Roblox is on pace to pay out more than $1 billion to its creator community in 2025, and it is looking to push that number even higher with a new revenue stream. The sandbox platform’s Creator Rewards program will deliver Robux to experience developers who keep players engaged or recruit new users.
As explained in a Roblox blog post, there are two different types of payouts involved in the Creator Rewards program. The Daily Engagement Reward will replace Roblox’s preexisting engagement-based revenue stream and will pay five Robux to creators when an “Active Spender” — defined as a user who has spent at least $9.99 in Roblox over the past 60 days — spends at least ten minutes in one of that creator’s experiences. The reward will only trigger on the first three experiences each Active Spender plays each day.
The Audience Expansion Reward is geared toward creators who bring new users to Roblox. It will evolve the Creator Affiliate program by making purchases more profitable when they come from new users or users who had previously been inactive for at least 60 days. When those users make purchases during their first two months of activity, the selling creators will pocket 35% of the resulting revenue.
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Both of these reward systems will replace their predecessors on July 24, one month after the initial announcement. Why is Roblox making a change now? Here are three factors that potentially informed the decision:
Engagement-based payouts are the new hotness, and Roblox is keeping up with competitors
TikTok’s evolving payout philosophy exemplifies the shifting winds of creator monetization. The 2023 decision to nix the problematic TikTok Creator Fund paved the way for the introduction of revenue streams like the Creator Rewards Program, which incorporates factors like watch time and engagement.
The other big platform for creator-built words — Fortnite — has had engagement-based payouts baked into its monetization structure from the start. The program known as Fortnite Creative delivers revenue to creators that increases as those islands bring in more play time and new players. The similarities between that system and Roblox’s new Creator Rewards are likely not coincidental.
Paying creators in Robux could stimulate on-platform ecommerce
Roblox’s on-platform currency can be cashed out for USD, but the San Mateo-based company has devoted a lot of resources to make its environment more shoppable. The introduction of real-world merch within creator worlds established a link between the flow of Robux and the sale of tangible goods.
Other recent developments at Roblox HQ have included the introduction of regional pricing — which makes purchases more tenable for users from underdeveloped regions — and the launch of a web series that dispenses item creation tips from top members of the game’s community. The sum of all these moves is clear: Roblox wants to put a lot more Robux in circulation while making the digital currency more powerful as well.
To misquote Ned Stark: “GTA VI is coming”
The latest chapter in Rockstar‘s open-world saga has been in development so long that it’s become a meme, but Grand Theft Auto VI is actually imminent now, and the rest of the gaming world is paying attention. Rockstar wants to turn GTA VI into the next big platform for creator-built worlds, and the ongoing popularity of GTA V suggests that players will be eager to check out the next installment.
The biggest advantage Roblox has over GTA VI is time. It has already built a billion-dollar creator economy, so the next step is to shore up that ecosystem to ensure creators stick around as other similar platforms come and go.
