Roblox Q3 2025 – Core Brief Edition
1) Headline takeaways
- DAU: 151.5M (+70% YoY)
- Engagement: 39.6B hours (+91% YoY)
- Revenue: $1.36B (+48% YoY)
- Bookings: $1.92B (+70% YoY)
- Paying users (MUP): 35.8M (+88% YoY)
- DevEx paid to creators: $428M (+85% YoY), +250% vs 2 yrs ago
2) Core Brief read
Roblox just printed one of its strongest “platform-scale” quarters: users, hours, and bookings all accelerated together — and not just because of 1–2 legacy games. Discovery is surfacing new hits fast enough to keep engagement growing, which is what you want to see in a UGC economy.
3) The real story = aging up
- 13+ DAUs: +89% YoY
- 68% of total hours = 13+
This is the strategic win: Roblox is moving from “kids platform” → “global gaming/social platform” and doing it without losing engagement in younger cohorts.
4) Geography mix (important)
- US/Canada bookings: +50% YoY
- APAC bookings: +110% YoY
- Indonesia bookings: +804% YoY
But: APAC = lower monetization → this is why engagement grows faster than bookings. Platform is healthy, ARPPU is just being diluted by fast-growing low-ARPU markets.
5) Creator economics
- DevEx +8.5% (rate increase)
- Creators earned >$1B in 9M 2025
This is Roblox defending its supply side vs Fortnite UEFN and other UGC plays. If creator earnings go up while bookings go up, the flywheel is working.
6) Tech & AI angle
- 400+ AI systems live (safety, discovery, creation)
- “Cube 4D” → real-time, in-experience generation (multiplayer) = foundation for higher-fidelity genres (shooters, racing, sports)
- Infra: moving more to own bare metal + GPUs + regional edge DCs → better latency, better cost control, better weekend bursting (they hit 45M concurrent)
7) Safety will be a (good) headwind
- AI-based facial age estimation for everyone by year-end
- Stricter gating for communication, no image sharing
Short term: can slow engagement in some regions. Long term: makes Roblox the “safe default” for brands, IP, and older users → good for valuation.
8) 2026 — what they actually said
- “Long-term objectives unchanged”
- …but 2025 was very strong
- …and they will spend more (DevEx, infra, safety)
→ So: expect some margin compression and possibly <20% bookings growth in 2026 because of tough comps + new policies. That’s what the market is reacting to — not a broken model.
9) Strategic frame (Core Brief)
- Thesis: Roblox is turning UGC scale → diversified gaming platform → AI-native creation layer.
- Proof: 7 experiences hit 10M+ DAU in Q3, 5 of them built in the last 12 months.
- Moat build: transparent discovery signals + higher creator payouts + proprietary 30,000-years/day interaction data (kept inside).