In a boost for the ‘metaverse,’ Roblox stock pops 25% after strong Q4 earnings

techcrunch.com:

It looks like the metaverse is doing okay. No, not the one Meta is trying to make happen in VR — the gaming platform Roblox is where the kids are still spending their money, apparently. After reporting its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, Roblox shares popped25%, as investors reacted to the company’s better-than-expected earnings.

Made popular through games like MeepCity, Jailbreak, Adopt Me!, Royale High, Murder Mystery, and others, Roblox appeals to a younger demographic who go online not only to play games, but to chat and socialize with other players.

The platform’s growth, alongside other games like Fortnite where players also attend concerts and hang out with friends, concerned Facebook so much that it rebranded itself Meta and began spending billions on its metaverse project, afraid of missing the next trend in online socializing.

But for the time being, Roblox is still where the action is for today’s young gamers or “metaverse” participants if you want to call them that. (Technically, the metaverse doesn’t exist yet. It’s only a buzzword.)

The gaming platform company today reported it had 58.8 million average daily active users (DAUs), up 19% year-over-year, as of the fourth quarter. For the full year 2022, average DAUs were 56 million, up 23% year-over-year. Plus, the company provided more recent metrics, noting that January’s average DAUs had climbed to 65 million, or up 19% year-over-year.

Wall Street investors were particularly happy with Roblox’s bookings figures, however, which represent the in-game purchases made using the company’s own virtual currency Robux. In the fourth quarter, bookings grew 17% year-over-year to reach $899.4 million (or up 21% on a constant currency basis), when investors had been