Roblox Loses 20 Million Daily Active Users in Half a Year, Growth Hampered by Age Verification
Roblox's latest financial report reveals a continuous decline in global daily active users over the past two quarters, partly due to the platform's large-scale age verification system slowing down new user growth. As of the first quarter of this year, Roblox's global daily active users reached 132 million, a decrease of approximately 20 million from the high of 152 million in the third quarter of last year, and a further decline from 144 million at the end of last year. Despite the user decline, the company's revenue still grew to $1.4 billion.
In a letter to shareholders, Roblox stated that business growth in the first quarter was affected by "stronger-than-expected headwinds," with the core factor being the platform's age verification features slowing down new user acquisition. The company explained that the new identity and age verification mechanisms had a noticeable impact on registration conversion rates after launch, and Russia's ban on Roblox starting in December 2025 also contributed to the decline in global daily active users.
Over the past few months, Roblox has further tightened content access rules for minors, expanding age restrictions to the types of games and features that different age groups can access. The company expects to continue rolling out more improvements in the coming quarters to ensure that users of different ages receive "age-appropriate" content and product experiences, and explicitly stated in this financial report that this round of safety and compliance investment will lower its overall growth expectations for 2026.
According to disclosed data, as of the end of the first quarter, 51% of global daily active users had completed age verification, while the proportion in the United States reached 65%. This means that more than half of the active users on the platform have been incorporated into the age rating system, which serves as the basis for subsequent content distribution and business model adjustments.
While strengthening safety and compliance, Roblox is also increasing its efforts in the adult user market, hoping to increase its penetration rate among people aged 18 and over. The company recently announced that it will increase the developer exchange rate for in-game purchases by 42% for users who have passed age verification and are over 18 years old, in order to incentivize developers to create more high-quality content for adult users. This adjustment is seen as a signal that the platform is proactively leaning towards older and higher-spending users in the context of tightening regulations and increasing pressure on the protection of minors.