Roblox: Age verification slows growth

Roblox released its quarterly figures on Thursday. Year-on-year, daily active users increased by 35 percent and revenue by 39 percent. At the same time, the company admitted that user growth was also hampered by "greater-than-expected headwinds" as a result of the age verification introduced in January.

Roblox does not say how significant this is. However, a look at the development of previous quarters suggests that it involves millions of users: in the fourth quarter of 2025, the platform still counted 144 million daily active users, and in the first quarter, only 132 million.

Part of the decline in the first quarter may be seasonal. Roblox itself points to the strong comparison figures from 2025 and the Roblox ban in Russia imposed in December as additional factors.

The extent to which the new security measures are impacting the business is shown by Roblox having revised its growth expectations for 2026 downwards. After the fourth quarter of 2025, the company had projected revenue growth of 23 to 29 percent for 2026. Bookings, i.e., purchases and transactions on the platform, were also expected to increase by 22 to 26 percent. Now, due to the security overhaul, Roblox only expects 20 to 25 percent revenue growth and 8 to 12 percent growth in bookings. Furthermore, the company anticipates a further decline in daily active users for the second quarter.

Security Overhaul Continues

Despite this development, Roblox is sticking to its security measures and intends to expand them further. In the coming quarters, in addition to age verification, further enhancements are planned to facilitate age-appropriate access to content and functions, according to the quarterly report.

Roblox has offered age verification since 2021, but tightened it in January 2026. Access to chat functions has since been linked to verification via ID or facial scan. In response to attempts to circumvent these measures, Roblox introduced continuous age checks shortly thereafter, which use multiple signals to determine if someone is significantly older or younger than stated in their profile. According to the quarterly report, by the end of the first quarter, 51 percent of daily active users worldwide had completed an age verification. In developed markets, the rate is significantly higher. Roblox cites the USA as an example with 65 percent.

Just two weeks ago, Roblox also announced age-based accounts. Without age verification, access will in the future be limited to content for 5 to 8-year-olds. In addition, communication with other users will remain deactivated by default. The global rollout of the new accounts is planned for early June.

(nen)