A report examines strategies for Roblox to retain its older player base, as it emerges as the most-played game by total hours in the first half of 2026
Image credit: Sega/Gameloft/Roblox
During the first half of 2026, Roblox emerged as the leader in gaming hours across both PC and consoles, reaching a remarkable 4.05 billion hours of playtime.
Research jointly conducted by Newzoo and GEEIQ highlights that players aged over 16 form a significant segment of Roblox's audience, with a substantial 80% of these users having made in-game purchases within the last six months, as opposed to 59% for those who do not play Roblox.
A comprehensive study investigates how the demographics of Roblox users are evolving, and what this means for traditional gaming companies.
Tianyi Gu, a Newzoo market analyst, emphasized that the growth in Roblox's player base represents a divergence from conventional PC and console gamers, heavily influenced by entertainment-themed intellectual property.
According to GEEIQ, Roblox boasts an average of 14 million simultaneous users engaging with 6.7 million active experiences, and the top 50 experiences alone account for 7 million of those users.
Since the start of 2026, the platform's experiences have predominantly been popular long-standing live-service games rather than newly introduced titles.
The findings indicate that players leaving Roblox often opt for other live-service games, such as Fortnite and Minecraft, though 30% gravitate towards realistic action titles like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto Online, highlighting a growing interest in AAA-quality gaming.
Roblox is enhancing its platform with advanced graphics and age verification to maintain relevancy with its aging audience. The introduction of Roblox Reality, an AI-based upscaling feature, is anticipated to transform games into photorealistic representations, with an early version expected by the end of this year or early next year. More information can be found at this link.
The implementation of age verification procedures has impacted the company's quarterly financial outcomes, particularly with bookings per younger user falling short of expectations as the focus shifts to long-term user retention over immediate financial gains.
Additionally, GEEIQ's analysis of 553 media activations on Roblox since 2021 reports only 15 from the video game industry, initiated by 10 different brands.
Ubisoft was responsible for a third of these, with four being incorporated within pre-existing Roblox experiences.
In a different strategy, Gamefam utilized Roblox Studio to create the Sonic Speed Simulator. Launched in 2022, it quickly set records as Roblox’s most successful branded game release, becoming the first to hit over a billion visits by 2024. More insights are available at GamesIndustry.biz.
The report concludes that while Roblox is not poised to engage a AAA audience in the immediate future, the current exploration by brands within the platform is exposing dynamic responses from the maturing user base, meriting close observation even by those not directly involved with Roblox.