Twenty years since Roblox’s initial launch in 2006, college kids are introducing campus clubs and organizations built around fostering college Roblox communities.
Across the nation, public and private universities have seen a recent trend of Roblox clubs sprouting within their campuses. Student-run Roblox clubs have launched at more than 90 US colleges across 30 states, most of them appearing in just the past eight weeks, according to Method Communications, a public relations firm. The clubs gather in person for game nights, avatar competitions, and group play, and more than 38,000 students follow them on Instagram alone, the firm said.
Leaders at two of the clubs have expressed that their communities are open to anyone, from longtime players to newcomers, and that interest has been strong from the start: more than 200 students came to the University of North Texas club’s first meeting, according to its founder. The clubs are not affiliated with Roblox, but the company has begun reaching out to some of them, offering members swag and merchandise.
The newly launched Roblox clubs span from large universities, Ivy League schools and community colleges, according to Method Communications. Schools like University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, San Diego State, the University of Texas, Pittsburgh, Columbia and Brown have all recently seen the arrival of Roblox clubs, which Method is framing as a sort of new campus “third space” for Gen Z students looking to foster in-person connection in an increasingly isolating world.
Rabab Zehra, a freshman at University of North Texas, founded her campus’ Roblox club about a month ago.
“I’ve had a love for Roblox ever since I was a kid, and I wanted to build a community where I could meet like-minded individuals,” Zehra said in an interview.
Zehra’s dreams of launching a Roblox-centered community on her campus quickly came true, but far exceeded any of her initial expectations. At the club’s very first meeting, the classroom she had reserved quickly filled to capacity, overflowing beyond the room’s confines.
“More than 200 people showed up to our first meeting,” Zehra said. “It was so packed that we couldn’t even fit people into the room.”
According to Zehra, that number is only continuing to grow. While the club has only held two official meeting so far this semester, Zehra made the club’s success clear, stating that “ever since our first meeting, our team has only grown.” Since the launch, UNT’s Roblox Club has been planning a whole calendar of group competitions and Roblox-themed events.
“We are doing our best to organize group game competitions where the winner can win Robux, and Roblox related activities like Roblox craft nights, and Roblox avatar competitions,” Zehra said.
Zehra emphasized that the club is open to everyone: “There is no limit to who joins our clubs, whether it’s long-term Roblox players, or just people trying to find a safe space to socialize, we are open to everyone,” she said. As of now, UNT has recognized the organization as an official club, but Zehra noted that it remains unclear whether or not they will received university-endowed funding.
At San Diego State University, an unofficial Roblox club was launched on September 21, according to co-presidents Tayler Donaldson and Malia Widman, both fourth-year students. “We had been seeing a lot of Roblox clubs popping up at colleges around the country and we’d always been interested in Roblox so we decided to create our own club at SDSU,” the co-presidents said in a written interview.
About 50 students joined Donaldson and Widman at their first meeting. “The first meeting garnered around 50 people, and we see about an average of 30 people per meeting,” they said. “We don’t really count members, our club is open to anyone who wants to come.”
At SDSU, Roblox club meetings are held both in person and online. “A typical meeting looks like us posting information on Instagram, GroupMe, and Discord,” the co-presidents said. “Then, depending on the day, we’ll meet either in person, or virtually, send out a private server link, and play together. We try to choose a game that has a large lobby to play all together, but sometimes people have fun choosing their own game and just being surrounded by other people.”
The membership of the SDSU Roblox club is primarily made up of longtime players, with a wide array of newer ones, according to Donaldson and Widman.
Donaldson said she thinks Roblox clubs are catching on around the country because students are looking for a break from all the stress of their daily routines. “I think there is a general sense of wanting around the nation for college aged kids to take a break from academics and the growing unrest within the nation/politics and people want something to take their minds off of everything,” she said.
Zehra said she believes the idea for these clubs has been spreading across the nation by word of mouth. “Once I started my club, I had many different schools messaging me and asking me for advice to start their own organization,” she said.
Unlike UNT’s club, SDSU’s is not yet an official campus-affiliated organization. “We are not recognized by SDSU and we do not get any funding/campus support,” the co-presidents said. “We plan on applying to become a recognized club for spring semester.”
Roblox, though, has already been in touch with both clubs. “Roblox has recently contacted us and graciously sent us swag to hand out at our meetings and we are really grateful,” the SDSU co-presidents said. “No one in this club is paid, and all giveaways we’ve done before this have been self-funded by the club board.” Rabab said a Roblox marketing manager has offered to send merchandise to UNT’s club, and that no one there has been paid.
Roblox also is working on plans to launch a feature called Classmates later this year, according to Method Communications. The feature is intended to help verified college students find other Roblox players at their school, so they can join each other virtually and be in community.
As the college Roblox club trend continues to spread, individual branches have begun to connect with one another. “We are in a big group chat that was started by the Roblox club at Rutgers,” the SDSU co-presidents said. “Nothing has really come of this group chat, it is mainly a place for all of the clubs to bounce ideas back and forth and figure out managing Roblox clubs together.” Zehra also mentioned that UNT is in touch with local clubs and is still brainstorming ideas for upcoming meetings.