When the PR team at Roblox reached out to ask if I had any interest in learning more about the platform, I'm not sure what made me say yes. I've never really been a gamer, and as far as I knew, Roblox was a gaming platform mostly for kids. But the platform felt a bit inescapable, woven into culture in a way I could not ignore.
I had seen it linked to fashion houses like Gucci and artists like Elton John, and vaguely remember the parodying of its block-shaped avatars in an R-rated Lil Pump music video from 2018.
Today, a whopping 67 million people will log on to Roblox, more than the population of Italy. And those users are aging up. The platform has been wooing older players through the aforementioned high-profile brand and artist collaborations and says users aged 17 to 24 are its fastest growing demographic, accounting for about 22 percent of all daily active users at the end of 2022.
At 30, I'm out of that range. But I wanted to know why Roblox is such a dynamic platform for so many young people. Could it be that dynamic for me?
Asking a 7-year-old for advice
My coworker's son, Ezra, loves to to play on Roblox (after he finishes his homework, of course) and was willing to chat about it. On a Zoom call with his dad, Ezra told me he's been playing for "a very long time," about two years, which is eons for a seven-year-old.
Ezra also plays the online game Minecraft, but he prefers a version of the game called Minecraft Dungeons because he can go on monster-fighting quests. On a scale of one to 10, Ezra says Minecraft is a six (because "no quests"), Minecraft Dungeons is a nine, and Roblox is a 10. That's because Roblox combines storytelling and games, like Dungeons does, but it also has an incredible amount of play options. "I first started using it because all my friends were talking about Roblox,” he says, "I thought it was just going to be one game, but there were a whole bunch of games I could play on there."
There were 5.8 million experiences published to Roblox in 2022 alone. They can be created by anyone and range from immersive "worlds" and obstacle courses (called "obbys") to games and simulators (Ezra likes one where you take care of fictional pets). Once you select an experience, you move through it as a digital avatar. To keep things manageable, players are placed in a server with up to 100 other users at a time. You can see your server companions in the experience with you. Voice chat is only available to users age 13 or older with a valid ID, but almost all games offer a collapsible group text chat in the upper left hand corner.
"Usually, I play Roblox with my friends," Ezra says, "but sometimes there are friends I don't even want, I don't know how it happens." The social experience of Roblox is hailed as one of its biggest draws, but Ezra doesn't use group chat because he is uninterested and voice chat because his dad won't let him. Given how rampant bullying is online (including, according to some, on Roblox), I ask him if he's even seen anyone be "mean" in the chat. "I've never seen that," he says shaking his head, "I don't know if that would happen, but I've never seen it."
His favorite game is "Super Striker League," which he describes as "like real-life soccer, but it's just a little different because you have these little things — I think they're green and I don't know where they come from — like a bomb or spikes. And if you use the bomb it will blow up and people will lose the ball because because they will fall down."
The game has been played 304 million times since its creation in June 2019. It's age guideline says it should only be played by children nine or older, citing "violence (mild/ frequent)." I try it out myself and it seems fairly harmless and made for kids. There is upbeat music and sloppy field pile-ons, which I'd imagine is visually stimulating for young people. I'm perplexed by the fact that you earn fake dollar bills the moment you start playing the game.
I ask him about Robux, the game's digital currency used to buy clothes, accessories, and access certain experiences. It has an exchange rate of about 1 Robux to $00.0125 USD, and is sold in packs of hundreds. "I don't know how you get it," Ezra shrugs, "I have no Robux. There's this game, I think it's called Bloxburg, and I want to play it, but it costs 25 Robux."
But he’s still managed to make his avatar look cool without buying anything. "It looks like a robot. On top there's like a ghost and I have a weapon."
Does Roblox ever make him frustrated? Sometimes. "I just get mad that I lost [in soccer]. One time I lost a game seven-zero because our team was so bad. But we tried our best." Generally, playing Roblox "makes me feel good," he nods, "like when I'm bored and I and I don't know what to do," Ezra says. "I usually go play Roblox and it cheers me up a little."
Robux, my bunny, and me
Unlike Ezra, I do have Robux. They come courtesy of Roblox HQ, who kindly gives me a couple thousand, what they estimate to be around $25 worth of digital coinage.
The first thing I do when I open my Roblox account is buy an avatar. There are options available for free, but as the Roblox team walks me through the shop, I am charmed by an anthropomorphic bunny. Her puffy white cheeks are sweetened by pink blush and she has her eyes closed, as if napping or too overwhelmed by the world to look at it. To me, Roblox's default rudimentary avatars had always supported my assumption that the platform was meant for young, developing brains.
But this bunny is delicate and whimsical and for 250 Robux, around $3 USD, she's mine. I name her Lola and open the digital shop to buy her clothes. What I discover delights me. In addition to basics like jeans and tees, the catalog is full of all sorts of fantastical accessories: butterfly wings twice your avatar's size, a giant pastel gumball machine that straps on like a backpack, a swirl of cherry blossoms that twist their way around you as you walk.
There are costumes, too: I try one that makes me a red Crayola crayon, and the Roblox team mentions that the success of Netflix's Wednesday has prompted creators to whip up the Wednesday Addams and Enid Sinclair outfits I scroll past. Other aesthetic trends are present on the platform, too, ready to be applied to virtual you. Bunny ears, Y2K, and K-pop are all "in" IRL, and on Roblox you can wear pieces inspired by them or, in some cases, all three. A pink pair of goggles over a white bunny hat (52 Robux) is listed under the name "Y2k cute goggles bunny girl slay newjeans OMG kpop." It references the creator's inspiration: a music video from Korean girl group, NewJeans.
I spend two hours browsing the catalog that first night, starring dozens of sweet babydoll dresses and sparkling swirls as my “favorites.” I eventually buy a pink sleeveless one with a large bow and white ruffles. This is way more fun than I thought.
Time to play
"Adopt Me!" is a game in which you could adopt and raise a pet "hatchling," which sounds fun for preteens but the option to adopt a human baby (or become one and be adopted) weirded me out. The few minutes I played in "Build-A-Bear Tycoon," an official world by the toymaker, were excruciatingly tedious and best suited for the under-10 crowd.
The most promising experiences were official collaborations made by artists and brands, which were elevated in quality and impeccably themed. Elton John's "Beyond the Yellow Brick Road" was a playful, kitschy dream. "Gucci Town" was bright and lush. A world inspired by the music videos of Korean group NCT 127 brought the band's conceptual "Neo City" to life.
I spend the most time in "Twice Square," which transforms the set of Korean girl group Twice's 2018 music video for "Yes or Yes" into an immersive 3D fantasy. The faithful (and adorable) re-creation of the cobblestoned town center is by accented by twinkling fairy lights and walls papered in posters promoting the group's new album. Themed activities are housed in surrounding buildings and a short walk brings you to "Twice Pier," a candy-colored boardwalk of carnival rides that beckons from the shimmering sea. Twice's music videos play on a big screen as the sun sets, and the silhouettes of hot air balloons float just out of reach.
The first thing I do is stop by the Twice Shop to deck Lola out in virtual merch. I buy a white sweatsuit with a fuchsia heart, a purple crown, and a light stick that appears, strangely, at my hip, not in my hand (I later learn you can't yet hold items in your hand in Roblox). The whole thing sets me back around 385 Robux.
The next stop is Twice trivia, and it's surprisingly challenging. It takes place in a huge room with a floor covered in different colored boxes, of various sizes. When the time runs out, your avatar must be standing on the square that corresponds to the color of the right answer. The questions are tough — I'm a casual Twice fan, so you have to be a diehard to know the answers — and the countdown is so short that I lose every time.
I climb a ladder up to the roof of a building overlooking the square where open fire pits and plush outdoor benches are accented with pillows bearing the Twice logo. It seems like all you do up here is sit, which is perfectly fine except I cannot get Lola to stop. She's magnetically pulled to a nearby seat, and I can't get her up. After a Google search for "how to stop sitting Roblox" fails, I ask the chat for help. Someone kindly tells me I need to "jump." Then, realizing that even that is beyond my depth, they add "press the spacebar." It works, and Lola is free.
I keep getting pop up notifications telling me that "an item has spawned on the map" and to get it while it's still available, but I walk all over and never seen anything "spawn." Some sort of collectible is available for purchase out of a big red machine for 1,000 points. For kicks, I use my Robux to buy the points, but the game glitches out and they never appear, even though the Robux vanish from my account. I try again and the points appear, but when I return to the machine, the price has been bumped up to 1,500. That's when I decide it's time to log off for the night.
DIY charm
I have a lot of moments in Roblox where I feel like I'm the only one who has no idea what's going on, and that's exacerbated by the relatively large number of glitchy quirks I run into as I play. Most of what you do in Roblox — from the experiences you play to the clothing you wear — is generated by users, so there's a charming work-in-progress feel to the whole thing. In some ways, it's like being on the early internet, where everything was new and imperfect.
When buying accessories for Lola, for example, I find out her ears are technically an accessory and are not attached to her head, so they disappear any time I put her in a hat or earrings. I cannot find the list of favorited clothing items that I spent two hours putting together, and Google isn't much help. During my first day in "Twice Square," Lola’s features are overlayed, inexplicably, with a black smiley face. Later, one of the platform's top creators, Rush_X, tells me it must just be a glitch in the game. When I returned to "Twice Square" a week later, the weird smile is gone.
It's comforting to know that Ezra runs into a hiccups, too. "There's this school[-themed] obby," he tells me, "and when I'm done with [it] there's a gym[-themed] obby and I can't get past it because I'm walking and automatically I die. Like it's over. And I have to start all the way over again! I didn't even step where there was lava or something. I don't know what happened!"
But these quirks don't seem to matter to most of Roblox's users, and they definitely don't matter to Ezra. When I ask him how he learned to use the platform, he says, "When I first got a Roblox, I did not know what to do. So I just played it. And sometimes I do that right now. Like I don't know what to do and I just play it."
Why Roblox still rules
In the weeks since I started using Roblox, it's mostly become a place for me to be creative. I am not a gamer, and the social aspect of the platform doesn't do much for me (I love our younger generation, but I don't want to chat with them on Roblox). Surprisingly, I am most invested in styling my avatars and earning free clothing items in games to add to my closet.
After buying Lola, I add a free human-like avatar to my catalog and buy her voluminous lavender pigtails (75 Robux) which I adorn with floating stars (free with the purchase of a different avatar) and a moon-tipped crown (50 Robux). I call her Luna and have since spent hours adding floating snowflakes around her pixelated body, finding her the perfect pair of pants, and buying her the cutest dresses.
This part of the Roblox experience — playing dress up — is, ironically, the most adult because it costs money. Avatar styling is an expensive hobby for a kid.
But Roblox isn't a dress-up game. And while I'm hooked on some of the most polished branded experiences, the platform in its current form isn't made for me.
What's wild is that the metaverse experiences that are made for adults — those of Mark Zuckerberg's dreams — aren't nearly as successful as Roblox. And that may be in part because you don't need a massive headset to use it. Roblox has invested heavily in making itself as accessible as possible to global players. It's cloud-based, which means it doesn't take up a whole lot of space on a phone and can be played from anywhere with a WiFi connection, even on much older devices.
It may be that the key to making the metaverse work is making it available to everyone. Because while Roblox may not cater to people born before the turn of the century, it doesn't exclude them from it.
