Today's quick metaverse platform stat shot from Nasdaq on Roblox:
At the end of the second quarter of 2022, Roblox had 52.2 million Daily Active Users (DAUs) globally, which, however, declined from 54.1 million reported at the end of first-quarter 2022... Roblox is suffering from a reduced engagement level. In second-quarter 2022, hours engaged declined from 11.82 million to 11.29 million sequentially. Moreover, bookings declined 4% year over year to $639.9 million. Daily paying users also decreased from approximately 676K to 667K. Additionally, monetization per daily paying user decreased 3%.
Emphasis mine, because huh? I'm getting the impression that Wall Street doesn't realize metaverse platform use tends to be seasonal, specifically: It generally goes down in the Summer when people are offline and on vacation. I'm actually surprised hourly activity in Roblox went down so little. Update, 4:00pm: Or maybe that was just a temporary dip -- Matt Ball just reminded me that at its developers' convention last weekend, Roblox announced 58.5 million Daily Active Users in July.
Speaking of which, Roblox is actively getting into ad monetization in the weirdest way possible:
The new ads system, meanwhile, is a way for brands to advertise across Roblox experiences through interactive billboards, posters, and other surfaces. Working initially with a group of selected companies and developers, the new ad system will allow creators to drop 3D ads into their own experiences — like a billboard in a sports stadium or on top of a cab in a game — and to get a cut of the ad revenue. In addition to ads within user-created experiences, brands will also be able to have “portals” that act like a tunnel between games, taking players to a new branded area in Roblox like a shoe store or a coffee shop. The company will begin testing immersive ads by the end of the year, with a full launch planned for next year.
Setting aside whether consumers even want more billboards in their virtual world, attempting to engaged them with 2D surfaces in a 3D space seems the least effective way to connect. Chipotle's Roblox game experience attracted 5 million+ extra visits mainly through word of mouth about a free burrito and also being, you know, kind of fun.
Pictured: 1867, a game experience on Roblox with an intriguing backstory. It started out as a Second Life-based community called Pfaffenthal 1867, associated with a real life museum in Luxembourg City. You know, the kind of thing people visit on vacation in the Summer. Read about it here.
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