Once considered an app for kids, the online gaming platform Roblox has surged in popularity among college students.
Roblox, created in 2006 by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel, allows users to build their own games and share them with others.
“I play it once every few days,” Milo Starling, a fourth-year theater student, said. “I love that there’s a variety of games. For all ages, too.”
It’s popular among kids because the controls are easy to use and there are endless possibilities, according to players.
It’s popular among college students because they can play different styles of games all on one platform.
More than 79.5 million people access Roblox each day, according to the company. The fastest–growing group of users is those ages 17 to 24, who make up 23% of players. Another 42% are younger than 13.
The platform’s popularity shot up among college students last summer, when the game “Dress to Impress” hit the platform, according to fan Ayla Cole, a second-year criminal justice student.
Cole noted her strategy to end up in the Top 5 on the game: Gather friends on the same server, and then vote your friends five stars and everyone else one star.
“I love to play ‘Dress To Impress,’” Starling added. “I like fashion and everything, so it’s a little more fun for me. It can get a little toxic depending on the people, though. There’s always going to be competitive people.”
Some college students said they have been playing games through Roblox since they were in elementary school, and they just haven’t outgrown it.
Other students, however, said they play it just because it is fun.
“The little characters are silly … and I can customize it,” Aiden Marion, a second-year teacher education student and player on the college Esports team, said. “One time I was playing with my
sister and she showed me this silly game she saw on YouTube. … This had to be months ago, but we still laugh about it.”
The top game on Roblox so far this year is the role-playing game Brookhaven RP, according to Statista.com.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Roblox introduced private virtual spaces for users to hold social gatherings. This allowed kids and teens to spend time with their friends during lockdown.
But playing too many video games, on Roblox or otherwise, might not be healthy for students.
“A person playing hours upon hours is not healthy,” Gena Harmon, a licensed clinical professional counselor in Anne Arundel County, said. “Entertaining games are fine, but some of these games are out of control. Some are inappropriate and put people down. Some lead to violence. And don’t forget students get addicted to these games. Students aren’t above having addiction issues.”
