Marsh
Mallow, we keep hearing 'you can make real money on Roblox.' For a company deciding whether to invest in a Roblox game, what does the creator economy actually look like in the numbers?
Mallow
It's expanding fast, and Roblox is explicitly leaning into it. The headline: in FY2025 Roblox paid creators $1.50 billion in Developer Exchange fees — up 63% year over year, faster than its own revenue (+36%). In Q4 alone it was $477 million, up 70%. The pool flowing to creators is growing faster than the company itself.
Marsh
So the total pie is growing. But 'total' hides a lot — what does a successful creator actually earn?
Mallow
Roblox gave one concrete benchmark: in 2025, its top 1,000 creators earned an average of $1.3 million each — up over 50% from the year before. That's the top of the distribution, not the typical creator — but it shows the ceiling is real and rising quickly.
Marsh
What's driving the increase — more players, or a better rate?
Mallow
Both. More bookings flow through the platform, and Roblox keeps raising the share creators keep. Two rate moves in a year: on September 5, 2025 it raised the DevEx rate 8.5% for all creators; and on June 8, 2026 it raised the U.S. rate on in-game spend from age-checked over-18 users to 37.8% (from 26.6%), for games on the R15 framework. Roblox flatly calls higher DevEx rates "one of our highest-yielding investments."
Marsh
It pays creators more on purpose. Why would a platform do that?
Mallow
The flywheel. Better creator economics → more and better creators → better content → more players and engagement → more bookings → which funds even better creator economics. Roblox states this as strategy. For you, it means the platform's incentives are aligned with paying creators more over time, not squeezing them.
Marsh
Beyond money, does Roblox actively help newcomers, or is it sink-or-swim?
Mallow
There's a real on-ramp now. The Creator Rewards Program (launched July 2025) pays creators for driving retention and engagement, not just direct spend. And there are structured programs — Roblox Jumpstart and a six-month Incubator — with mentorship and user-acquisition support; Roblox said over 8,000 applications came in within two months of launch. A company new to Roblox has a supported path in.
Marsh
Is it only the giant hits that make money, or is there a middle class?
Mallow
The middle and long tail are growing. In Q4 2025, experiences outside the top 10 grew engagement 68% and Robux spending 53% — and accounted for more than half of the quarter's spending growth. So it isn't purely winner-take-all; mid-sized experiences are capturing more of the pie.
Marsh
Any proof a newcomer can break out fast?
Mallow
The example Roblox spotlights: Steal a Brainrot, built in about four months by a group of young developers, hit a record 25 million concurrent users. That's not typical — but it shows the time-to-scale on Roblox can be extraordinary when something clicks.
Marsh
What's the catch for a company evaluating this honestly?
Mallow
Two. (1) The big numbers are top-of-distribution — the $1.3M is the top 1,000 creators, not the median; most experiences earn far less. (2) The rate increases come with conditions (R15, age-checked 18+ for the premium), and payouts ride on Roblox's metrics and rules, which you don't control. Plan for the upside, but underwrite conservatively.
Marsh
Net read-through?
Mallow
Roblox is in active expansion of creator payouts and says it intends to keep raising DevEx. The payout environment is improving and backed by real programs. For a company, that lowers the risk of building here — you're entering an economy the platform is deliberately growing. Just size your projections to the middle of the distribution, not the headline.
Marsh
Executive summary?
Mallow
(1) FY2025 DevEx payouts $1.50B (+63%, faster than revenue); Q4 $477M (+70%). (2) Top 1,000 creators averaged $1.3M in 2025 (+50%). (3) Rate hikes: +8.5% for all creators (Sep 2025), U.S. age-checked-18+ spend to 37.8% (Jun 2026, R15); Roblox calls DevEx 'one of our highest-yielding investments.' (4) On-ramp: Creator Rewards Program + Jumpstart/Incubator (8,000+ applications); the long tail is growing. Caveat: the headline averages are top-of-distribution, not the median.
Marsh
So the money is real and growing, Roblox is deliberately paying creators more, and there's a supported way in — but I'll model the middle of the pack, not the top 1,000.
