The metaverse is already here: Gamers spent nearly 50 billion hours on Roblox in 2022
Quick Take
- Roblox’s DAUs grew by 23% to 56 million year-over-year in 2022.
- The company also sold $2.9 billion worth of “Robux,” the internal currency players use to customize their playing experience.
Metaverse enthusiasts have something to cheer about, with Roblox growing on all fronts.
Not only did Roblox increase its user numbers and the size of its platform’s internal economy in 2022, players also spent nearly 50 billion hours engaging with the platform, up 19% from the previous year. Shares of the company jumped 25% after the open.
Roblox reported that its daily active-user total grew by 23% to 56 million when comparing 2022 to the previous year. The company also said that in January its number of daily active users hit 65 million.
In the eyes of many tech leaders, Roblox’s popularity with younger users, coupled with the way the platform functions, serves as a model of an already working metaverse.
Full year 2022 “bookings” also increased by 5%, with Roblox reporting that it generated $2.9 billion selling the platform's internal currency. The company characterizes “bookings” as the revenue it created by users purchasing "Robux," the currency players then use to customize their playing experience, such as their avatars.
“2022 was a year of innovation and invention for Roblox,” Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki said in a statement. “With 65 million daily active users in January, we are driving towards our vision to reimagine the way people come together by enabling deeper forms of expression, communication and immersion.”
While Roblox is a closed system, it does allow for developers to create their own games and experiences on the platform. This provides external developers the opportunity to not only fashion the types of digital social interactions they crave, but also benefit financially when the “servers” they develop generate significant engagement.
During 2022, the total number of hours users “engaged” with the gaming and social platform came in at 49.3 billion, a 19% increase from last year, Roblox said. In 2o21, users engaged with the platform for 41.4 billion hours.
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