.
Over the past 12 months, Roblox paid over $800 million to its creator community, with earnings for the top 10 creators growing fivefold in the last five years. The top 100 and top 1,000 creators saw even faster growth.
Since Roblox opened creation in April, creators have produced 22% more 3D avatar items. Founded in 2006, Roblox now employs 2,400 people and operates 27 data centers globally. The company is committed to improving performance quality and reducing crashes.
The reach of Roblox games often surpasses that of major titles like Among Us and Elden Ring, with more than 400 brand activations currently on the platform.
Reflecting on Roblox’s founding, Baszucki recalled that the motivation behind the company’s creation was the question, “How do humans connect through play?”
He expressed optimism that Roblox’s technology will enhance human connection, which has always been the company’s primary goal.
To achieve this, Roblox will continue to focus on four key growth vectors: global expansion, making the platform appealing to all, supporting a wide range of use cases, and improving the virtual economy.
Globally, 3.4 billion people play games, and the gaming industry generates over $180 billion annually. Baszucki believes that by reaching 10% of gaming content revenue, Roblox will attract around 300 million daily active users, with about 80% of them coming to play together, while others will shop, consume entertainment, learn, or communicate.
The introduction of “Party” reflects Roblox’s commitment to bringing people together. This feature will allow users aged nine and older to group up and join experiences with ease, with support for text and voice communication coming soon.
Party will launch by the end of the year with text, followed by voice, and developers will be able to integrate Party into their experiences using an API.
Roblox Company (Photo: Getty Images)
Roblox is also rebranding “Roblox Groups” as “Roblox Communities,” enhancing how developers connect with their audiences. Communities will feature tools like Forums, dedicated spaces for players to share feedback, discuss gameplay, and report issues.
Popular experiences like Blox Fruits are preparing to test this feature. Additionally, Roblox has improved its search and discovery functions to showcase a wider range of content.
The company is increasing visibility for sponsored ads and will be transparent about its algorithms and how they influence search and discovery.
To further support creators, Roblox is launching a Creator Affiliate Program that rewards developers for bringing new users to the platform.
Developers can create unique links, and if new users sign up through these links and purchase Robux, the developer will earn a share of the revenue generated by the user’s purchases for the first six months. The program will be tested with select creators soon, with a broader rollout planned for mid-2025.
Roblox is also positioning itself as a hub for music discovery. Creators can incorporate high-quality music into their experiences, and the platform will soon feature new ways for users to discover music and connect with artists.
New features like What’s Playing and Music Charts will highlight popular songs and experiences, while artists can expand their reach and cultivate fandoms. Roblox is integrating with DistroKid, allowing eligible artists to share their music on the platform.
To support its expanding scale, Roblox continues to prioritize performance improvements. The company has achieved significant milestones, including reducing crashes and improving frame rates, particularly for users on lower-end devices. The company estimates that recent performance improvements on Windows have eliminated more than 300,000 crashes per day.
Roblox is also focused on making content creation easier at scale. The company has integrated AI into the platform with tools like Assistant, Texture Generator, and Avatar Auto Setup, and it’s looking into generative AI for real-time creation.
An internal project is developing a 3D foundational model that will power AI-driven content generation through text, video, and 3D prompts.
Despite its growing success, Roblox remains committed to safety. The company’s goal is to make the platform the safest place for people to connect, and it has introduced tools like Ban API and Alt Account Detection to help developers manage policy violations. Roblox envisions a future where developers have more control over running their communities.
As Roblox’s share of the gaming market increases, so does the economic impact of its virtual economy, which has supported the creation of nearly 18,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the U.S. over the past seven years. This is particularly significant given the 10,500 layoffs in the gaming industry in 2023 and the 12,000 layoffs so far in 2024.
Roblox is also launching tools to help developers optimize in-experience pricing through Price Optimization, which will recommend pricing strategies to increase earnings. This feature will roll out soon, along with experiments in regional pricing to better reflect local economies.
In the coming year, Roblox will expand its commerce offerings by allowing eligible creators to sell physical merchandise directly from within experiences.
Shopify will be the first e-commerce partner for this initiative. The company will also increase developer revenue share for premium experiences sold at higher price points, up to 70%.
As Roblox continues to grow, Baszucki and other industry leaders like Matthew Ball see a bright future for the platform. With new features, tools, and opportunities for creators, Roblox is well-positioned to shape the future of gaming and virtual economies.
Baszucki concluded by expressing excitement about the year ahead, emphasizing the company’s commitment to building diverse content and fostering connection and play on the platform.
