Roblox bookings grow, hinting at stronger user spending

Roblox, the gaming and creation platform, saw users, engagement and – crucially – spend on the platform grow in December on a year-over-year comparison, according to its key metrics.

Why it matters

Roblox bookings – user spend on the in-platform currency, Robux – are an indicator of consumers’ appetite for spending on virtual items and, therefore, potentially the metaverse.

What’s going on

According to its December Key Metrics announcement (which it will cease publishing monthly in April), the platform showed strong growth across the board:

• Daily active users over the month were up 18% YOY
• Hours engaged grew 21% YOY
• Bookings up between 17%-20% YOY
• Bookings per daily active user grew 1% YOY to reach between $6.99 and $7.14.

Revenues, meanwhile, declined between 1% and 6% versus the same month last year. However, there are currency fluctuations because of a strong dollar; adjusted for ForEx, revenue change was between 0% and 5%.

In context

As the company has spoken about at length before, it is in the process of growing an older – and therefore more lucrative – fanbase in the coming year to strengthen the business, and to build an audience more attractive to the advertisers that are important to its next phase of revenue growth.

Sourced from Roblox, WARC