Roblox hits record revenues, losses continue

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Roblox today released its financial earnings report for the first quarter of its fiscal year, following the company's general trend of growing revenues while posting continued losses.

The Numbers:

For the three months ended March 31, 2023:

• Revenue: $655 million, up 22% year-over-year
• Bookings: $774 million, up 23% year-over-year
• Net loss: $268 million, compared to a net loss of $160 million in the year-ago quarter

The Highlights

Roblox continues its long journey in growth mode, as the company set a new record for revenues while also posting steeper losses than it had in the year-ago quarter.

"Since inception we have focused on building a technology platform that enables a large and growing community of creators to build amazing experiences," Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki said.

"The momentum in our business demonstrates the success of our creator community as they bring their visions to life on Roblox, attracting an ever-growing global user base that spans all ages."

While bookings were down from a fourth-quarter high, they were still up considerably year-over-year. Roblox CFO Michael Guthrie suggested that with current growth trends for bookings, the company "can now moderate our rate of investment in headcount and infrastructure thereby generating operating leverage."

That moderation in headcount investment may not necessarily mean job cuts, as Baszucki cited in a post-earnings call the company's "operational excellence," giving the lack of layoffs at Roblox as evidence of that.

For the quarter, Roblox reported daily active users up 22% year-over-year to a new record of 66.1 million, with cumulative engagement up 23% to another all-time high of 14.5 billion hours.

Of Roblox's 66.1 million daily active users, 28.7 million were under the age of 13.

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