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| Roblox | |
|---|---|
 Logo since 2022 | |
| Developer(s) | Roblox Corporation |
| Designer(s) | David Baszucki Erik Cassel |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | September 1, 2006
|
| Genre(s) | Game creation system, massively multiplayer online game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Roblox (/ˈroʊblɒks/ ⓘ, ROH-bloks) is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users. It was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004, and released to the public in 2006. As of August 2020, the platform has over 164 million monthly active users, including half of all American children under the age of 16.
The platform hosts millions of user-created games (officially referred to as "experiences"), all created using a dialect of the programming language Lua and the platforms game engine, Roblox Studio. While Roblox is free-to-play, it features in-game purchases done through its virtual currency known as Robux, and game developers on the platform are able to create items that cost Robux. Furthermore, the platform hosts a large virtual economy centered around those items and Robux. Using the platforms "Developer Exchange" program, creators on the platform are able to exchange their earned Robux for real-world currency. The platform has also been used to host virtual concerts and events, as well as advergames.
Early in Roblox's history, it was relatively small, both as a platform and as a company. In the second half of the 2010s, the platform began to grow rapidly, and this growth was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2020, over 5,000 games on Roblox had been played over a million times, and over 20 had been played over one billion times. Although Roblox has been positively received by critics, it has faced heavy criticism for its content moderation, microtransactions, allegations of exploitative practices toward children, and more. The platform has been restricted or completely blocked in several countries, such as China, Turkey, Jordan, and others.