Roblox has released its financial results for the third quarter ending September 30, 2026, revealing a revenue figure of $1.6 billion. This represents a 16% increase compared to the same period last year, beating analyst expectations despite a challenging backdrop for other key metrics. Bookings, which represent future revenue potential, declined by 12% year-on-year to reach $1.7 billion. The company attributed this drop to a comparatively stronger growth period in 2025, though it noted that Q3 bookings were still up more than 50% on a two-year basis. The quarter also saw net losses of $230 million.
User engagement metrics showed declines when compared to the previous year. Average daily active users (DAUs) fell by 9%, while total hours engaged dropped 15% to 34 billion. Similarly, average bookings per DAU decreased by 3% to $12.29, and the number of average monthly unique payers slipped 16% to 30.3 million. Roblox management cited difficult comparisons with the robust performance seen in 2025 as the primary driver for these decreases.
A central theme of the quarterly shareholder letter was the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the platform's creator ecosystem. More than 80% of the top 100 games ranked by hours engaged utilized AI tools to accelerate creation, and 97% of creators who regularly use AI reported faster development timelines. The number of published games leveraging AI grew by over 50% quarter-over-quarter. Notably, titles created almost entirely with AI, such as Break and Steal an Egg and Huss Valley, have entered the Top 20 ranked by concurrent players.
Earlier in 2026, Roblox introduced agentic AI tools and announced its mobile, AI-powered Build feature at the Roblox Developer's Conference. The Build feature has since launched in alpha in New Zealand, Singapore, Serbia, and Thailand. In this initial phase, over 500,000 users have published more than 70,000 games. CEO David Baszucki stated that AI is fundamentally reshaping the gaming industry by driving a step-function change in content creation speed. He emphasized that while anyone can now create a game, the platform's value lies in scaled distribution, effective discovery, a robust economy, and industry-leading safety infrastructure.
Beyond AI integration, Roblox highlighted its strategic focus on capturing the over-18 demographic. Initiatives include Roblox Everywhere, which allows creators to publish games across multiple platforms, and Roblox Reality, an AI-driven upscaler. The company reported that the over-18 cohort is now its fastest-growing segment. In the United States, users over 18 monetize more than 50% above the under-18 audience. To support this shift, Roblox has improved its engine for higher fidelity content, increased the Developer Exchange (DevEx) rate to reward monetization from US users over 18, and optimized its discovery algorithm on a cohort-by-cohort basis. A recent report by Newzoo found that 80% of Roblox's older audience spent money on games in the past six months, compared to 59% of non-players.
Sources: GamesIndustry.biz.