Roblox Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results

Strong year over year growth in Daily Active Users, Hours Engaged and Bookings

Roblox Corporation (NYSE: RBLX), a global platform bringing millions of people together through shared experiences, released its fourth quarter and full year 2022 financial and operational results today as well as key metrics for the month of January 2023. Separately, Roblox posted a letter to shareholders and supplemental materials on the Roblox investor relations website at ir.roblox.com.

Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial and Operational Highlights

• Revenue was $579.0 million, up 2% year-over-year, and up 3% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $119.2 million and free cash flow was $(38.0) million
• Bookings were $899.4 million, up 17% year-over-year, and up 21% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹
• Average Daily Active Users (DAUs) were 58.8 million, up 19% year-over-year
• Hours engaged were 12.8 billion, up 18% year-over-year
• Average bookings per DAU (ABPDAU) was $15.29, down 2% year-over-year, and up 2% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹

Full Year 2022 Financial and Operational Highlights

• Revenue was $2.2 billion, up 16% year-over-year, and up 17% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $369.3 million and free cash flow was $(58.4) million
• Bookings were $2.9 billion, up 5% year-over-year, and up 9% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹
• Average DAUs were 56.0 million, up 23% year-over-year
• Hours engaged were 49.3 billion, up 19% year-over-year
• ABPDAU was $51.29, down 14% year-over-year, and down 11% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹

January 2023 Key Metrics

• Estimated revenue was between $213 million and $216 million, up 22% - 24% year-over-year, and up 24% - 26% year-over-year on a constant currency basis^{1, 2}
• Estimated bookings were between $267 million and $271 million, up 19% - 21% year-over-year, and up 22% - 24% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹
• Average DAUs were 65.0 million, up 19% year-over-year
• Hours engaged were 5.0 billion, up 19% year-over-year
• Estimated ABPDAU was between $4.11 and $4.17, up 0% - 2% year-over-year, and up 3% - 4% year-over-year on a constant currency basis¹

“2022 was a year of innovation and invention for Roblox,” said David Baszucki, Founder and CEO of Roblox. “With 65 million daily active users in January, we are driving towards our vision to reimagine the way people come together by enabling deeper forms of expression, communication and immersion.”

“Bookings accelerated meaningfully in December and January, with year over year growth exceeding 20% in both months. Growth was strong across all geographies and age groups with particular strength among users above 17 years old,” said Michael Guthrie, Chief Financial Officer of Roblox. “As bookings re-accelerated late in 2022, we saw immediate improvements in adjusted EBITDA margins. For the full year, we were able to make important investments in infrastructure and trust and safety largely out of cash flow from operations.”

Discontinuation of Monthly Key Metrics Releases

Following the expected release of March 2023 monthly metrics in April 2023, the Company will cease publishing monthly metrics. By April 2023, we will have published monthly metrics over our first eight quarters as a public company. While we think that has provided incremental information to investors regarding the seasonality of the business, we have decided to cease providing monthly metrics to align our reporting cadence with our value of taking the long view. Key metrics will continue to be published on a quarterly basis aligned with the Company’s other quarterly disclosures, including its shareholder letter and other quarterly publications.

Earnings Q&A Session

Roblox will host a live Q&A session to answer questions regarding their fourth quarter and full year 2022 results on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time/8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The webcast will be open to the public at ir.roblox.com or by clicking here.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding our vision to connect people, our business, product, strategy and user growth, our investment strategy, including our capital allocation strategy, our opportunities for and expectations of improvements in financial and operating metrics, our expectation of successfully executing such strategies and plans, our expectations for our quarterly and monthly financial and operational results, disclosures and future growth rates, and our expectations of future net losses and net cash generation from operating activities, and statements by our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date they were first issued and were based on current plans, expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management and our plans for publishing monthly Key Metrics. Words such as “expect,” “vision,” “anticipate,” “look,” “maintain,” “should,” “believe,” “hope,” “target,” “continue,” “project,” “plan,” “goals,” “opportunity,” “estimate,” “potential,” “predict,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “could,” “would,” “intend,” “shall,” and “suggest,” and variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control. Our actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other filings and reports we make with the SEC from time to time. In particular, the following factors, among others, could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: our ability to successfully execute our business and growth strategy; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity needs; the impact of our senior notes and any future indebtedness on our business, financial condition and results of operations; the demand for our platform in general; our ability to increase our number of new users and revenue generated from users; our ability to retain and expand our user base; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other macro economic trends (including currency exchange rates and inflation) on our business and the easing of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact of changing legal and regulatory requirements on our business; the fluctuation of our results of operations and our key business measures on a quarterly basis in future periods, including as a result of changes in our accounting estimates; our ability to successfully develop and deploy new technologies to address the needs of our users; our ability to maintain and enhance our brand and reputation; our ability to hire and retain talent; news or social media coverage about Roblox, including but not limited to coverage that presents, or relies on, inaccurate, misleading, incomplete, or otherwise damaging information; any breach or access to user or third-party data; and our ability to maintain the security and availability of our platform. Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations is included in the reports we have filed or will file with the SEC, including our annual reports on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.

The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change and all of our monthly financial results and operational metrics are subject to normal quarter end review and potential adjustments. We undertake no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results and quarterly performance may materially differ from aggregation of the monthly financial and operating metrics for each month within the quarter.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release and the accompanying tables contain the non-GAAP financial measures bookings, free cash flow, and Adjusted EBITDA.

We use this non-GAAP financial information to evaluate our ongoing operations, for internal planning and forecasting purposes, and ongoing operating trends for purposes of analyzing the covenants specified in the indenture governing our senior notes due 2030. We believe that this non-GAAP financial information may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance.

Bookings is defined as revenue plus the change in deferred revenue during the period and other non-cash adjustments. Substantially all of our bookings are generated from sales of virtual currency, which can be converted to virtual items on the Roblox Platform. Sales of virtual currency reflected as bookings include one-time purchases or monthly subscriptions purchased via payment processors or through prepaid cards. Bookings also include an insignificant amount from advertising and licensing arrangements. We believe bookings provide a timelier indication of trends in our operating results that are not necessarily reflected in our revenue as a result of the fact that we recognize the majority of revenue over the estimated average lifetime of a paying user. The change in deferred revenue constitutes the vast majority of the reconciling difference from revenue to bookings. By removing these non-cash adjustments, we are able to measure and monitor our business performance based on the timing of actual transactions with our users and the cash that is generated from these transactions. Free cash flow represents the net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property, equipment, and intangible assets acquired through asset acquisitions. We believe that free cash flow is a useful indicator of our unit economics and liquidity that provides information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated from our core operations that, after the purchases of property, equipment, and intangible assets acquired through asset acquisitions, can be used for strategic initiatives, including investing in our business, making strategic acquisitions, and strengthening our balance sheet. Adjusted EBITDA is a measure of operating performance used in certain covenant calculations specified in the indenture governing our senior notes due 2030 that is not calculated in accordance with GAAP and may not conform to the calculation of EBITDA in other circumstances. We believe that, when considered together with reported amounts, Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors and management in understanding our ongoing operations and ongoing operating trends for purposes of analyzing the covenants specified in the indenture governing our senior notes due 2030.

Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations in their usefulness to investors because they have no standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and are not prepared under any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial information as a tool for comparison. As a result, our non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP.

A reconciliation table of the most comparable GAAP financial measure to each non-GAAP financial measure used in this press release is included at the end of this release. We encourage investors and others to review our business, results of operations, and financial information in their entirety, not to rely on any single financial measure, and to view these non-GAAP measures in conjunction with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

The following table presents a reconciliation of revenue, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to bookings, for each of the periods presented:

As used in the press release, constant currency is calculated by converting our current period financial results into U.S. dollars using the comparative prior period’s monthly exchange rates for our non-USD currencies, rather than the actual average exchange rates in effect during the current period.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net cash from operating activities, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to free cash flow, for each of the periods presented:

Acquisition of property and equipment primarily includes servers, infrastructure equipment and tenant improvements. Purchases of intangible assets are those acquired through asset acquisitions.

The following table presents a reconciliation of consolidated net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to Adjusted EBITDA, for each of the periods presented:

About Roblox

Roblox’s mission is to connect a billion people with optimism and civility. Every day, tens of millions of people around the world have fun with friends as they explore millions of immersive digital experiences. All of these experiences are built by the Roblox community, made up of millions of creators. We believe in building a safe, civil, and diverse community—one that inspires and fosters creativity and positive relationships between people around the world. For more information, please visit corp.roblox.com.

ROBLOX and the Roblox logo are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of Roblox Corporation in the United States and other countries. © 2023 Roblox Corporation. All rights reserved.

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