Roblox's virtual social spaces have mainly given its more than 100 million players a space to hang out and play its selection of games together. The Lil Nas X show last weekend was the company's first real attempt to rival Fortnite as an event space, and the experiment bore fruit—the two concerts had a cumulative viewership of 33 million.
Roblox initially scheduled one performance for Saturday and a rebroadcast for Sunday, but due to high demand rebroadcast the show twice more on Monday. While it wasn't quite as popular as Travis Scott's Fortnite concerts, which drew a viewership of 45.8 million across five shows, it was similar in other ways—just like the Fortnite gig with its giant Travis Scott, this show featured a sky-high Lil Nas X. Sky-high from the perspective of the little Roblox avatars, at least.
As this concert was also a promotion for Lil Nas X's new single Holiday, the digital rapper donned the same outfit for the Roblox performance that he wears in the music video: a silver Santa suit, complete with a matching beard and white hair. While listening to the music, players could ride around on present-spewing assembly lines. The Old Town Road set featured a neon-lit saloon and a neon sign roughly resembling Billy Ray Cyrus singing the song's chorus. It was quite a show to behold, and you can watch the whole thing via the embed above, courtesy of Conor3D.
With such a huge success on its hands, Roblox is sure to ramp up the virtual events from here. While its output had seemed kind of tentative for a game and social space with such a big player count, Roblox told The Verge back in October that it's looking at different options for future events. The company is mindful, however, of give its young player base time to adapt. Seems like the kids will be alright.
