Roblox, an online video game platform, earned about $1.2 billion in 2020 by selling virtual currency to players, according to The Irish Times.
Roblax, video game. Sam Kresslein. Shutterstock.
The approximately $1.2 billion in revenue is a 171 percent increase from the same nine-month period in 2019, according to The Irish Times. Roblox laid out its case for investors ahead of its initial public offering on Thursday with this number, reported The Irish Times. The majority of the company’s sales activity not yet recorded as revenue has come from virtual sales, reported the outlet.
In the game, which parents have criticized for being addictive, Roblox sells the digital currency known as “Robux” to users – mostly preteens – who buy virtual products, The Irish Times reported.
In the first nine months of 2020, about 31. 1 million daily users spent 22.2 billion hours on Roblox’s platform, overtaking the popularity of Minecraft in active monthly users, The Irish Times reported. (RELATED: Pro-Trump Video Game Tournament Attracts Around 300 Participants)
Despite the company’s growing revenue, it has also experienced losses, The Irish Times reported. In 2020, the company earned about $589 million in revenue and net losses of about $203 million. In 2019, the company earned about $350 million in revenue and had about $46 million in losses. This is because it is spending more on infrastructure, research and development and app store fees, since most users play the game on mobile phones, The Irish Times reported