Roblox $RBLX ( ▼ 3.74% ) just reminded Wall Street that it’s still very much in growth mode. Shares popped more than 20% after hours after the gaming platform issued a full-year bookings forecast that came in well above expectations, signaling that player spending and engagement are holding up better than feared.
The upbeat outlook comes at a time when investors have been nervous about slowing hit games, legal scrutiny around child safety, and new AI-powered competition.
Bookings Beat the Street
For the year ahead, Roblox expects bookings between $8.28 billion and $8.55 billion, translating to growth of roughly 22% to 26%. Analysts were looking for closer to $8.03 billion, so the company just cleared the bar by a comfortable margin.
The current quarter is also shaping up solidly, with Q1 bookings projected between $1.69 billion and $1.74 billion, right around or slightly above Wall Street expectations. In short, user spending inside Roblox’s virtual worlds is proving more resilient than the market had priced in.
Users and Creators Powering the Flywheel
Engagement is still a major bright spot. Roblox averaged 144 million daily users in Q4, beating estimates and marking a massive jump from last year. The platform also paid out $1.5 billion to creators in 2025, a sharp increase that reinforces Roblox’s strategy of turning its ecosystem into a full-blown creator economy.
That creator payout growth matters because it attracts more developers, which leads to more content, which brings in more users. It’s the classic flywheel — just with blocky avatars.
AI Arms Race Hits Gaming
Investors had recently knocked the stock over fears tied to Google’s $GOOGL Project Genie, an AI tool that can generate playable game worlds. Roblox has already lost billions in market cap since Genie’s debut, as traders worried AI could lower the barriers to building competing experiences.
Roblox is now leaning into AI rather than running from it. The company rolled out a “4D” generative AI tool that can create interactive objects with moving parts, like vehicles with working wheels, not just static models. Management says AI will help speed up content creation, improve safety, and boost discovery and monetization across the platform.
Translation: Roblox doesn’t want AI to replace its ecosystem — it wants AI to supercharge it.