[STEAM] Roblox Blames Falling Player Numbers and In-Game Spending on Its Push to Recommend Less Slop to Kids — And There Being No Replacement for Last Year's Viral Hit Grow a Garden

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player numbers and in-game spending have fallen sharply from their peak last summer, when the gaming platform hosted viral hits such as Grow a Garden and Steal the Brainrot.

These games still exist, of course — there's now a Grow a Garden 2! — but their moment in the spotlight has passed, many of the kids playing them have now moved on, and Roblox itself has said it is trying to change it's platform to provide a better-quality long-term future.

The company has also brought in more robust safety tools over the past few years, requiring age verification for many communication features. This, too, has likely provided some added friction to the player experience.

After an enormous spike in players last summer, Roblox's player count has slumped since the start of 2026. Officially, Roblox states that its daily active users are now at 123 million, compared to their peak of 152 million last year.

In-game spending is also down, something that Roblox has blamed on its changes that are meant to prioritize recommending better quality games to kids that no longer "emphasize short-term monetization" over long-term retention. Roblox's share price has now dropped 70 percent from its peak last year, wiping tens of billions from the company's value.

"It's still early, but our data shows a positive lift in quality, stickier engagement games," Roblox boss Dave Baszucki

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during a call with investors, providing a more optimistic view, "and the benefits of higher retention, we believe, outweigh the near-term impacts we're seeing as improved retention and engagement compound into future growth."

"Monetization as measured in bookings per hour, was below our forecast, particularly with under 13 cohorts," Roblox chief financial officer Naveen K. Chopra admitted, saying that this was the primary factor impacting the platform's decline in revenue. "We attribute the unforeseen monetization shortfall to a greater-than-expected shift of engagement from high monetizing 2025 vintage viral games to a combination of new and evergreen experiences with lower hourly monetization."

Chopra said Roblox expected "tough comparisons" over the rest of 2026, with revenue down 14-18% during the next quarter. The company declined to provide a new forecast for the year's final quarter at all.

"Roblox had a terrible second quarter across virtually every engagement and payment metric," said senior equity analyst Matthew Dolgin, of financial results firm

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. "Everything took a step backwards this quarter, and growth is now in question."

Despite its push for better quality experiences,

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directly within the Roblox mobile app.


Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky

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