Roblox maintains player growth as it continues to post losses

Roblox Corp. touted a "strong" second quarter, even as it's clear it'll be operating at a loss for quite some time. 

After the quarter's end on June 30, 2023, overall revenue for the company was $680.8 million, up by 15 percent compared to 2022's second quarter. Similarly, its bookings of $780.7 million were an increase of 22 percent from last year. 

But the biggest takeaway is that its titular creation platform Roblox saw 65.5 million daily active users (DAUs) and a total playtime of 14 billion hours, similar to its first quarter performance. Compared to last year, the user count is up 25 percent, and playtime by 24 percent. 

Company CEO David Baszucki noted these growth areas, saying Roblox was "growing among users of all ages and across all geographies." He expressed belief the platform will "grow to support one billion DAUs," and since the game is coming to Meta Quest and maybe PlayStation, that benchmark may be sooner rather than later.

Older teens (ages 17-24) and young adults (25 and up) have been previously credited as a powerful demographic for Roblox, and Baszucki commended those two groups for "consistently show[ing] higher bookings-per-hour than other age cohorts."

Much like with revenue and players, Roblox Corp saw growth in its losses. This quarter's net losses hit $282.8 million, up 60 percent from the $176.4 million net losses of 2022 during the same period. 

This growth in losses was attributed to "higher levels of expense required to support the growth of the business." Causes for the growth were attributed to developer exchange fees $165.8 million (up 16 percent), and corporate overhead. Net losses are projected to grow for the foreseeable future.