Recently, the defaulted relevance (relevance without any search keywords) isn’t displaying new items that are gaining in popularity. While the catalog updates, new bestselling items (Classic shirts/t-shirts/pants) are not being added to the relevance section without keywords.
Before around 1/28/25, each subcategory would add roughly 20 new items that have been on bestselling for a while. Now, there has been virtually no new items (0-1) despite many new bestselling ones.
This prevents new items from gaining visibility, making it harder for fresh content to get shown to more people. If only older items remain in relevance, newer clothing has significantly lower chances of being discovered by users browsing the catalog.
Reproduction Steps
Create a new account (or use an old one, do NOT click/buy any new items as that will cater your relevance)
Go to the catalog, enter a subcategory and take note of what clothing is there.
Wait 24 hours and you will notice the catalog will change but there are no NEW items.
Expected behavior
Relevance without keywords should include new items that have been performing well, such as those that have remained on the bestselling list for several days, as it did before.
Speaking on behalf of classic clothing, most of the new and “performing well” ones are already NSFW content. I can say this as someone who has been in the industry for months. Especially for classic t-shirts, this is the case. It seems like a step taken by Roblox to prevent anyone from seeing such content because those clothing items with inappropriate images quickly go up in sales and become widely visible to everyone in a very short time. I understand why Roblox wouldn’t want this to happen and why this change is in place.
These kinds of assets are constantly deleted, but usually within a few days, and during that time, they receive an absurd amount of sales, which boosts them excessively. If we combine this with your case, I think it’s the recipe for disaster.
For reference, you can check out the “new” classic clothing items available at the following link: (It may contain NSFW content, you have been warned) Catalog - Roblox
For these reasons, it would be better for everyone if Roblox actually waited a bit longer before recommending them to users and then proceeded as you suggested.
You can think the same way for other UGC items based on common sense, so yeah, my point is still the same, they could violate different rules.
I understand your concerns and agree that Roblox should address the bypassed catalog items immediately. This new approach hurts creators who are actively following the rules.
A more balanced approach would be for Roblox to improve its moderation. Otherwise, creators who follow the rules are stuck with less visibility. It’s ridiculous how there are so many inappropriate t-shirts that even get past moderation. Right now, even fully appropriate and high-performing items are being excluded, which limits fresh content from surfacing at all.
Anyways, it would be great to get a response from a Roblox staff member to confirm this is the expected functionality.