Roblox, the massive gaming platform that mostly caters to younger gamers, has announced the launch of “Rewarded Video” ads, an ad format that allows users to opt in to watching ads in exchange for in-game rewards or currency.
This style of advertising is already common in mobile gaming and other mobile apps with microtransactions, where watching an ad is often offered as an alternative to paying premium currencies. Now, this feature is coming to Roblox–and by extension, to the millions of user-created “experiences” hosted on it platforms.
These ads will appear as an opt-in choice for users, who can choose to watch an ad up to 30 seconds in length to get a certain reward. In an example shared on Roblox’s corporate blog, players can choose to purchase a house with in-game currency, or to rent it for a single session for free by watching an ad.
It’s unclear how much it is or where this feature will turn up in Roblox’s most popular games (officially known as “experiences”), with Roblox simply acting as the middleman between Roblox content creators–referred to in this system as ad publishers–and the advertisers themselves.
The company boasts that the new Rewarded Video ads show higher engagement than regular advertising, with a completion rate between 80-90%. Roblox says users who trialled the system “saw the value” in watching ads for rewards such as power-ups or in-game currency.
Roblox says its advertising platform has the potential to reach tens of millions of daily active Gen Z users, quoting one of its marketing partners who calls Roblox “the go-to platform for Gen Z connections.” Roblox’s popularity with the younger generation doesn’t go unnoticed by major brands, with many creating bespoke experiences and activations on the platform to reach younger gamers.
