Roblox is turning teenagers into young millionaires

A teenager sold a soccer game on Roblox for $3 million+ just months after it hit the platform. The deal highlights a growing secondary market for games on the platform.

The unnamed developer, aged 19, said he and several co-developers took only 3 months to build the game. After its release last year, it drew more than one million players at once and brought in about $5 million each month in in-game purchases for the company. Do Big Studios, a firm that owns several Roblox titles, purchased the game.

Roblox, which started almost 20 years ago, offered a digital platform for creators to build and share simple, low-resolution games.

Now, with close to 100 million daily users, the platform has become a place where people can earn real money by selling games for prices reaching into the 7 and 8 figures.

David Taylor from Naavik, an analytics company, stated, “We’ve seen a real shift in Roblox’s ecosystem.” He found that 7 among the top 15 most-earning Roblox titles were purchased from the owners in June.

The trend of selling Roblox games increased after a December update

Before December, Roblox had said selling games was against Roblox’s service terms and rules. A spokesperson said the company is not taking part in these secondary-market deals.

Do Big continues to build momentum. The firm acquired a piece of Grow a Garden, a farming game, in May. Grow a Garden set a new mark later in June by drawing 21 million+ players simultaneously, outpacing Fortnite.

Splitting Point, another Roblox game company, had taken over Grow a Garden in April from a teen developer who chose to remain anonymous.

Similarly, an unnamed developer sold the top game at the time, Brookhaven RP, to Voldex Entertainment in February. Voldex’s founder and chief executive, Alex Singer, mentioned that the deal was much “bigger” in comparison to what was reported at that time. He also added, “When there are more dollars paid out to creators, it attracts more people.”

Roblox reports that, over the year ending in March, its ten highest-earning developers each made about $36 million. For the very first time, it could pay out over $1 billion to its game creators this year.

Several firms now purchase, create, or flip games on Roblox. The deal-making often happens on Discord, a messaging app popular among gamers, according to Connar Rhicards. Richards is a lawyer who has handled a dozen such deals.

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