Roblox Over 40 - Issue #1

When most people think of Roblox, they often think of games for kids, and while that has definitely been the core market for Roblox, it isn’t the highest growing user segment any more. Today Roblox is seeing its highest user growth in the 17-24 age group, and over 38% of the DAUs (daily active users) on Roblox today are 17 or older. One of the core drivers of this growth into an older age range is new games and experiences that are geared towards adults, not kids.

At its core, Roblox is a great example of how successful the Metaverse has already become, and these are still the early days. As I write this, Roblox is on the verge of crossing the five billion user mark, yes - you read that right, Billion with a B.

I always find it ridiculous when people who never have experienced a Metaverse like Roblox tell me that “the Metaverse is a fad” or “I guess the Metaverse never took off.”

Roblox does over $2.4 billion a year in revenue - and while its one of the most popular Metaverses out there…it’s not the only one. Fortnite, another wildly popular gaming Metaverse brings in billions of dollars a year in revenue as well - so it’s safe to say that even in the early days, the Metaverse is very commercially viable.

So now let’s get to the elephant in the room, but also the reason for this newsletter. I’m over 40 and I’m starting to play Roblox. There I said it - the good news (for me) is - I’m not alone. There’s a growing community of Roblox players over 40 and if you’re one of them, or think you might want to dip your toes in the Metaverse waters, then you’re in the right place.

Adults have been playing video games for a long time, and as different generations become adults I believe the games that we play will change as well. I know we’ve all seen people playing chess in a park - that’s a game, a very old game, and one that since I can remember has been associated with intellect and wit.

Spend a few minutes in Roblox and you’ll see vast worlds that have been programmed to be dynamic, immersive, and, like chess, also very strategic and requiring plenty of intellect and wit. Unlike traditional games that have fixed pieces and rules, Roblox allows creators, like video game makers, to constantly update their games and its rules, constantly reacting to and evolving from player interaction.

What makes something like Roblox (and Metaverses in general) so different from a traditional video game that you’d play on a system like a PS5 or Nintendo Switch is the kind of analytics creators are able to gather, and in realtime. If I buy the newest Zelda Game (which I did, and yes, it’s spectacular) - Nintendo doesn’t get analytics on what I’m doing in the game in realtime, they don’t learn things that me and a million other players get confused with every time. The game is fixed, static, and while a ton of thought goes into it, lessons learned from the game come through focus groups and online reviews, and will end up going into the next game, 5+ years later.

In Roblox, on the other hand, if I play a game like Lords of the Multiverse or Vesteria, the creators collect detailed analytics in realtime, learn from them, and update the game as much as they want, instantly changing and innovating on the experience. This is one of the many things that makes me so excited about the Metaverse to begin with, the ability for the incredibly creative people behind the games and experiences to use data to learn and evolve what they build - it’s a paradigm shift, and a big one.

So as you can probably tell by now, I’m pretty excited about Roblox, and it’s still early in my journey. I am by no means a Roblox expert, but I’ve moved from curious to enthusiastically diving in. As I’ve been learning more about Roblox, I’ve found there aren’t too many resources for people over 40 who play Roblox so I thought, why not share what I learn with other people like me?

One of the resources I’ve enjoyed the most so far is the Keynote from the Roblox Developers Conference last year - you can watch it here or click the image below ⬇️

If this sounds interesting to you - subscribe away! And that’s a wrap for Issue #1, thanks for reading and I’m looking forward to sharing my Roblox journey with you.