Roblox Raises $92 Million In Latest Funding Round

Microsoft's purchase of Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion must have perked a few ears over in Silicon Valley.

Roblox, the LEGO inspired sandbox MMO, closed a series C funding round on March 14 that brought in $92 million. The lead venture firms for the round were Index Ventures and Meritech Capital Partners. Roblox raised money twice before; once back in 2011 where it raised $5.75 million and in 2009 when it raised $1.5 million. Roblox didn't volunteer the valuation implied by the funding round, but its clear there has been massive appreciation since 2011.

Despite already being over a decade old, Roblox has enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years thanks to three key factors. First, the success of Minecraft introduced many new gamers to the sandbox-builder genre. Second, Roblox's modding and monetization tools provide players a creative and financial incentive to continue releasing new content. And third, the growth of mobile gaming which Roblox was quick to capitalize on. Roblox currently boasts 32 million monthly active users. In comparison, the much more widely known Minecraft stands at 55 million monthly users.

These Wizards Played Roblox Before Minecraft Was Cool

While there may be many parallels between Minecraft and Roblox, the two products pursue vastly different business models. Minecraft has a fixed retail cost while Roblox pursues a 'freemium' model. Beside offering players in-game currency for purchase, modders can pay a subscription fee to gain access to development tools. Mod developers then get a cut of item sales within their mini-games. To date, 1.7 million people have built 22 million games in Roblox. All of these community created games are available across mobile, PC,a nd console platforms. Roblox even supports VR via the HTC Vive.

More Info: Bloomberg