• by Colin Kirkland , Staff Writer, March 15, 2024

It’s no secret that Roblox -- a metaverse gaming platform that allows players to jump between worlds, collect digital wearables and socialize with hundreds of millions of peers across the globe -- is popular. 

The company’s annual report shows that in 2023, users spent a total of 60 billion hours on the platform, with an average of 2.4 hours per day. Across 190 countries, the platform hosted 68.4 million daily active users, the majority under age 18.

That number has since risen to 71.5 million, which is up 22% compared with the year-ago period. 

Because of its younger user base, an even gender split, a thriving creative community and more, Roblox has become a hotbed for brand investment.

As of November 2023, brands had created around 240 activations in the platform, including dedicated world experiences like Mattel’s virtual Barbie Dreamhouse, Invisalign’s educational interactive games, or Gucci’s Garden experience. 

To get a better idea why brands should invest in Roblox, MediaPost spoke with Yonatan Raz-Fridman, CEO of Supersocial, a developer building virtual Roblox experiences for brands like Walmart, Gucci and e.l.f. Beauty.

Raz-Fridman speaks to how no other open-world gaming platform can currently compete with Roblox when it comes to brand opportunities, why Roblox might be an active prototype of a future 3D internet, and what it will mean when ecommerce integrations become viable in the platform.

Mediapost: Why does Supersocial decide to focus on building Roblox experiences for brands?

Yonatan Raz-Fridman: Anyone below the age of 25 is treating Roblox as their primary platform for connection, communication and play all integrated into one environment.

And over the last three years, we’ve seen the first wave of brands adopting Roblox as a place for interacting, communicating and marketing to this young audience. 

MediaPost: What makes Roblox such a promising platform for brand investment? 

Raz-Fridman: You’re looking at a platform with 72 million daily active users and more than 300 million monthly users, spread across multiple demographics -- relatively equal gender-wise -- in 200 countries. 

It’s a perfect ecosystem for brands to build community and relationships around an objective while raising awareness and expanding their reach. There’s no other platform where you have such a dominant cluster of under-18-year-olds in one place. 

MediaPost: What should marketers remember when approaching Roblox’s young user base?

Raz-Fridman: It's not about shoving an ad in front of them so they can go online and buy my $1,000, $100 or $10 product. It's all part of the evolution of the category and evolution of the audience. 

We can't delineate between the commercial maturity of this audience and these platforms. It's going to take a moment until you can truly monetize and convert this audience to buy stuff. 

MediaPost: How do you see brand goals evolving as the platform grows?

Raz-Fridman: I believe brands will move beyond reach and engagement and start thinking about conversion, in getting that audience to sign up to their loyalty programs, purchase a movie ticket, buy a pair of jeans and set up more real-life integrations. 

They also understand that they need to build properties that engage and monetize inside these platforms.

MediaPost: How is Roblox beginning to enable these kinds of behaviors for brands?

Raz-Fridman: When it comes to IRL components, we have yet to even scratch the surface. This is Day One of virtual and physical integrations. 

Roblox, however, announced that by the end of this year they are going to roll out a beta version of real-world commerce integration. For example, in our game with elf Beauty, we're going to be able to enable users to purchase real world commerce from within the Roblox experience. 

MediaPost: How does Roblox compare to Fortnite?

Raz-Fridman: While we’re looking at Fortnite as a key platform for the future, there is very little overlap between the platforms at the moment.

Fortnite and Epic Games are betting on their ability to build a platform where anyone can build whatever experience they want, but for now Fortnite is mostly a first-person shooter gaming platform, so 70% to 75% of its audience is 18- to 25-year-old males.  

Whereas Roblox is very diverse demographically, and players can access any kind of content they want. One of the fastest-growing games right now is called “Dressed to Impress,” which generated over 170 million play sessions in six months.

As a brand, you want to target as diverse an audience as possible.

Unlike Fortnite, Roblox makes it very simple for audiences to access this portfolio of content on one universal app, which is a major advantage.

Over the past 15 years, Roblox has also built an insanely passionate community of committed developers. This provides a flywheel of infinite content being built for free as more users are attracted to the app. 

MediaPost: Are there other advantages to pursuing Roblox as a brand?

Raz-Fridman: On the technology side, Roblox built a platform where as a brand it doesn't matter if you're a fashion brand, a beauty brand, whatever. You can come in and create a world of your own.

It's going to look the way you want -- it's going to operate and you have complete creative control and freedom, which does not exist on Fortnite. 

MediaPost: Do you see Roblox becoming the leadingmetaverse platform over the next decade?

Raz-Fridman: I see Roblox as a large-scale prototype of what happens when the internet becomes real-time 3D. 

It is already interoperable, you can already jump between multiple different virtual experiences, you can carry your avatar items wherever you go on the platform, there is a platform currency and economy that is quite substantial, there is a community of developers and there’s a massive user base.

For it to evolve beyond this the internet will need to be re-established with different protocols.

MediaPost: What would that look like?

Raz-Fridman: Over the next decadeI expect to see more investment for brands and real-world commerce integration where players are able to purchase real goods within the platform.

I also see an expansion of the type of content that is built -- not just games, but interactive experiences involving music, education, movies and more.