According to the Q1 2026 Shareholder Letter dated April 30, 2026, Roblox reported 132 million average daily active users, up 35% year-over-year but well off the 69% Q4 2025 growth rate disclosed in the Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter (Feb 5, 2026). The deceleration is the central story of any current Roblox stats picture. The platform ban in Russia went into effect in December 2025, and DAU and bookings growth decelerated from the outsized gains.
Key Takeaways
- Roblox posted 132 million average daily active users in Q1 2026, adding nearly 34 million DAUs versus Q1 2025.
- Hours engaged climbed to 31 billion, up 43% year-over-year, outpacing user growth and signaling deeper engagement per user.
- Q1 2026 revenue reached $1.4 billion, up 39% year-over-year; bookings hit $1.7 billion, up 43%.
- Among age-checked users, 35% are younger than 13, 38% are 13 to 17, and 27% are 18 or older.
- The Over-18 monetization premium in the U.S.: over-18 users monetize over 50% higher than under-18 users, with the 18-34 cohort growing over 50% year-over-year.
- Roblox’s top 1,000 creators earned an average of $1.3 million in 2025, up over 50% compared to a year ago.
Editor’s Choice
- Roblox booked $6.8 billion in fiscal 2025, up 55% year-over-year.
- The platform generated $4.9 billion in revenue in 2025, growing 36% year-over-year.
- Q4 2025 DAU climbed to 144 million, up 69% year-over-year, the high-water mark before the Q1 2026 deceleration.
- Roblox closed Q1 2026 with $6.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments.
- Average monthly unique payers reached 31 million in Q1 2026, up 52% year-over-year.
- Roblox claimed 3.4% of the global gaming content market at the end of 2025, with a long-term target of 10%.
Recent Developments
- April 30, 2026: Roblox cut its full-year 2026 guidance: revenue growth now expected in the 20% to 25% range, with bookings growth of just 8% to 12%.
- April 30, 2026: The company announced a DevEx rate increase to 37.8% (from 26.6%) for age-checked over-18 U.S. users, effective June 8, conditioned on creators using the R15 avatar framework.
- February 5, 2026: Roblox closed fiscal 2025 with bookings up 55% year-over-year to $6.8 billion, significantly exceeding annual guidance.
- February 2026: Roblox’s Newsroom post reported that 45% of its global daily active users have completed an age check, with chat functionality now gated on verified age.
- January 2026: Age checks began being required for chat functionality, introducing a structural headwind to new-user acquisition.
- December 2025: Russia banned the Roblox platform, contributing to decelerating DAU and bookings growth in subsequent quarters.
Roblox Daily Active Users
Roblox’s daily active user base reached 132 million in Q1 2026, an increase of nearly 34 million users from Q1 2025. The headline figure has to be read against the prior quarter’s 144 million. Roblox saw a sequential decline tied to the Russia ban and age-check headwinds, not a fresh peak. For comparison, Minecraft’s player base trends higher in registered accounts but lags in concurrent engagement metrics, and Xbox player engagement data shows a smaller but older daily-engaged cohort.
- Q1 2026 DAU: 132 million, up 35% year-over-year.
- Q4 2025 DAU: 144 million, up 69% year-over-year.
- DAU growth added approximately 60 million users from Q4 2024 to Q4 2025.
- Q2 2026 outlook: Roblox expects a sequential decline in DAUs, reflecting continued safety-rollout drag.
- Average DAUs grew nearly 34 million users between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026.
- Growth deceleration: Q1 2026 DAU growth of 35% trails the Q4 2025 pace of 69%.
- Geographic drag: the December 2025 Russia ban contributed to decelerating DAU and bookings growth.
| Period | DAU (millions) | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | ~98 | baseline |
| Q4 2025 | 144 | 69% |
| Q1 2026 | 132 | 35% |
Source: Roblox Shareholder Letters
By the numbers: Per the Q1 2026 Shareholder Letter, Roblox added nearly 34 million DAUs year-over-year to reach 132 million, even as growth decelerated from the 69% pace of Q4 2025. The mix shift toward older, higher-monetizing users gives management a financial offset to the absolute slowdown.
DAU growth crested before the Q1 reset, and the next section traces how engagement hours scaled in parallel.
Roblox Monthly Active Users and Hours Engaged
Roblox does not disclose a single MAU figure. Its standard cadence is DAUs and Hours engaged. Hours engaged climbed 43% year-over-year to 31 billion in Q1 2026, outpacing the DAU growth rate by 8 percentage points.
- Q1 2026 hours engaged: 31 billion.
- Q1 2026 hours growth rate: 43% year-over-year.
- Q4 2025 hours engaged growth: up 88% year-over-year.
- Engagement growth outpaced DAU growth in Q1 2026 by 8 percentage points.
- Hours per DAU implied by Q1 2026 figures: roughly 2.6 hours daily on average per DAU (31 billion hours divided by 132 million DAUs divided by 90 days).
- Top 10 content concentration is loosening: experiences outside the top 10 saw 43% engagement growth and 41% Robux spending growth in Q1 2026.
| Metric | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Hours engaged | ~28 billion (88% YoY) | 31 billion (43% YoY) |
| DAU | 144 million | 132 million |
| Implied hours/DAU/day | ~2.1 | ~2.6 |
Source: Roblox Shareholder Letters
Engagement growth has outpaced DAU growth, and the revenue picture below shows how that translates to dollars.
Roblox Revenue and Bookings
Revenue of $1.4 billion grew 39% year-over-year, while bookings of $1.7 billion grew 43% in the most recent quarter. Under GAAP, the vast majority of Q1 bookings and associated payment-processing fees are deferred and recognized as revenue over the estimated average lifetime of a paying user.
- Q1 2026 revenue: $1.4 billion, up 39% year-over-year.
- Q1 2026 bookings: $1.7 billion, up 43% year-over-year.
- FY 2025 revenue: $4.9 billion, up 36% year-over-year.
- FY 2025 bookings: $6.8 billion, up 55% year-over-year.
- Q4 2025 standalone: revenue and bookings increased 43% and 63% year-over-year, respectively.
- Constant-currency context: Q1 2026 revenue and bookings were both up 38% year-over-year on a constant-currency basis.
- Long-tail spend: experiences outside the top 10 accounted for 65% of Robux spend growth in Q1 2026.
- Operating cash flow Q1 2026: $629 million, up 42% year-over-year.
- Free cash flow Q1 2026: $596 million, up 40% year-over-year.
Bookings hide a deferred-revenue story, and demographics reveal who is paying for what.
Roblox Demographics by Age and Region
Among Roblox’s age-checked users globally, 35% are younger than 13, 38% are age 13 to 17, and 27% are 18 or older. The under-18 base remains the platform’s center of gravity, but the over-18 share is the cohort driving incremental bookings. Roblox’s audience profile differs sharply from traditional consoles; and from broader Gen Z platform preferences, which spread Gen Z attention across video, social, and gaming surfaces.
- Under 13: 35% of age-checked users.
- Ages 13 to 17: 38% of age-checked users.
- Ages 18 and over: 27% of age-checked users.
- Age-checked share of DAU: 45% of 144 million global DAUs had completed an age check as of February 2026.
- O18 share of age-checked DAUs: 26% of age-checked DAUs are over 18.
- U.S. 18-34 cohort growth: over 50% year-over-year, faster than any other cohort.
- U.S. O18 DAU and Hours growth: both grew 40% year-over-year.
- U.S. monetization gap: over-18 users monetize over 50% higher than under-18 users in the U.S.
Key finding: Per Roblox’s Q1 2026 Shareholder Letter, U.S. over-18 users monetize over 50% higher than under-18 users, and the 18-34 cohort grew over 50% year-over-year, faster than any other age slice on the platform.
The older-user thrust isn’t just demographic. It powers a creator-payout shift documented next.
Roblox Developer and Creator Earnings
Roblox runs a sizeable creator economy. The top 1,000 creators on the platform earned an average of $1.3 million in 2025, up over 50% compared to a year ago. The company is restructuring its developer-exchange rates to pull more older-audience content onto the platform.
- 2025 top-1,000 creator average earnings: $1.3 million.
- Year-over-year creator earnings growth: over 50%.
- 2025 DevEx rate increase: Roblox raised the DevEx rate by 8.5% in September.
- New DevEx rate effective June 8, 2026: 37.8% for age-checked over-18 U.S. users (up from 26.6%).
- Avatar requirement: games must utilize the R15 avatar framework to qualify for the higher rate.
- 2025 DevEx rate increase: raised by 8.5% in September.
| Metric | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Top 1,000 creator avg earnings | ~$860,000 | $1.3 million |
| DevEx rate change | not disclosed | +8.5% (Sept) |
| New DevEx rate (O18 US age-checked) | 26.6% | 37.8% (June 8) |
Source: Roblox Shareholder Letters
Creator earnings track paying-user lifetime, and that lifetime number drives the next section’s economics.
Roblox Average Paying User Lifetime and Monetization
The average lifetime of a paying user was 27 months during Q1 2026. Bookings are deferred and recognized as revenue over that 27-month window, a stickiness profile closer to a subscription service like Spotify than to a transactional game store. The deferral mechanic explains why GAAP revenue lags bookings by roughly two years’ worth of payer activity at any given time.
- Average paying user lifetime Q1 2026: 27 months.
- Average monthly unique payers Q1 2026: 31 million, up 52% year-over-year.
- U.S. and Canada payer growth Q1 2026: up 19% year-over-year on a larger payer base.
- 2025 average bookings per DAU: increased year-over-year and was up double-digits in the U.S. and Canada.
- 2025 average monthly unique payers growth: over 65%.
- Q1 2026 cash and investments balance: $6.2 billion, up $1.7 billion versus the prior year.
- Q1 2026 diluted share count: 749 million shares, up 2% year-over-year.
| Metric | FY 2025 | Q1 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly unique payers | grew over 65% YoY | 31 million (up 52% YoY) |
| Avg paying user lifetime | 27 months (Q4 2025) | 27 months |
| Cash + investments | $5.5 billion (Dec 31, 2025) | $6.2 billion (Mar 31, 2026) |
Source: Roblox Shareholder Letters
Worth noting: Roblox’s average paying-user lifetime of 27 months in Q1 2026 means GAAP revenue trails real-time bookings by roughly two years of payer activity. Investors treating bookings as revenue overstate the income statement; investors treating revenue as bookings understate platform momentum.
Monetization compounds because users return, and safety policy is the headwind tested below.
Roblox Safety and Age-Check Adoption
Roblox began rolling out mandatory age checks in January 2026, treating them as both a safety upgrade and a strategic gate on the platform’s older-audience expansion. As of February 2026, 45% of Roblox’s 144 million daily active users globally had completed an age check. The trade-off is explicit in management’s own framing: the age-check rollout slowed new-user acquisition in the near term.
- Age check completion rate (Feb 2026): 45% of 144 million global DAU.
- Age verification methods: Facial Age Estimation or ID verification in place of self-reported age.
- Chat functionality requirement: Age checks began being required for chat functionality in January 2026.
- Behavioral signals: the system continuously evaluates user behavior, leveraging multiple signals to determine if someone is significantly older or younger than their profile says they are.
- Adult user correction: users 18+ receive a one-time reset option in their Account Settings.
- Parental controls: parents have a one-time opportunity to correct their child’s age via Parental Controls.
- Growth impact: Roblox cited greater-than-expected headwinds from its age-check rollout that restricted on-platform communication for non-age-verified users and slowed new user acquisition.
| Safety Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global DAU completed age check (Feb 2026) | 45% (of 144 million) |
| Verification methods | Facial Age Estimation, ID verification |
| Chat gating | Required since January 2026 |
| Account correction | One-time reset (adults), parental correction (under-13) |
Source: Roblox Newsroom, Roblox Shareholder Letter
Age-check headwinds shaped the long-tail content thesis examined next.
Roblox Long-Tail Content and Novel Game Growth
The Q1 2026 letter is the first time Roblox quantified the long-tail strength of its catalog. Experiences outside the top 10 saw 43% growth in engagement year-over-year and 41% growth in Robux spending year-over-year, accounting for 65% of growth in Robux spend in the quarter. Content concentration risk is loosening; the most-played games are no longer where incremental growth comes from. Roblox is also investing in AI for safety moderation and content discovery to keep that long tail visible.
- Long-tail engagement growth Q1 2026: 43% year-over-year for experiences outside the top 10.
- Long-tail Robux spending growth Q1 2026: 41% year-over-year.
- Long-tail share of growth: 65% of Q1 2026 Robux-spend growth came from experiences outside the top 10.
- O18 share of age-checked DAUs: 26%.
- External franchise pull: Roblox is aggressively moving to capture the untapped opportunity to expand its O18 user base, the largest segment of the traditional gaming market.
- AI infrastructure: Roblox achieved a 10x efficiency improvement for certain AI workloads related to safety moderation, discovery, and content generation in Q4 2025.
Content diversity also attracts advertisers, and the next data H2 shows how.
Roblox Advertising and Rewarded Video
Roblox’s advertising business is still small relative to its bookings engine, but is accelerating. For over 1,000 brands, Rewarded Video is delivering performance comparable to industry standards with completion rates of over 90% and viewability rates of 95%. Management remains explicit that advertising revenue currently remains modest, even as the surface area expands.
- Rewarded Video completion rate: over 90%.
- Rewarded Video viewability rate: 95%.
- Advertiser count using Rewarded Video: over 1,000 brands.
- Cost-per-play reduction: greater than 40% reduction in cost-per-play versus Q1 2025 following the 2025 Ads Manager overhaul.
- Traffic-driving ad experience adoption: up over 75% year-over-year in Q1 2026.
- Bookings without ad dependence: Roblox generated nearly $7 billion in bookings from its user base in fiscal 2025 without significant reliance on advertising.
Advertising remains modest, and the guidance section explains how management is sizing that opportunity.
Roblox Outlook and Guidance
Full-year 2026 revenue growth is now expected in the 20% to 25% range, with bookings growth of just 8% to 12%, sharply below the 55% bookings growth Roblox posted in fiscal 2025. The cut acknowledges that age-check headwinds will persist for several quarters, not vanish in Q2.
- FY 2026 revenue growth guidance: 20% to 25%.
- FY 2026 bookings growth guidance: 8% to 12%.
- FY 2026 operating cash flow guidance: $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion.
- FY 2026 free cash flow guidance: $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion.
- Q2 2026 revenue growth guidance: 29% to 34%.
- Q2 2026 bookings growth guidance: 8% to 12%.
- Q2 2026 DAU outlook: A sequential decline in DAUs is expected.
- Q2 2026 operating cash flow guidance: $260 million to $275 million.
| Metric | Updated FY2026 Guidance |
|---|---|
| Revenue growth | 20% to 25% |
| Bookings growth | 8% to 12% |
| Operating cash flow | $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion |
| Free cash flow | $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion |
Source: Roblox Shareholder Letter
The outlook frames a near-term reset, and the questions below address recurring reader concerns.
Common Questions
How many countries play Roblox?
Roblox does not publish a country-level user breakdown, but the platform is available globally with one notable exception: Russia banned the Roblox platform in December 2025, contributing to decelerating DAU and bookings growth in subsequent quarters. The company’s payer growth in international markets was strong in Q1 2026, suggesting a wide geographic distribution outside the U.S. market.
Is Roblox profitable?
By GAAP accounting, no. Roblox defers the vast majority of bookings and associated payment-processing fees, recognizing them as revenue over the estimated 27-month average lifetime of a paying user, while costs like DevEx fees and personnel are recognized in the period incurred. On a cash basis, the picture is different: Q1 2026 produced $629 million in operating cash flow and $596 million in free cash flow.
Conclusion
Roblox closed the quarter with 132 million daily active users, 31 billion hours engaged, and $1.7 billion in bookings, strong figures in absolute terms, a clear step down on the trend line. The age-check rollout, the Russia ban, and management’s own acknowledgment that safety headwinds will persist together explain the revised FY2026 bookings growth guidance of 8% to 12%.
Three numbers documented above shape the medium-term picture: the 27-month average paying-user lifetime, the over-50% monetization premium of U.S. over-18 users, and the 65% long-tail share of Robux-spend growth. If management’s older-audience push pays off, the deceleration looks like a one-quarter reset. Full primary disclosures live in the Roblox Investor Relations archive.
