Above: Image from ROBLOX's stock filing, data from the first 9 months of 2020
ROBLOX just filed its Form S-1 in preparation for going public, giving us a good glimpse at the virtual world platform's metrics. And they're pretty amazing! I'm still digging into it, but its 2020 standout stats for me so far:
31 million daily active users in 2020, nearly doubling since 2018: "Daily active users, or DAUs, on Roblox grew 47%, from 12.0 million DAUs in 2018 to 17.6 million in 2019, and grew 82%, from 17.1 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2019 to 31.1 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2020."
52% of Roblox's revenue now from mobile apps: "For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, 34% of our revenue was attributable to Robux sales through the Apple App Store and 18% of our revenue was attributable to Robux sales through the Google Play Store..." The vast majority of Roblox's activity is from mobile usage too: "[D]uring the same period 68% of our engagement hours on the platform were from users who signed up through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store."
With nearly $600 million in 2020 revenue for company by September, total annual revenue could exceed $800 million or (with the new pandemic quarantine and people indoors during the holidays) even reach toward $1 billion. But how much of that revenue is shared with Roblox's user creators, who make the bulk of the games and other interactive entertainment on the platform? That brings us to another interesting point:
User creators earned $209 million in 2020, almost 3X in 2019: "Earned Robux are deposited into the virtual accounts of the developers and creators, who can convert Robux into the real-world currency of their choice through our Developer Exchange Program. In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, developers and creators earned $209.2 million, up from $72.2 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2019."
So that's a substantial increase, and a much fairer split than it has been before. It's not as even a split as Second Life, where user creators gross about as much as the company itself, but the trendline is promising.
Hat tip: Metaverse expert Matthew Ball, who's tweeting his own observations (as below):
6th "Risk Factor" is on how Apple and Google could harm their business through policy changes, non-support, non-approval, etc.
— Matthew Ball (@ballmatthew) November 19, 2020
YTD:
- 34% of revenue from iOS, 18% Google Play
- 68% of total engagement from users acquired through both pic.twitter.com/rzf78mbvWg
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