But after the pandemic hit, Ms. Shoemaker saw a surge of interest in her two Roblox games, Mermaid Life, a fashion-oriented role-playing game, and My Droplets, a pet-simulation game. Players have paid for additional content in those games, and for the hats they made for the avatars of users they sell across the site.
Ms Shoemaker said she has now made about $ 500,000 through Roblox, most of it since March. Before the pandemic, she could afford to pay just one or two people to help her. Now its game studio, Fullflower Studio, employs 14 contractors and places new games.
“It feels incredible,” Ms. Shoemaker said. ‘People once told my mother,’ Stop playing this video game with them; it will not take its place. ‘And it brings me somewhere. ‘
Roblox said it has more than 2 million developers, of whom 345,000 make money and who share their profits 50-50 with the company. Thousands of top developers make millions of dollars, the company said, and top games have generated an average of $ 2 million to $ 3 million a year in the past.
Revenue from Roblox’s mobile app, which most players use, was $ 493 million in the first half of the year, up from $ 228 million in the same period a year ago, according to SensorTower, an analytics firm. Roblox declined to disclose its financial data, except to say it was cash-flow positive.
Roblox, based in San Mateo, California, was founded in 2006 by Erik Cassel and David Baszucki, who were engineers and entrepreneurs. Mr. Baszucki is the chief executive officer; Mr. Cassel died of cancer in 2013. The startup raised $ 335 million from investors including Meritech Capital Partners and Chinese internet giant Tencent. In February, when it raised fresh funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, it was valued at $ 4 billion.
