Game launch advertising cost

[ThoseNamesAreGood]

Hi,

I’m trying to get a realistic idea of how much Robux is generally needed to build a steady player base at launch.

With the removal of user ads, it seems like promoting an experience has become more difficult and likely more expensive if you want consistent visibility and traction. I’m curious how others are getting around this.

Has anyone had a successful launch recently?

• How much did you invest in sponsorships?
• Did you see steady growth, or did it fall off quickly?
• Any tips on what worked well (or what to avoid)?
• Did you use any methods outside of roblox?

Would really appreciate any insight or shared experiences!
Thanks

[orange451]

In my experience, and keep in mind that’s exactly what it is… my POV…

Sponsors can be a good way to get an initial wave of players coming to your game. This lets you quickly see what “sticks” and what does not. As for how much you should spend, probably no less than $100 for a single advertising campaign.

To give a concrete example; one of the games I worked on a few years ago, Minion Simulator, we started with $100 advertising campaigns per day for a week. This got us a pretty good sample of users to play with, and the game generated enough revenue to keep the team working on it for about a year full time.

I have had many successful game launches over the last 10 years, but hardly ever due to Roblox platform advertising. Especially since the changes to sponsored experiences late last year; I’ve seen significantly worse returns on my spending. I hardly ever do it anymore.

What does work quite well, is the Roblox Algorithm. Roblox wants to push what they deem are good quality games. They have many metrics to look at what makes a game good quality, and if you optimize for this, your chance at a successful title will increase.

If you’re doing poorly on the algorithm, then there is an issue with your game that players are not vibing with. It could be many things. A not-so-great game loop, maybe poor user experience. Could be low server FPS, low client FPS, poor network optimization, etc.

When I optimize my games to work well with the types of things Roblox likes to see (more in game spending, more in game hours played, high amounts of returning users, etc), I see a great return in my time-investment. i.e. the time I spent making the game more enjoyable for my playerbase.

My latest project, Aftermath, we spent $0 on advertising. We grew it organically at the start by offering free weekends to players, to give them a “try before you buy” option. This worked pretty well, and we have been able to see some good growth over the last year and a half.

[ThoseNamesAreGood]

Thanks for the response,

@orange451

Sponsors can be a good way to get an initial wave of players coming to your game. This lets you quickly see what “sticks” and what does not. As for how much you should spend, probably no less than $100 for a single advertising campaign.

On release, I was planning to do about 30k which I believe is roughly 100$ for a whole week(not per day). I’m hoping that gives me enough initial data and visibility to see if it meets the algorithm’s criteria.

I know that isn’t the most, but do you think spreading it like that across a week is still effective, or would it be better to concentrate it into a shorter burst to get stronger traction right away?

@orange451

I have had many successful game launches over the last 10 years, but hardly ever due to Roblox platform advertising. Especially since the changes to sponsored experiences late last year; I’ve seen significantly worse returns on my spending. I hardly ever do it anymore.

I’m actually considering using social media as a form of advertisement instead of the sponsor system. My plan was that during the pre - alpha phase, I’d record clips of gameplay and post on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, etc to hopefully gain an audience and then when its time for release I’d already have a player base ready to play.

@orange451

My latest project, Aftermath, we spent $0 on advertising. We grew it organically at the start by offering free weekends to players, to give them a “try before you buy” option. This worked pretty well, and we have been able to see some good growth over the last year and a half.

How were you able to get players to even find out about your game and play without spending 0$ on advertising?

I’ve begun development on my game not too long ago, in a few months from now when it is ready for release, I’ll return to this thread.

[orange451]

@ThoseNamesAreGood

On release, I was planning to do about 30k which I believe is roughly 100$ for a whole week(not per day). I’m hoping that gives me enough initial data and visibility to see if it meets the algorithm’s criteria.

I know that isn’t the most, but do you think spreading it like that across a week is still effective, or would it be better to concentrate it into a shorter burst to get stronger traction right away?

Try both. I would stagger it over a week. Get your initial feedback. Improve the game. Then spend the same but over a shorter period of time. Compare the results. There is no one size fits all solution. Every game has its own “market” of players, and they will all respond in different ways. Just be ready for the fact that you may not make your investment back immediately, or worst case, ever.

@ThoseNamesAreGood

I’m actually considering using social media as a form of advertisement instead of the sponsor system. My plan was that during the pre - alpha phase, I’d record clips of gameplay and post on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, etc to hopefully gain an audience and then when its time for release I’d already have a player base ready to play.

Social media can be great. For numbers on our game, we see about 90% of our players coming from Algorithm, and about 10% of our players coming from off platform (Youtube/Tiktok/etc). Again every market is different.

@ThoseNamesAreGood

How were you able to get players to even find out about your game and play without spending 0$ on advertising?

We released our game in November 2023 as Paid access. Week over week we saw slow growth. After about 5 months we went from 10-20 CCU (paid access) to 300-500 CCU (paid access). Currently we get around 600-1200 CCU (paid access).