In the words of David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox, the world needs more play.
That’s how he opened the annual event for creative builders and creators today: the annual Roblox Developers Conference (RDC) in San Jose, California.
Sadly, a guy rushed the stage just before Baszucki started talking. Baszucki was safe and security grabbed the guy and took him off stage. Baszucki kept on talking without skipping a beat.
For the 20th anniversary, Rebecca Cassel, the widow of Roblox cofounder Erik Cassel, came out on stage at the close as Baszucki honored the contributions of the late Cassel. John Shedletsky also came out on stage, as he was one of the first two employees.
Baszucki noted that, last quarter alone, players spent 29 billion hours on Roblox, across more than 180 countries. The games these creators have built have become part of our culture, just like books, records, and board games, he said.
The announcements at RDC 2026 are important. Roblox stock is down about 66% in the past year to about $44.88 a share yesterday. The company is still valued at a market capitalization of $32 billion, but it’s well below Roblox’s IPO first-day of trading valuation at $45 billion.
“Today’s announcements build on that foundation. More play—new ways for people to connect,
communicate, and enjoy games on Roblox. More building—giving creators the game engine
and AI-powered tools to build things that weren’t possible before. And more growth—making
sure players find what creators have built,” Baszucki said.
In the next few years, Baszucki said gaming will be completely transformed and he believes that will be a good thing, and it will be more human than ever.
“All of us together benefit when play thrives,” Baszucki said.
More Playing
Baszucki said he wants players to join Roblox games anywhere, on any device, browser, or platform. And he wants them to find every kind of game, from high-fidelity multiplayer arenas to cozy 2D puzzles they can play offline.
“Play is more than just the game itself—it’s how players watch, talk, connect, and express themselves. On Roblox, that means playing, watching, chatting, discovering, and creating all happen together,” Baszucki said.
Play Roblox Everywhere: The vision for Roblox Everywhere is to enable creators to reach
audiences where they already are. Soon, creators will have the option to make their games
available as standalone apps across mobile, PC, and consoles, with Roblox powering the
technology and services underneath.
Play on the web: By the end of this year, players will be able to join a game in-browser on
Chrome (more browsers to follow) from a game’s Experience Details Page—no app or install
required. Web player allows players to click a link from anywhere (search, YouTube, X, an email from a friend, or a creator’s social channel) and start playing instantly.
Play offline: Players can now keep the game going—on the subway, in the air, or wherever
access is spotty. Over the next year, creators can enable offline solo play alongside a live,
multiplayer mode. Offline play will be available by mid-2027, with early access coming soon.
Stay connected between games: The new Friends chat tab follows players across games, so
Friends can coordinate and move into a new game together. Newly released voice typing lets
players talk, rather than type while playing.
Later this year, creators will be able to add pre-set Quick Words to their games—like “start your
engines” for a racing game. Quick Words are proactively reviewed for policy compliance so
players of all ages can coordinate gameplay safely.
Play new kinds of games: For years, Roblox has been best-known for one kind of game: 3D
multiplayer worlds. We’re proud of that, but that’s just one way to play. Some of the most-played games in the world are 2D and puzzle games. They’re quick, easy to play, and until now, a genre we hadn’t fully unlocked on Roblox.
To change that, we’re expanding Roblox’s engine capabilities with a new orthographic camera,
animated image containers, and direct sprite-sheet import. New UI features, including blur, text
shadows, and improved gradients will enhance the look and feel for games.
“We are also expanding support for more turn-based, asynchronous multiplayer games on
Roblox,” Baszucki said. A new notification system will alert players when it’s their turn, arriving in Studio Beta in October, and in full release by the end of the year.
More Building
We’ve built what is effectively a cloud operating system for gaming: the engine, the
infrastructure, and the services that let any creator publish instantly, scale to millions of players,
and reach anyone on any device. Now we’re building an AI creation layer on top of that OS—not a single tool or model, but a complete system built for the complexity of games. Together, they are going to change what it means to build a game, and who gets to do it.
Mobile-first creation: Build, a new tab in the Roblox app, lets anyone create a game through
prompts and empowers more creators to create for fun, to learn, and to test out new ideas.
That’s what “you make the game” has always meant to us. Since the alpha launch in New
Zealand, creators have used Build to publish approximately 9,000 games. So far, of the
thousands of users who’ve created a game with Build, 71% had never used Roblox Studio
before 1 and are trying something new.
Build’s public alpha is now expanding to Serbia and Singapore. Roblox has also provided every creator at today’s conference access to Build. This expansion adds new tools that give creators more control, including a new asset library, desktop access, and iterative control.
Roblox also shared early progress toward connecting Build and Studio, which lets creators view, operate, and manage the games they’ve created right from the app.
Today, creators can quickly review analytics and add monetization, soon they’ll also be able to
launch ads for their games from their phones. These announcements are the first steps toward
integrating Build and Studio for seamless switching between quick iteration on the go and
deeper development in Studio.
Scene creation from prompts: Coming later this year, Scene Generator will power
prompt-to-scene functionality across both Build and Studio, with greater creator control available in Studio. By providing a text prompt and reference image, creators can generate a fully functional layout—then refine it in Studio.
Baszucki noted Roblox has a new podcast, Made on Roblox, about the creators behind the games. The first episode, on the making of breakout game 99 Nights in the Forest, drops later this month.
More Growth
Great games should be easy to find—on the Roblox homepage, in Moments, and on any
browser or device. Our discovery ranking system is increasingly age-aware, because Roblox is
really many different businesses in one. Younger players tend to engage best with shorter-form
games they discover, enjoy, and move on from.
Older players are drawn to deeper games they return to over time. Our system now optimizes for both—looking beyond the first week to the first 28 days and beyond. We’re also testing optimizing discovery for direct growth, measured by how many new players a game brings to the platform. The better a game serves its audience, the more our discovery system works for it.
Discovering games and more in Moments: The Moments tab, where players watch gameplay
videos and click to play, is now fully available in the United States.
Baszucki said every Moments video is a gateway to play and a way for players to discover new games. Later this month, videos from a game’s Experience Details Page will start appearing in Moments. In October, players will be able to tap any avatar in the tab to buy the items or background shown and in the coming months, Build games will be playable right in the tab.
Transforming creator earnings: Since launching DevEx in 2013, creators have earned more
than $5 billion on Roblox. In the past 12 months, creators have earned approximately $1.7
billion. Roblox Plus incentives generated more than 300 million Robux in creator earnings its first four months.
And today, Baszucki announced Roblox Wallet and Roblox Card, which give creators faster, more flexible access to their earnings.
A professional payments experience built to scale with creator businesses, Wallet is an account
provided through our financial partner 5 and accessible in Creator Hub. Once creators open a Wallet, their earnings are paid out every business day in real currency as holds clear. Wallet rolls out later this year to eligible U.S.-based independent creators 18 and older, with international expansion planned for the year ahead. Creators will be notified when they become eligible for a Wallet.
Roblox Card connects to Roblox Wallet, enabling creators to spend their available balance
directly, anywhere it’s accepted. We plan to begin rolling out Roblox Card in 2027.
“Today is the next step in a longer journey to bring the world more play, and everything we
shared today is in service of that work. This is just the beginning of where Roblox is headed and we can’t wait to see what creators come up with next,” Baszucki said.