Metaverse platform Roblox now has more monthly active users in the United States (according to RTrack).
My 2024 prediction came true sooner than expected.
According to RTrack, a leading Roblox analytics service, Roblox 354 million monthly active users This is an increase of 54 million users since June, when RTrack estimated Roblox’s MAU at 300 million. A knowledgeable insider I trust told me that RTrack is a trustworthy service. So I’d like to believe that these numbers are roughly accurate. Especially because this number matches the company’s publicly reported number of daily active users of 70 million.
That is, yes. Roblox currently has more monthly active users globally than it has in the United States. (IE 336 million, give or take.)
The Roblox company has moved away from calling itself the Metaverse over the past year or two. Although Meta and various web3 startups have tried to avoid the negative connotations of misuse of the term, they actually describe themselves as the Metaverse. Apply for IPO:
Some people call our category the metaverse. Metaverse is a term often used in virtual universes to describe the concept of a persistent, shared 3D virtual space. The idea of a metaverse has been written about by futurists and science fiction writers for over 30 years. With the advent of increasingly powerful consumer computing devices, cloud computing, and high-bandwidth Internet connections, the concept of the metaverse is taking shape.
But given record user growth, the term could soon become synonymous with Roblox itself.
Not surprisingly, several developers and content creators who got their start in Second Life now work full-time at Roblox (either on the corporate or UGC side). Richard Nelson, who worked as an engineer at Linden Lab for nearly 20 years, is now a senior developer at Roblox. In my book, he explains some of the secrets to the platform’s success:
There are a few things about Roblox’s release process that are worth emulating. We regularly release new releases every week. This allows users to get new features and bug fixes faster. We combine this with the principles of use. "feature flags" For all features, this means that new code released can be immediately disabled if it turns out to be problematic. This safety net is invaluable as it prevents most emergency releases and keeps the platform stable and reliable.
I also think there’s a lot to be said for dedicated creation tools like Roblox Studio, aimed specifically at the creative segment of users. One immediate benefit compared to the Second Life approach is that it simplifies the client interface for non-creators. It also makes it much easier to build dynamic experiences (e.g. a physical object rolling to the bottom of a hill) because you don’t have to worry about the state of the object underneath changing while you edit.
Hat tip: Jon Radoff quotes VC Brian Cho.