Roblox users up 22% to new high despite fading Metaverse hype

Roblox — an online multiplayer game where players can create their own games and connect with friends — released its quarterly results today with mixed results, but said the number of daily active users (DAU) hit a new all-time high . The company’s stock is up over 7% to nearly $39 today following the announcement.

Roblox stated that both revenue and DAU count for the first quarter of 2023 increased by 22% year over year. The company reported quarterly revenue of $655.3 million and 66.1 million daily users a statement.

Total hours spent in-game are also up 23% year-over-year, and the company saw a 23% increase in “bookings,” which are purchases of Roblox’s in-game virtual currency, Robux (which is not is a cryptocurrency).

A little over a year ago, Roblox had 54.1 million daily users – now it’s over 66 million. Despite its growing user base and rising revenue, the company still reported a net loss of $268.3 million. Reuters reported that Roblox’s losses were due to “developer exchange fees, staffing costs, and infrastructure.”

Michael Guthrie, Roblox’s chief financial officer, called Roblox’s first-quarter performance “strong.” Meanwhile, Roblox CEO David Baszucki said in the announcement that Roblox’s mission is to be a “technology platform” that enables developers.

“The momentum in our business demonstrates the success of our developer community bringing their visions to life on Roblox and attracting an ever-growing global user base of all ages,” said Baszucki.

Roblox is considered a “proto-metaverse“by some – an online game that foreshadows the kind of expansive, cross-platform, interactive future that some developers and companies believe is the future.”

However, it is a closed “Web2” ecosystem and the digital items and virtual currency in Roblox cannot be transferred to other video game platforms. Many Web3 Builders advocate the creation of one “Open Metaverse” This allows players to truly own their items as NFTs that can be used across games and platforms and sold as they wish.

Roblox recently launched deal with rare digital objects that appear to be blockchain-based NFTs: They are limited in number and may be resold to other users with a portion of the resale price returned to the original creator. However, like the non-rare items in the game, they remain tied to the Roblox platform.

Despite the waning mainstream interest in “metaverse“Over the past year, Roblox has continued to grow – and has continued to hire engineers and staff, among other things technology company carried out mass layoffs.