Viral hit 'Grow a Garden' pushes Roblox past 100 million users, lifts bookings

By Zaheer Kachwala

July 31 (Reuters) - Roblox RBLX.N raised its annual bookings forecast on Thursday and topped 100 million in daily active users thanks to the viral success of farm simulation title "Grow a Garden", sending shares of the videogame platform rising more than 16%.

Free-to-play titles and a wide availability across devices such as PlayStation helped Roblox draw millions of users across age groups and demographics, making it an investor darling in a sector under threat from economic uncertainty.

"Grow a Garden", a tycoon-style game that allows players to grow their plots of land by trading seeds and plants, drove a majority of Roblox's engagement and bookings growth in the second quarter. Launched in March, the title set a world record last month for the most concurrent players to play a videogame.

CFO Naveen Chopra told Reuters the game's success showed Roblox's investments in search and discovery features offered greater visibility to titles on its platform.

"We build a compelling platform that then attracts creators; those creators will create games that will attract users," Chopra, who joined Roblox last month, said.

Average daily active users, a key measure of engagement, grew 41% to 111.8 million in the quarter, while hours engaged jumped 58% to 27.4 billion.

The company now expects fiscal 2025 bookings of between $5.87 billion and $5.97 billion, up from its previous forecast of $5.29 billion to $5.36 billion. Its third-quarter bookings forecast of between $1.59 billion and $1.64 billion was also higher than estimates, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The strong growth, as well as efforts to diversify revenue with expansions into socializing, commerce and advertising, helped Roblox's shares more than double in value this year.

That has left it just a few billion dollars short of a $100-billion market value.

To incentivize game development, Roblox introduced a rewards program for developers. In the last 12 months, 18 creators earned more than $10 million on the platform, executives said.