With developer payouts above $500,000,000 in one year, this game pays creators nearly 20% of its revenue

It's the season where major game developers worldwide are talking about their yearly revenue. Only a few days back, Warner Bros. revealed that Hogwarts Legacy had already earned $1 billion since its launch. However, another game has been raking massive numbers over the past few years. The title in question is Roblox.

Based on the information revealed by the company, Roblox has paid around $500,000,000 to creators who made in-game purchasable items back in 2021. This figure amounts to around 20% of their revenue that year.

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Roblox paid third-party creators almost 20% of the revenue it generated in 2021

If you're unfamiliar with Roblox, it's a platform with multiple smaller games. These smaller entries are created by various developers all around the world. While a major chunk of these are free, some require a purchase.

Now, most of these games on the platform have Minecraft-like graphics and remain very lightweight. Not only are they available on mobile devices, players can dive into them on PC as well. To make matters even more interesting, they don't have complicated mechanics either.

Roblox as a game became popular sometime in 2015 and has seen a steady rise in its userbase. Furthermore, ever since the creators allowed third-party developers to add purchasable items within their games, the overall revenue skyrocketed. The information revealed by the company showed that they paid around $525 million to creators in 2021 for creating purchasable items for games available within Roblox.

Based on these details, Roblox made a whopping $625 million alone in the first quarter of 2023, which is close to the revenue Nintendo generated by selling physical copies of The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom within the first three days of launch. The amount paid to creators in 2022 hasn't been disclosed yet.

The Roblox catalog boasts some really amazing titles as well. For example, Blox Fruits and Adopt Me! are some popular games that see a steady flow of traffic on a daily basis. Furthermore, a lot of anime-inspired titles have also found tremendous success. Incorporating an interesting design and structure, the platform appeals to various age groups.

Given that Roblox is so light on systems, its popularity isn't surprising. Although it might not have a valid esports pedigree for numerous reasons ranging from game design to overall mechanics, Roblox does appeal to casual gamers a lot.