Just before it went public via a direct listing on Wednesday, Roblox announced that it had reached a milestone of $2.5 billion mobile revenue between the App Store and Google Play–with $1.2 billion of that earned solely in 2020.
It was only October last year when Roblox passed its previous milestone of $2 billion in mobile revenue, meaning Roblox players have spent $500 million on mobile in the last five months. The game is free to download, with all Roblox’s revenue coming from the sale of its in-game currency, Robux. While players can also spend on other platforms, more than half of Roblox’s sales go through either the App Store or Google Play, with players from the United States accounting for 65% of that mobile revenue.
After multiple delays to its public listing, Roblox finally went public via direct listing on March 10. The New York Stock Exchange set a reference price of $45 a share, but the stock was up almost 55% to $69.50 by market close, as reported by CNN. The listing means the company is now valued at over $45 billion, higher than other industry giants such as EA and Take-Two.
After initially exploring an IPO, Roblox eventually went public via a direct listing. “For us, a direct listing seemed natural,” Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki told CNN. “It brings the whole community together and everyone is using the same price at the opening of trading.”