Roblox's numbers continue to boom

Roblox
(Image credit: Roblox)

Correction: The original version of this article multiplied Roblox's daily active user figure to extrapolate a monthly user figure of 1.7 billion. This was bad math because, obviously, individual players return to the game many times a month. It also got the paying user life estimate figures muddled, but they are now correct.

Original article follows.



Every so often, Roblox releases some numbers and you remember just how massive it is. We all know the platform is huge among a younger demographic but the last time I wrote about the numbers in February this year, they were so big the only comparison that made sense was Canada. No wonder the CEO looks set to pocket $234 million over the next five years.

As a public company Roblox regularly issues metrics, and has just done so for September. We're gonna need a bigger comparison country because the daily active user count for the game has now hit 57.8 million, which marks an incredible 23% rise year-over-year. Other games tend to cite monthly numbers, which is not going to be a straight comparison, but we can look at Minecraft (140 million monthly users), Fortnite (where numbers peak at 10-15 million whenever the game hosts one of its big live events), and the whole League of Legends franchise (180 million monthly users, as of October 2021).

Here's an official Roblox Corporation figure though: "Hours engaged were 4.0 billion, up 16% year-over-year." Four billion man hours a month in this place. 

The report goes into some detail on the financials, with the estimated revenue for this month being between $212-219 million. This is more-or-less equivalent to last year's figures, so while the numbers are going up the average spend is slightly decreasing (this month, anyway). Roblox Corporation puts some of this down to the strengthening of the US dollar against the euro, British pound and other currencies.

One final interesting metric is what Robox Corporation calls a "paying user life estimate", which is an average of how long an account will be active within Roblox and spending money. The figure is "calculated based on historical monthly retention data for each payer cohort to project future participation on the Roblox Platform." Based on this the company had previously put the figure at 25 months; it's now gone up to 25 months.

Is Roblox the biggest game in the world? If you think it's a game then I'd say it is. Probably the most interesting element of Roblox is how it may fit into the much-vaunted metaverse future because, while others may look (a lot) fancier and seem more obvious contenders, this has the sheer numbers to succeed. Even if, sometimes, they don't turn up. Roblox still has issues (it feels like every couple of months there's a new report about scammers targeting kids, and sometimes worse), but it has a userbase that simply towers above its competition and, while Zuckerberg messes about with legs, is quietly taking over its own corner of the digital world.

Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

Read more
Roblox CEO David Baszucki.
'Don't let your kids be on Roblox', Roblox CEO tells parents, before comparing himself to Walt Disney and declaring the platform 'the future of communication'
v-bucks
Fortnite has 58 creators that got paid over $1 million in 2024, and 7 of those made over $10 million
The G-Man, The Heavy and Widowmaker hanging out
PC gamers spend 92% of their time on older games, oh and there are apparently 908 million of us now
The Thing in Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals starts 2025 by clobberin' the most played charts, hitting over 640,000 players on Steam alone
Anime characters, bearded men, and a lizard gather around a treehouse
Eight years after arriving on Steam, VRChat just hit a new peak concurrent player count
Money money money.
Valve tracked 1.7 million Steam users who joined in 2023 to see if they stuck around—they did, and they spent $93 million
Latest in Platforms
A screenshot from game Mudborne of a little humanoid frog in a marsh
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 24, 2025)
midnight murder club
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 17, 2025)
Screenshot of Children of Clay showing a mysterious clay model
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 10, 2025)
discord
Brace yourself for Discord to get worse: Reports swirl that the company is in talks with bankers about opening itself up to shareholders
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
Steam users react ecstatically to update that lets them access their heaving game notes via the web, also it fixes Monster Hunter Wilds video recording
HasanAbi
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker suspended after saying Republicans would 'kill Rick Scott' if they really cared about Medicare fraud
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'