Roblox Crashes 20% on Soft Q2 Results

Roblox (RBLX:US), the popular online gaming platform, shares fell as much as 20% on Wednesday after the company published its earnings report.

Despite exceeding revenue expectations, the company’s financial performance prompted some scrutiny. For the reported period, Roblox’s revenue reached $680.8 million, representing a 15% year-over-year increase. 

Bookings, another key metric for the company, demonstrated solid growth as well, totaling $780.7 million, a 22% increase compared to the previous year. 

Roblox reported a loss per share of $0.46, worse than the expected loss of $0.44. Analysts were also looking for bookings of $785.4 million. 

Average Daily Active Users (DAUs) reached 65.5 million, marking a 25% increase compared to the prior year. Average monthly unique payers, another important metric, totaled 13.5 million, resulting in a 19% YoY growth. Hours engaged on the platform also saw a significant increase of 24%, reaching 14 billion.

The company forecasted continued growth in its second quarter, with projected net bookings between $1.225 billion to $1.275 billion. Additionally, Roblox expects DAUs for the second quarter to range between 43.0 million and 44.5 million, which implies a YoY growth rate of 29% to 33%.

“This is our second consecutive quarter with year-over-year bookings growth in the low-20s. During the quarter, we also built the plans that we believe will enable us to generate operating leverage against infrastructure and trust & safety spend starting next quarter and against compensation expense starting in the first quarter of 2024,” said Michael Guthrie, chief financial officer of Roblox.

Congressman Daniel Goldman bought $15,000 - $50,000 worth of RBLX stock on January 31, when it closed at $37.21. Shares now trade around the $30 mark, following Wednesday’s selloff.