Rewarded Video ads are officially rolling out to everyone on Roblox 🎁

This isn't just for developers to monetise. Roblox are rapidly scaling ad inventory to position themselves as a serious advertising platform. The requirements have been lowered to just 2,000 unique monthly users - meaning thousands of experiences can now run ads. That's a massive expansion of available placements for brands, albeit some of them placements will be in very, very small games.

The "rewarded" format is not dissimilar to mobile gaming, tried and tested and something players have likely experienced before on quite literally any mobile app. My biggest concern is if ad revenue becomes a primary income stream for developers, game design could start bending around it. Experiences will be built with ad placement opportunities in mind, not as an afterthought.

The "reduce ads to likely payers" feature nice though, essentially Roblox is segmenting users into two groups. Monetise through purchases, or monetise through attention. It's great audience management, but it also means non-paying players are going to see a LOT more ads moving forward.

This is necessary for Roblox's business model long-term, but the platform is shifting. What makes Roblox special is pure play - kids creating and playing without being constantly monetized. This, potentially, changes that forever.

For brands, this is huge. Roblox becomes a legitimate ad platform. For players, their favourite experience could look different. The winners will be experiences that integrate ads without making users feel like they're being farmed for ad views (looking at you candy crush).

For me, the balance here matters more than the opportunity.