ROBLOX Overwhelmingly Remains a Mobile-Centric Metaverse Platform Despite Quest / PC / Console Option

Here's some new Roblox stats which caught my eye:

Roblox reached 82.9 million daily active users in 2024 with 80% of those playing the popular game on mobile devices, according to Roblox's annual report.

PC was the second most popular platform at just 17%, followed by consoles at 3%.

Emphasis mine! Lately the company has been pushing premium PC/console-centric content like Frontlines, a AAA-quality multiplayer game and Tunneler, a fan-made tribute to Portal, not to mention going on Quest headsets in 2023. Despite that, PC/console usage remains small, while Quest usage is 2% or below. (I can't even find a VR usage number in the full report.)

Disappointing that Roblox hasn't been able to diversify usage much beyond mobile, which would also lead to a more diversified user base. (I.E., not just mostly kids on their parents phones/tablets.) But by the company's own data, that hasn't happened yet.

Full Roblox report here [pdf], link via PocketGamer.

Comments

[Brian Aviator]

I am wondering if it will ever happen. Our Virtual Museum Team decided to abandon a well underway project to bring our "Museum of Computing History" to Roblox because of excessive moderation sanctions/bans on our accounts for content related to computing history. For example, a Creative Commons licensed photo texture upload of Vinton Cerf (recognized by many as one of the "fathers of the Internet") caused a sanction/ban on my account for "Political Content" (ultimately reversed on appeal). Another upload was labeled "PII Disclosure" (for a FICTIONAL figure, also later reversed on appeal). An upload of a mesh of Lady Ada Lovelace (the Ada programming language was named after her and she's considered likely to be the first computer programmer of Charles Babbage's analytical engine) was deemed "Sexual Content" and appeals were denied. I suspect much of these hits are coming from algorithmic/machine learning moderation systems - but even the human moderators appear to be overzealous against content. Given the constant risk of having work deleted or banned it just wasn't worth continuing with the build.

This also raises concerns about Linden Lab's statements about implementing AI/ML tools for governance. If Second Life starts having such automated moderation against content, it will certainly anger and drive creators elsewhere.