Latest news with #SplittingPointStudios
Int'l Business Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Int'l Business Times
Roblox's Grow A Garden Explodes Online Video Game Numbers
A gardening game created by a teenager on online platform Roblox has attracted a record 21 million simultaneous players, a figure rarely seen in the industry. "You could quite easily never have heard of Grow a Garden... and yet it is by some measures the biggest video game at the moment," Dom Tait, an analyst with UK firm Omdia, told AFP. More than 21 million players connected to Grow a Garden at the same time on June 21, buying seeds to cultivate a little patch of virtual land, harvesting crops, selling their produce and nicking stuff from other players' plots. That shattered the record held by the adrenalin-packed Fortnite, which attracted 15 million concurrent users (CCUs) during an event in late 2020 featuring characters from the Marvel universe. "It's enormous," Tait said of Grow a Garden's success. He said it was difficult to say categorically if the sedate farming-themed game had broken all CCU records because other platforms do not necessarily publish numbers for other hugely popular games, such as Honor of Kings. "(But) I think we can be confident it's a record for Roblox because Roblox has given us these these figures," he said. Roblox, which is popular with children and teenagers, was released in 2005 and is now available on almost all consoles and on mobile phones. It has morphed into an online gaming platform -- one of the world's largest -- where players can programme their own games and try out other users' creations. Games on the platform are free to play. Roblox makes its money through a range of revenue streams, including in-game purchases, advertising and royalty fees. Grow a Garden appeared in late March, developed by a teenager about whom little is known. Game development group Splitting Point Studios soon snapped up a share. The original creator "literally made the game in, like, three days", Splitting Point CEO Janzen Madsen told specialist website Game File. Tait says the success of Grow a Garden, with its simple graphics and basic mechanics, can be explained by its comforting nature. "There's not much danger. There's not much threat. You just sort of go on and do things and just sort of have a gentle experience," he said. He pointed to the satisfaction players derived from seeing their garden evolve, even when they are not connected. A bit like a real garden, only quicker. The concept is reminiscent of Animal Crossing, a simulation of life in a village populated by cute animals that became a soothing refuge for many players during the first Covid lockdowns in 2020. For specialist site Gamediscover, another attraction of Grow a Garden is the ease with which players can get to grips with the game -- a bonus for Roblox, which said 40 percent of the platform's users last year were under 13. It is difficult to know exactly how much Grow a Garden has earned for its developers. But Tait said those who created the best paid experiences received "about 70 percent" of the money spent by gamers "with Roblox taking the rest". Roblox says on its website it paid out $923 million to developers in 2024. "It is big money. So there's a little bit of nervousness in the industry about, 'Is Roblox taking away the audience that would otherwise have spent hundreds of pounds on a console and bought my console games?'" These sums demonstrate the weight in the video game industry of behemoths like Roblox and Fortnite, which have recently peaked at 350 and 100 million monthly players respectively. "Both places provide a massive audience -- as large as any single console platform audience -- and they provide awesome opportunities for creators," Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Fortnite publisher Epic Games, told The Game Business website. Beyond its success, Roblox has also come in for criticism. US investment research firm Hindenburg Research published a report in 2024 accusing the platform of inflating its monthly active player count and not sufficiently protecting users from sexual predators. In response, Roblox rejected Hindenburg's "financial claims" as "misleading" and said on its investor relations website it had "a robust set of proactive and preventative safety measures designed to catch and prevent malicious or harmful activity".
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Millions going mad for NZ-made garden game
When Grow a Garden had 20 million people playing it at once last weekend, it became one of the most popular games of the year. It surpassed previous records of concurrent players set by the hugely popular battle title, Fortnite. The New York Times pointed out that's triple the population of New Zealand, the home of Janzen Madsen, who runs Splitting Point Studios, which scouts and acquires rising games on the platform. The company picked up Grow a Garden when it had just a few thousand users, the 28-year-old told Morning Report. 'The game was created by a 16-year-old in three or four days. I'd known him previously, and we partnered together, he still helps out on the game, he's still part of the development from pretty early on.' A 'big team effort' took the game from a few thousand to millions of players, he says. 'We've got a bunch of people at the company that are extremely talented, that have worked with us for five to 10 years.' According to Roblox, the game has had about 9 billion visits since it was created in March, the BBC reported. It said 35 percent of Grow a Garden's players up until now have been aged 13 and under. Seeing that many people playing concurrently was 'pretty awesome". 'The reason that many people are playing? I don't know, it's like a moment in gaming that is pretty unique,' Nelson-born Madsen says. 'For like active players in the game at one time, I guess this weekend we beat them [Fortnite] by 5 million, maybe 6 million players, so yeah, it is really crazy.' Grow a Garden involves players slowly developing a little patch of virtual land on the online gaming platform, Roblox. Once your garden produces a harvest, you can sell your items. You can also steal from the gardens of others. Gameplay can be sped up if you use Robux, the Roblox currency, which is paid for with real money. Madsen puts Grow a Garden's popularity down to the fact it's built by gamers for gamers. 'Often these games that these big studios put out are like just run by investors and they don't necessarily like align to what players want, they just want to juice them for as much money as they can. 'This game is run by a bunch of passionate developers that just want to build something for gamers and it's a community.' US-based Roblox is one of the world's largest games platforms. At the start of 2025, nearly 90 million people were active in the virtual universe. This included about 34 million children under 13 who spent an average of 2.6 hours daily on the platform. Roblox recently introduced a range of new safety features to reduce the risk of harm to children.
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
'Created by a 16yo in three or four days': Millions going mad for NZ-made garden game
When Grow a Garden had 20 million people playing it at once last weekend, it became one of the most popular games of the year. It surpassed previous records of concurrent players set by the hugely popular battle title, Fortnite. The New York Times pointed out that's triple the population of New Zealand, the home of Janzen Madsen, who runs Splitting Point Studios, which scouts and acquires rising games on the platform. The company picked up Grow a Garden when it had just a few thousand users, the 28-year-old told Morning Report. 'The game was created by a 16-year-old in three or four days. I'd known him previously, and we partnered together, he still helps out on the game, he's still part of the development from pretty early on.' A 'big team effort' took the game from a few thousand to millions of players, he says. 'We've got a bunch of people at the company that are extremely talented, that have worked with us for five to 10 years.' According to Roblox, the game has had about 9 billion visits since it was created in March, the BBC reported. It said 35 percent of Grow a Garden's players up until now have been aged 13 and under. Seeing that many people playing concurrently was 'pretty awesome". 'The reason that many people are playing? I don't know, it's like a moment in gaming that is pretty unique,' Nelson-born Madsen says. 'For like active players in the game at one time, I guess this weekend we beat them [Fortnite] by 5 million, maybe 6 million players, so yeah, it is really crazy.' Grow a Garden involves players slowly developing a little patch of virtual land on the online gaming platform, Roblox. Once your garden produces a harvest, you can sell your items. You can also steal from the gardens of others. Gameplay can be sped up if you use Robux, the Roblox currency, which is paid for with real money. Madsen puts Grow a Garden's popularity down to the fact it's built by gamers for gamers. 'Often these games that these big studios put out are like just run by investors and they don't necessarily like align to what players want, they just want to juice them for as much money as they can. 'This game is run by a bunch of passionate developers that just want to build something for gamers and it's a community.' US-based Roblox is one of the world's largest games platforms. At the start of 2025, nearly 90 million people were active in the virtual universe. This included about 34 million children under 13 who spent an average of 2.6 hours daily on the platform. Roblox recently introduced a range of new safety features to reduce the risk of harm to children.
The Star
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Generation Alpha's 'FarmVille' is growing like crazy in 'Roblox'
Anyone older than 25 likely has fond – or madly frustrating – memories of playing FarmVille , the popular browser game that lets users grow virtual crops and herd pixelated animals. Agriculture aficionados can rejoice: Generation Alpha's FarmVille has arrived. Grow a Garden , a simplistic farming simulation that involves planting seeds and collecting exotic pets, has exploded as one of the most highly played titles of the year. Technically an 'experience' within the game-creation platform Roblox , it smashed its own record for concurrent users by reeling in 16.4 million active players on Saturday. It is a genuinely shocking feat. That number is more than Fortnite 's peak and greater than the concurrent player records of the top five Steam games combined. Grow a Garden 's allure might baffle anyone who has never toyed with slow-paced world-builders like Animal Crossing or Tomodachi Life. Players nurture a potpourri of plants and pets, which they can buy and sell in exchange for the in-game currency Sheckles, which can also be bought with Roblox's in-platform currency Robux (which can itself be purchased with real dollars). Plots begin barren before users transform them into fantastical safaris of shimmering frogs and prancing monkeys that each have their own special abilities. Suddenly, a player's dismal square brims with vibrant vegetation and beanstalks shooting into the sky. Numerous qualities elevate the game from a standard farm sim. It is the first major Roblox game to integrate offline growth, which encourages players to return to see changes. There are multiple time-sensitive components, including shops that restock with new items every five minutes and weekly drops (like the fruit-pollinating Bizzy Bees) with exclusive items that feel like can't-miss moments. Every little element has been shaped to keep people hooked, including blind-box pet eggs and the ability to steal things from other users' farms. These digital ranchers are so feverish that some have resorted to third-party sites to acquire the most legendary commodities. People have spent over US$100 (RM425) on eBay listings for the cosmic-looking Candy Blossom Tree and for Titanic Dragonflies. At its peak, Grow a Garden had more than triple the population of New Zealand, the home of Janzen Madsen, who runs Splitting Point Studios, which scouts and acquires rising games on the platform. When Madsen, 28, picked up Grow a Garden from the Roblox creator BMWLux in April, it had about 2,000 concurrent users. 'I was immediately like, 'Wow, this is pretty cool,'' said Madsen, who is also known as Jandel. 'Farming is pretty innate to humans. If you think about it, the past thousands and thousands of years, it's what everyone's done.' Madsen's team of about 20 people scaled the game, fixing bugs and adding key elements like daily quests. And it is still tinkering. Madsen teased an update involving dogs that would recover fossils that could be traded in for sand-themed fruits, and eventually a feature that allows people to trade items. He also wants to have celebrities host live events with him. Madsen has scaled many Roblox games, but nothing like this. He has seen people playing the game in real life, and all of his friends' children are loving it. 'To be platform-defining, or even industry-defining is crazy,' he said. As news about the game's record-obliterating player count spread across the internet, some were dubious about its legitimacy. But after comparisons with other games on Roblox , people have largely concluded that bots have not heavily contributed to Grow a Garden 's success. Some have theorised that the game is so popular because its bare-bones, subtly addictive gameplay appeals to a new, younger audience that is just starting to dominate Roblox . A popular video clip showed what looked like a classroom full of children sitting at computers excitedly awaiting a Grow a Garden update. Per Madsen's data, about 35% of its sizable player base is under 13. KreekCraft, a popular Roblox YouTuber, pointed to Grow a Garden 's popularity on TikTok and Shorts – full of juvenile, goofy clips of the game – as evidence of its younger users. 'Normally, whenever a Roblox game gets really popular, there's an equal reaction on the YouTube side of things,' said KreekCraft, whose real name is Forrest. Instead, there is barely any long-form content proportional to the game's success. Previous Roblox hits like Dress to Impress were buoyed by influencers like Kai Cenat, but this one is all short-form videos. 'It's a lot of younger kids coming in,' KreekCraft said. 'It's a very simple, straightforward, easy-to-understand game.' Still, the game is clearly beloved by people of all ages. Nobody has any clue how big it will become and how long it can continue this upward growth. 'It's definitely a Roblox game that came out of nowhere,' KreekCraft said in disbelief. 'It popped on the radar a few weeks ago and now it's broken every single Roblox record by miles. And it's just like, 'How did this happen? What is the ceiling here?' It blows my mind.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Roblox momentum is building for long-term growth, says analyst
-- Roblox's content and monetization strategy is gaining traction, setting the stage for sustained long-term growth, according to Oppenheimer. The firm reiterated its Outperform rating on Roblox and raised its price target to $125 from $80 a share, citing growing confidence in the platform's user engagement and monetization roadmap. 'Increasing content velocity, robust technology infrastructure, global reach, and a deep bench of under-utilized monetization features make RBLX a compelling investment,' Oppenheimer analysts wrote. Despite a 76% stock price increase since April 10, the firm believes there is still more upside. This week, Oppenheimer hosted virtual fireside chats with five leading Roblox studios. Among them was Splitting Point Studios, the developer behind Grow a Garden, which Oppenheimer said became the world's most popular game over the past weekend. "Based on conversations with studio leaders, it is clear that Roblox's recommendation algorithm has evolved to rapidly identify new trends and content creators, and scale them to a growing global user base at a faster pace," said Oppenheimer. These discussions reinforced analyst optimism about Roblox's 'sustainable user growth momentum, rewarded ad revenue potential, and long-term market share gain potential from other gaming platforms.' Oppenheimer now sees upside to both its second-quarter 2025 and full-year 2026 estimates. The firm declared, 'Momentum is building for long-term growth,' and that it believes Roblox is well-positioned to grow its share of the global gaming market over the coming years. Related articles Roblox momentum is building for long-term growth, says analyst Uber and Lyft stock fall after Waymo applies for NYC testing permit Amex likely to hike Platinum card fees as Chase ups the ante, says BofA Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
