Roblox Sees 20% Drop in Shares After Disappointing Figures on Active Users
By Roblox stock prices plunged by 20 percent after the platform’s daily active users fell short of analysts’ projections.
For the fourth quarter (which concluded on December 31), the number of daily active users decreased by 4 percent to 85.3 million compared to the previous quarter, as reported by Bloomberg. Wall Street analysts had anticipated 88.4 million. Total player engagement also decreased by 9.7 percent during the same period, totaling 18.7 billion hours.
Bookings, a key indicator of the company’s revenue, amounted to $1.36 billion (£1.09 billion), also falling short of the forecast of $1.37 billion (£1.1 billion).
During an earnings call, Roblox CFO Mike Guthrie highlighted that growth in Eastern Europe had been “remarkably slower” than expected, primarily due to a ban on the platform in Türkiye over child safety issues.
This ban was enacted in August of last year, with Roblox responding at that time: “We comply with the laws and regulations in the countries we operate in and share local lawmakers’ dedication to children. We eagerly anticipate collaborating to restore Roblox online in Türkiye as soon as possible.”
Currently, Guthrie noted that this past quarter marked “the first full quarter since Türkiye has been offline.”
On a more positive note, during this quarter, Roblox distributed a record $281 million to its game developers. CEO David Baszucki remarked in the earnings call that this reflected the company’s commitment.