In the first three months of 2023, Roblox creators selling things like original minigames and clothes for in-game avatars have made a whopping $182 million.
And yes, that’s real-world dollars.
“Since our earliest days, Roblox‘s economy has been driven by our creators,” Roblox developers said in a blog post. “Over the years, their ingenuity has made our economy vibrant and dynamic, and by 2022, our platform’s GDP had grown to become as large as that of some countries.”
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Now, with $624 million going out to creators last year and 2023 set to outstrip that number, Roblox sees itself as “one of the biggest virtual economies on Earth.” Every day, it says, 66 million users from 180 countries log in to Roblox, and their virtual purchases can result in some serious cash for creators.
In 2022, Roblox‘s top 10 creators earned an average of $23 million apiece, and “nearly every creator in our top 500 earned at least $140,000,” it says. To give you a sense of scale, Roblox‘s 1,000th top-earning creator of 2022 brought in $55,000.
If that’s how much creators are making, Roblox itself is earning substantially more: Creators only get 29% of the Robux (Roblox‘s in-game currency, purchasable and cash-out-able into USD and other official currencies) spent on their offerings.
Roblox says it’s working on other ways for creators to monetize, including adding the ability for them to make and sell head and body customizations the way they already sell outfits and accessories, monthly subscriptions, and “the ability to purchase real-world goods within an experience,” it says. (“Experiences” is its catch-all term for creator-made virtual minigames, locations, events, etc.)
“When we think about Roblox‘s future, we envision a platform where anyone can be a buyer, creator, seller, curator, or IP owner,” it says. “As ambitious as it sounds, we believe that many new careers, industries, and business models will be born on Roblox. We wait to see what our community builds.”
This post comes not long after Roblox introduced “immersive ads,” which pay out to creators, and launched the Roblox Partner Program, where “platform advocates” like independent game dev studios and brands can speak directly to Roblox about elements of the platform, like how those immersive ads are going, research and measurement, and product/content development.
