Roblox to share more revenue with creators for paid games

As Roblox marches toward its ultimate goal of 1 billion users, the company is finding new ways to share revenue with the developers who have made millions of games on the platform.

During the company’s annual developers conference in San Francisco on Friday, CEO David Baszucki announced that creators of these games, which Roblox calls experiences, will be able to keep between 50 and 70 percent of revenue from their paid titles when they’re purchased in real currency on desktop computers. That’s significantly more than the roughly 30 percent revenue split Roblox gives developers for purchases made with its native Robux currency inside freemium experiences.

The move could help incentivize the creation of more premium games as Roblox looks to attract older users. Baszucki says the intention is to also bring these new economics to paid experiences bought on other devices, including mobile phones and consoles, though app store fees will likely get in the way on iOS and Android. He declined to share specifics.

“We believe we’re setting the groundwork for a more expansive range of type of content on the platform,” Baszucki tells me with regard to paid experiences. In addition, he says there’s “a huge effort within the company to support 100-plus-player open-world sports or battle royale-type experiences on low-end devices.” Though he doesn’t say it, that strategy is seemingly aimed at competing more directly with Epic Games’ Fortnite, which Roblox still doesn’t have a viable alternative to on its platform.

Another way Roblox is sharing money with creators is via a new affiliate link program. Those who are accepted into it will be able to earn up to 50 percent (capped at $100) of Robux purchases a new user makes within six months after joining from their sign-up link. “I think it’s going to make it a lot easier for creators to be comfortable leaning into heavy social marketing” for the platform, says Baszucki of the new program.

Roblox’s other big announcements at this year’s developer conference include a new “Party” mode that lets up to six people communicate and move between experiences as a group. Starting early next year, it’s also partnering with Shopify to let developers sell real-world items through the platform. Revenue sharing terms of that arrangement haven’t been disclosed yet.

While Roblox’s daily user base continued to steadily grow to 79.5 million last quarter, the company has come under fire in a recent Bloomberg investigation titled “Roblox’s Pedophile Problem.” After that story was published this summer, the government of Turkey banned Roblox, citing its hosting of “virtual sex parties” and “violent games” played by children. Roblox this week appealed the ban, and Baszucki tells me, “We’re optimistic and working with their government and their courts.”

He says that “any incident on our platform is unacceptable” and that trust and safety is the “top priority” inside the company. “Our AI gets better all the time. Our human review gets better all the time. So, from my standpoint, the quality of our safety systems has constantly been improving.”