Substantial year-over-year growth exceeds guidance across all key metrics

SAN MATEO, Calif., May 01, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Roblox Corporation (NYSE: RBLX), a global platform bringing millions of people together through shared experiences, released its first quarter 2025 financial and operational results and issued its second quarter and updated full year 2025 guidance today. Separately, Roblox posted a letter to shareholders and supplemental materials on the Roblox investor relations website at ir.roblox.com.

First Quarter 2025 Financial, Operational, and Liquidity Highlights

• Revenue was $1,035.2 million, up 29% year-over-year, and up 30% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹.
• Bookings² were $1,206.7 million, up 31% year-over-year, and up 33% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹.
• Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $215.1 million, while consolidated net loss was $216.3 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA² was $58.0 million, which excludes adjustments for increases in deferred revenue and deferred cost of revenue of $177.9 million and $(30.8) million, respectively, or a total change in deferred of $147.1 million.
• Net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities were $443.9 million, up 86% year-over-year, while free cash flow² was $426.5 million, up 123% year-over-year.
  • Note that both operating cash flow and free cash flow benefited from the delay of a $30 million payout to a developer that we now expect to pay in the second quarter of 2025. Had we made this payment in the first quarter of 2025 as originally intended, operating cash flow for the quarter would have been $413.9 million and free cash flow would have been $396.5 million. The year-over-year growth rates in operating cash flow and free cash flow would have been 73% and 108%, respectively.
• Average Daily Active Users ("DAUs") were 97.8 million, up 26% year-over-year.
• Average monthly unique payers were 20.2 million, up 29% year-over-year, and average bookings per monthly unique payer was $19.92.
• Hours engaged were 21.7 billion, up 30% year-over-year.
• Average bookings per DAU ("ABPDAU") was $12.34, up 4% year-over-year, and up 6% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹.
• Cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments, and long-term investments totaled $4,510.5 million; net liquidity³ was $3,503.8 million.

"In Q1 2025, all of our results were above the guidance we provided on our Q4 2024 earnings call as we continue to deliver on several key growth initiatives. In addition to our focus on raw performance and quality, investments in the virtual economy and search and discovery are driving growth in platform monetization, bookings, and creator earnings. During the quarter, Roblox creators earned a record $281.6 million and over the past 12 months, more than 100 Roblox developers earned over $1 million. As a whole, the community is on pace to exceed $1 billion of earnings for the full year," said David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox.

"We accelerated topline growth in Q1 2025 with revenue growing 29% year-over-year and bookings growing 31% year-over-year. Topline growth was strong in all regions. We continued to deliver high rates of improvement in margins as a result of both strong topline growth and operating efficiencies primarily related to the cost of headcount and infrastructure and trust and safety. Cash flow from operations and free cash flow both reached record levels, grew year-over-year at high rates, and exceeded our prior guidance," said Michael Guthrie, chief financial officer of Roblox.

¹ Constant currency is calculated by converting our current period bookings and associated revenue generated from current period bookings, and current period ABPDAU into U.S. dollars using the comparative prior period’s monthly exchange rates for our non-USD currencies, rather than the actual average exchange rates in effect during the current period. By adjusting revenue, bookings, and ABPDAU for constant currency, we are able to provide a framework for assessing how our business performed excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations.
² Bookings, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful in evaluating our performance and are presented for supplemental information purposes only and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. For further information, please refer to definitions and reconciliations provided below and in our annual and quarterly SEC filings.
³ Net liquidity represents cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments, and long-term investments, less long-term debt, net.

Forward Looking Guidance

Roblox provides its second quarter and updated full year 2025 GAAP and non-GAAP guidance:

Second Quarter 2025 Guidance

• Revenue between $1,020 million and $1,045 million. Our revenue guidance assumes that there are no material changes in estimates used in our revenue recognition, such as the estimated average lifetime of a paying user.
• Bookings between $1,165 million and $1,190 million.
• Consolidated net loss between $(288) million and $(268) million.
• Adjusted EBITDA between $25 million and $45 million, which excludes adjustments for:
  • Increase in deferred revenue of $150 million.
  • Increase in deferred cost of revenue of $(15) million.
  • The total of these changes in deferrals of $135 million.
• Net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities between $160 million and $175 million.
  • Note that operating cash flow is negatively impacted by a $30 million payout to a developer that was delayed in the first quarter of 2025, and which we now expect to pay in the second quarter of 2025. Had we made this payment in the first quarter of 2025, our guidance for net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities for the second quarter of 2025 would have been $190 million - $205 million, or year-over-year increases of 25-35%.
• Capital expenditures of $(55) million.
• Free cash flow between $105 million and $120 million.
  • Had we made the aforementioned developer payment in the first quarter of 2025, our guidance for free cash flow for the second quarter of 2025 would have been $135 million - $150 million, or a year-over-year change of 21-34%.

Updated Full Year 2025 Guidance

• Revenue between $4,290 million and $4,365 million. Our revenue guidance assumes that there are no material changes in estimates used in our revenue recognition, such as the estimated average lifetime of a paying user.
• Bookings between $5,285 million and $5,360 million.
• Consolidated net loss between $(1,037) million and $(977) million.
• Adjusted EBITDA between $205 million and $265 million, which excludes adjustments for:
  • Increase in deferred revenue of $1,015 million.
  • Increase in deferred cost of revenue of $(170) million.
  • The total of these changes in deferrals of $845 million.
• Net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities between $1,170 million and $1,215 million.
• Capital expenditures of $(285) million.
• Free cash flow between $885 million and $930 million.

Earnings Q&A Session

Roblox will host a live Q&A session to answer questions regarding its first quarter 2025 results on Thursday, May 1, 2025 at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time/8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The webcast will be open to the public at ir.roblox.com or by clicking here.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding our vision to connect one billion users with optimism and civility, our vision to reach 10% of the global gaming content market, the amount of expected earnings for the developer and creator community, our efforts to improve the Roblox Platform, our investments to pursue the highest standards of trust and safety on our platform, our immersive and video advertising efforts, our efforts to provide a safe online environment for children, our efforts regarding content curation and live operations, our efforts regarding real world commerce, the use of AI and open source models on our platform, our economy, product efforts and operating performance related to pricing and platform monetization, our sponsored experiences, branding and new partnerships and our roadmap with respect to each, our business, product, strategy and user growth, our investment strategy, including with respect to people and opportunities for and expectations of improvements in financial and operating metrics, including operating leverage, margin, free cash flow, operating expenses and capital expenditures, our expectation of successfully executing such strategies and plans, disclosures regarding the seasonality of our business and future growth rates, including with respect to our user demographics, changes to our estimated average lifetime of a paying user and the resulting effect on revenue, cost of revenue, deferred revenue and deferred cost of revenue, our expectations of future net losses and net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities, payments to our developers and creators, statements by our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and our outlook and guidance for the second quarter and full year 2025, and future periods. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date they were first issued and were based on current plans, expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management. Words such as "expect," "vision," "envision," "evolving," "drive," "anticipate," "intend," "maintain," "should," "believe," "continue," "plan," "goal," "opportunity," "estimate," "predict," "may," "will," "could," "hope," "target," "project," "potential," "might," "shall," "contemplate" and "would," and variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control. Our actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other filings and reports we make with the SEC from time to time. In particular, the following factors, among others, could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: our ability to successfully execute our business and growth strategy; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity needs, including the repayment of our senior notes; the demand for our platform in general; our ability to retain and increase our number of users, developers and creators; changes in the average lifetime of a paying user; the impact of inflation, tariffs and global economic conditions on our operations; the impact of changing legal and regulatory requirements on our business, including the use of verified parental consent; our ability to develop enhancements to our platform, and bring them to market in a timely manner; our ability to develop and protect our brand; any misuse of user data or other undesirable activity by third parties on our platform; our ability to maintain the security and availability of our platform; our ability to detect and minimize unauthorized use of our platform; and the impact of AI on our platform, users, creators, and developers. Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations is included in the reports we have filed or will file with the SEC, including our annual reports on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.

The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, we undertake no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Special Note Regarding Operating Metrics

Additional information regarding our core financial and operating metrics disclosed above is included in the reports we have filed or will file with the SEC, including our annual reports on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We encourage investors and others to review these reports in their entirety.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release and the accompanying tables contain the non-GAAP financial measure bookings, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow.

We use this non-GAAP financial information to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that this non-GAAP financial information may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance.

Bookings is defined as revenue plus the change in deferred revenue during the period and other non-cash adjustments. Substantially all of our bookings are generated from sales of virtual currency, which can ultimately be converted to virtual items on the Roblox Platform. Sales of virtual currency reflected as bookings include one-time purchases and monthly subscriptions purchased via payment processors or through prepaid cards. Bookings also include an insignificant amount from advertising and licensing arrangements. We believe bookings provide a timelier indication of trends in our operating results that are not necessarily reflected in our revenue as a result of the fact that we recognize the majority of revenue over the estimated average lifetime of a paying user. The change in deferred revenue constitutes the vast majority of the reconciling difference from revenue to bookings. By removing these non-cash adjustments, we are able to measure and monitor our business performance based on the timing of actual transactions with our users and the cash that is generated from these transactions. Adjusted EBITDA represents our GAAP consolidated net loss, excluding interest income, interest expense, other income/(expense), provision for/(benefit from) income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, and certain other nonrecurring adjustments. We believe that, when considered together with reported GAAP amounts, Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors and management in understanding our ongoing operations and ongoing operating trends. Our definition of Adjusted EBITDA may differ from the definition used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. Free cash flow represents the net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment, and intangible assets acquired through asset acquisitions. We believe that free cash flow is a useful indicator of our unit economics and liquidity that provides information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated from our core operations that, after the purchases of property and equipment, and intangible assets acquired through asset acquisitions, can be used for strategic initiatives.

Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations in their usefulness to investors because they have no standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and are not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial information as a tool for comparison. As a result, our non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP.

Reconciliation tables of the most comparable GAAP financial measure to the non-GAAP financial measure used in this press release are included below. We encourage investors and others to review our business, results of operations, and financial information in their entirety, not to rely on any single financial measure, and to view these non-GAAP measures in conjunction with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures Reconciliations

The following table presents a reconciliation of revenue, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to bookings, for each of the periods presented (in thousands, unaudited):

The following table presents a reconciliation of consolidated net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to Adjusted EBITDA, for each of the periods presented (in thousands, unaudited):

The following table presents a reconciliation of net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to free cash flow, for each of the periods presented (in thousands, unaudited):

Forward Looking Guidance: GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures Reconciliations

The following table presents a reconciliation of revenue, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to bookings, for each of the periods presented (in thousands):

The following table presents a reconciliation of consolidated net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to Adjusted EBITDA, for each of the periods presented (in thousands):

The following table presents a reconciliation of net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to free cash flow, for each of the periods presented (in thousands):

About Roblox

Roblox is an immersive gaming and creation platform that offers people millions of ways to be together, inviting its community to explore, create and share endless unique experiences. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together– in a world that's safe, civil, and optimistic. To achieve this vision, we are building an innovative company that, together with the Roblox community, has the ability to strengthen our social fabric and support economic growth for people around the world. For more about Roblox, please visit corp.roblox.com.

ROBLOX and the Roblox logo are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of Roblox Corporation in the United States and other countries. © 2025 Roblox Corporation. All rights reserved.

Source: Roblox Corporation

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Contacts

Stefanie Notaney
Roblox Corporate Communications
press@roblox.com