Most adults don’t understand Roblox, yet
While we’re still in the early days of Metaverse adoption everything can seem like a “fad” or “something my kids play,” until it isn’t. In the case of Roblox I see a lot of confusion, often with adults who have young kids who play in what is arguably the most popular Metaverse in the world.
So if you think Roblox is just for little kids, it’s time for a bit of a reset. But first, let’s talk numbers because Roblox is living proof that the Metaverse, as a business model is wildly successful.
Roblox generates over $2.4B a year in revenue, yes, B for billions. It also just crossed the 5B, yes B for billions again, user mark and it’s still growing. On a daily basis there are 42.3M active users on Roblox and 9.5M developers currently building on the platform.
These are all massive numbers from both a financial and pure usage standpoint. And just like games in the real world, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprised that it’s played by a wide range of age groups.
Baseball, football and soccer are all popular with kids under ten, but also with kids over 17, and yes — the same is true for Roblox. But here’s what’s so interesting about how Roblox is evolving, currently, users 17 and older represent Roblox’s fastest growing user segment. (Source)
What this means is that there’s a shift going on. The games that kids play on Roblox is different from the games that people 17+ play. As this segment continues to grow Roblox is becoming a platform with a lot more content and experience for adults. This shift directly connects with the vision David Baszucki (Founder + CEO) has for the company.
At Roblox, we are building an immersive platform for communication and connection, with safety and civility at its foundation, that simulates the real world. In real life, people visit places designed for all ages every day, from theme parks to city parks. Older age groups enter environments that require some form of age verification, from nightclubs to some concerts or movies. On Roblox, we want to recreate these dynamics of real life in virtual space. (Source — Roblox)
I recently watched the keynote from Roblox’s developer conference last year. What really struck me about how David talked about Roblox is how much focus there is on communication and experience vs. gaming.
While today I think it’s fair to say Roblox is mostly a Metaverse focused on gaming, it’s clear, like David said in the vision statement above, that there’s a shift taking place. The idea of virtual world that simulate real life and allows us to communicate and have experiences with people like we do today in the real world is a powerful concept that I think many people are still trying to wrap their heads around.
For many adults I see an instant rebuke of this concept. “Why would I want to hang out in a virtual world with someone? I’d rather spend time with them in real life.”
And I agree. But here’s the complexity of real life — you can’t always spend time in-person with friends and family as much as you’d like. If you don’t live in the same city as your parents, maybe you only see them a few times a year. FaceTime and Zoom have enabled what is essentially visual phone calls, but I don’t think anyone finds these analogous to real life experiences.
Now imagine some percentage of those Zoom or FaceTime calls with family shifting to going for a walk in a virtual world, stopping by a waterfall and playing chess or just talking — this is an experience, a virtual one, but still an experience that mirror what you would do in real life if you could be together. At the same time it also opens to door to new experiences that you might not be able to have any more. You probably aren’t going to be hiking through the Amazon with your 90-year-old grandparent, but you can in a virtual world.
Metaverses like Roblox open up an entirely new world for adults to both communicate and share experiences together. While these are still the early days I can tell you while I can’t see my Mom every week, I’d sure love to go for a walk with her in a virtual world, stop to take in a view, and maybe even play a game of Parcheesi, one of our all-time favs. This is all becoming possible not in the next ten years, but now. It doesn’t require fancy VR glasses or a gaming PC, it works on the phone or tablet you already have.
Companies like Roblox are pioneering a new way of sharing experiences, not to replace in-person, but to supplement and provide something I think can be much more rich and meaningful than FaceTime or Zoom can. So next time you look at your five year-old playing Roblox, know that she isn’t going to “grow out of it,” — this is a foundational change in how we communicate and interact with other people — you’ll get there too, it just takes time.
