How Game Franchises Reach a New Generation on Roblox (and Why Most Publishers Haven't Yet)

Key takeaways

Entertainment IP led the way.

In September 2024 Cloudco put Care Bears on Roblox¹. Caring Quest was built by Exclusible, has 21.8 million visits, and Cloudco's own explanation was simple: Roblox was "the perfect place to bring new Care Bears adventures to a younger, tech-savvy audience." A property four decades old, put in front of a generation who mostly hadn't seen it before.

Rainbow did the same with Winx Club a year later, framing Netflix and Roblox together as the way to bring the saga "to a new generation of kids"². Sanrio was earlier and bigger: My Hello Kitty Cafe has 520 million visits and was pitched at launch as "bringing two generations together"³.

These are IP owners solving an audience problem using the platform where the missing audience spends 2.5+ hours per day⁵.

Some game IP followed suit.

Sonic Speed Simulator, built by Gamefam and live since April 2022, has 1.52 billion visits⁴. It was the first brand game on the platform to reach a billion. Sega is a game publisher at its core, but Sonic is now a trans-media franchise and could easily be classed as an entertainment IP primarily.

Look at who else has and a pattern appears. Garten of Banban, an indie horror series, has around 400 million visits. Ubisoft brought its Rabbids across in December 2025⁴. Most game IPs on Roblox skew mascot, mobile and indie-horror. Setting aside the platform owners, who have clear reasons to keep their IP in-house, most of the big publishers of decades-old PC and console franchises still have no official presence at all.

The challenge for game studios making a game.

Owning a game franchise means a deep and inherent understanding of progression, economy and retention. Logically, that should make game studios better-placed than any movie company to make the switch to Roblox. The advantage is also a risk and, to be fair to game studios, they are already aware of this.

The instincts that made the game franchise a success don't translate to Roblox. A Roblox player decides within seconds whether to stay. One who can't see what to do next leaves, because the next game is one tap away and free. Progression that plays out over a week of gameplay sessions has to pay off in an afternoon (or less). Jeopardy that builds tension across a long session can feel unfair in a short one. And depth that rewards mastery has to be visible in the first few minutes, built incrementally, otherwise it's non-existent to players. All of these conflict with what goes into making a mature PC or console game.

Roblox discovery, live ops, the age-tier system and the platform's economics are a different discipline from the one a studio knows. Some of the franchises taking this seriously are closing the gap by contracting the capability rather than retraining their own teams, which is a clear acknowledgement that a different discipline is required. What most haven't done yet is launch on Roblox.

The next generation is playing somewhere else.

Roblox built its Select tier for 9 to 15 year olds, the age when players settle on the games and characters they carry into adulthood. Most of a franchise's existing channels don't reach them. Steam skews adult, console needs costly hardware and YouTube concerns views, not play.

Some of the audience know the franchise already and have nothing to play, but they are the smaller group. The larger group has never encountered it at all and Roblox becomes where that first encounter happens.

A mixed bag of platform changes affecting IP owners.

Three changes since June send different signals to IP owners.

Age-based accounts went live on 16 June: Kids for 5 to 8, Select for 9 to 15⁶. The under-16 audience became addressable and structurally age-appropriate. The group also monetises less than adults and Roblox attributed part of its second-quarter shortfall to lower spending per hour among younger users after the safety changes⁷.

The licensing platform made permission cheap. Self-serve IP licences since November 2025 and from 12 September a licence that covers specific game passes (e.g. a permanent upgrade or unlockable area) rather than a whole game⁸. The License Catalog makes permission easy, but with only 26 IPs available it isn't a great endorsement of the method. IP owners are still pursuing other routes onto Roblox.

Growth dominated the industry and then wobbled. Matthew Ball's figure is that Roblox took about 67% of net growth in consumer spending outside China in 2025, with hours of engagement comparable to Steam, PlayStation and Fortnite combined⁹. Roblox has given some of that back in 2026, with daily players down from a 152 million peak and the full-year forecast withdrawn⁷.

Every IP has to adapt.

Roblox-native means adapting the IP rather than carrying it across and each franchise gives up something different. Horror shows it most clearly. Every top horror title on the platform sits at Minimal or Mild maturity¹⁰, because Kids accounts only reach those two labels. The winners traded tone for the youngest players. For another franchise the thing that has to adapt will be pace, session length or a story told across forty hours. The platform rewards clear goals, fast progression and social play and each IP has to reconcile its Roblox-native version with those.

Not every franchise gets a GTA launch.

GTA VI arrives on 19 November¹¹ and new and existing audiences alike will be drawn to the unmissable event. A mega-launch manufactures its own discovery, whereas every other franchise has to go and find players. On Roblox player reach is earned rather than bought: the algorithm promotes what captures people and ignores what doesn't. A franchise whose fans are already on (or can bring them to) the platform starts that process with an advantage, because the people who know it seed the discovery that reaches the people who don't.

How an IP owner evaluates a studio.

Any IP owner considering a build should be able to get clear information from studios during procurement.

None of these is specific to Roblox. Roblox just makes the answers more consequential, because the platform decides very quickly whether a game lives or drifts into obscurity.

Daniel O'Sullivan LFG Studio · [email protected]

FAQ

Can a game franchise be brought to Roblox?
Yes, and several have. Sonic Speed Simulator, an official Sega licence built by Gamefam, has 1.52 billion visits and was the first brand game on the platform past a billion. Garten of Banban and Ubisoft's Rabbids are also there. Most arrived through a studio already experienced on the platform rather than through the publisher's own team.

Why haven't more game publishers launched on Roblox?
Not reluctance. Owning a franchise means understanding progression, economy and retention natively, but the instincts that made the source game work don't translate. A Roblox player decides within seconds whether to stay, progression has to pay off in an afternoon, and depth has to be felt in the first few minutes. Some publishers are closing that gap by contracting the capability rather than retraining their own teams.

Who is the Roblox audience for a game franchise?
Two groups. The smaller one is existing fans who know the franchise and have nothing to play. The larger one has never encountered it at all, and Roblox is where that first encounter would happen. Roblox built its Select tier for 9 to 15 year olds, an age most of a franchise's existing channels don't reach.

What are Roblox age-based accounts?
Live since 16 June 2026: Kids accounts for 5 to 8, Select for 9 to 15, and Roblox for 16 and over. Kids accounts only reach experiences labelled Minimal or Mild. The under-16 audience monetises less than adults, and Roblox attributed part of its second-quarter shortfall to lower spending per hour among younger users.

How does the Roblox licensing platform work for IP owners?
Any IP holder can list a licence themselves, since November 2025. From 12 September 2026 a licence can cover specific game passes rather than a whole game. The catalogue held 26 IPs at 23 September 2026. It makes permission cheap. It doesn't supply the method.

What should an IP owner ask a studio before building on Roblox?
Comparable work on Roblox with dates. A named, dedicated team and their Roblox experience. A proposed list of what stays faithful and what has to flex, agreed before design starts. Itemised and tiered pricing with descope options that keep the core loop intact. And what the studio needs from the IP owner in approval turnaround, and what happens to scope if it slips.