A person photographs a Roblox banner displayed, to have a good time the corporate’s IPO, on the front facade of the Recent York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Recent York, March 10, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Roblox shares rose around 6% in Wednesday morning after the video game company reported fiscal first-quarter results.
Here’s how the corporate did:
- Loss per share: 44 cent loss vs. 40 cent loss per share expected, in line with a Refinitiv survey of analysts.
- Revenue (bookings): $774 million vs. $766 million expected, in line with Refinitiv.
The revenue figure is what Roblox calls bookings. It includes sales recognized throughout the quarter and deferred revenue.
Average every day energetic users, or DAUs, reached 66 million, up 22% year-over-year. Engagement hours totaled 14.5 billion, also up 23% year-over-year. Each DAU and engagement growth saw the biggest increases amongst Roblox’s international and 13-and-older segments. Each those numbers are all-time highs for Roblox.
On an analyst call following the earnings report, CEO and founder David Baszucki attributed the bookings growth to “eight quarters of innovation and awesome engineering.”
“And while users of all ages are also growing, older users proceed to contribute probably the most, with those between the ages of 17-24 growing by 35% in Q1 2023 over Q1 2022,” the corporate said in its earnings release.
The corporate reported a net lack of $268 million for the quarter, or a lack of 44 cents per share, in comparison with a net lack of $160.2 million, or a lack of 27 cents per share, within the year-ago quarter.
Amid a broader downturn in tech spending and hiring, the corporate signaled that it was comfortable with present headcount and compensation levels, given “the momentum we see in bookings.” Roblox saw its adjusted revenue, or bookings, grow 23% year-over-year.
“We are able to now begin to slow our year-over-year increases in headcount and compensation expenses,” the corporate said in its earnings release, with bookings growth expected to exceed compensation growth starting in the primary fiscal quarter of 2024 and onwards.
