This quarter's results exceeded expectations, but safety measures such as age verification created significant near-term headwinds, leading to slower user growth and prompting the company to lower its full-year guidance.
Revenue was $1.4 billion, up 39% year-over-year; bookings were $1.7 billion, up 43% year-over-year. DAU reached 132 million, up 35% year-over-year.
As part of its safety initiatives, Roblox has rolled out age verification for access to chat functionality globally and plans to introduce age-based accounts in June. This has led to a decline in communication engagement, impacting organic user growth and App Store ratings. Meanwhile, the company adjusted its recommendation algorithm to prioritize long-term retention over short-term monetization. To attract users aged 18 and above, the company raised the DevEx rate for that age group to 37.8% and is collaborating with well-known game studios to bring mobile games onto the platform.
Management lowered its full-year revenue growth guidance to 20%-25% and full-year bookings growth guidance to 8%-12%. It expects DAU to continue contracting in Q2 and resume growth in Q3.
While expressing long-term confidence, management candidly acknowledged that the short-term negative impact of age verification exceeded expectations—a notably negative signal.