The information in this post may be outdated. Please reference our DevHub documentation on Premium Payouts or visit the Developer Economics page for more information about monetization.
Original Post
Hey Developers,
As you know, we’ve been rolling out a lot of awesome updates to the Roblox economy, like tierless cashouts and Roblox Premium. These updates are part of our larger goal to help you build a financially successful and sustainable business on Roblox.
We teased it at RDC 2019 and today we’re excited to announce a new way you can make money from your games: Premium Payouts.
“What are Premium Payouts?” It’s in the very early stages so it will evolve over time, but basically you earn Robux based on how engaging your game is. We use time spent by Premium subscribers as a proxy to calculate playtime, and we use that to calculate payouts.
Payouts are awarded consistently to all developers, regardless of scale of their player base: this means that a unit of Premium time spent is rewarded with the same amount of R$, no matter the size of your game. If you already monetize your game with game passes and developer products, you’ll receive Premium Payouts on top of what you’re already earning. The more engagement your game achieves, the more it will be paid out.
To track your Premium Payouts check out the Premium Payout Chart; this chart shows two graphs
- Premium Playtime Score is based on how much Premium users play your game on any given day. It is a great metric to get immediate feedback on the impact of new in-game features on time Premium users spend in your game. This is not directly used in the calculation of Premium payouts but it shows similar trends. So if you release a new feature and your playtime score goes up for many days in a row, it is likely that you will see movements in your payouts.
- Premium Playtime Robux Earned reflects how much you can expect to be paid for user engagement. Note this is not based on daily time spent by Premium users, but looks back at and aggregates each Premium user’s behavior over the past 28 days. As such, it has no direct mathematical relationship with the playtime score, although presents similar trends.
If you’re interested in offering benefits to Premium subscribers, check out:
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Premium Purchase Modal - this modal lets players buy Premium to access benefits in your game without ever leaving your game.
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Premium Game Discovery - we’re working on new ways to surface games that are popular among Premium subscribers. This is still in the works so stay tuned.
Every game is eligible for Premium Payouts except for paid access games. If your game is paid access, you will still have a Premium Playtime Score but you will not see a corresponding payout.
FAQs
Q: How is the Premium Playtime Score calculated?
A: Premium Playtime Score is determined by the proportion of time Premium subscribers spend in your game. Premium Playtime Score is calculated daily.
Q: Why is there a 28 day delay on payouts?
A: You’ll receive Premium Payouts on a daily basis, 28 days after each measured day. For example, you will receive your payout for February 19th’s engagement on March 18th (28 days later) and February 20th’s engagement on March 19th (also 28 days later). Payouts lag behind engagement by a month because we look at a player’s engagement for the entire month of their subscription. This allows us to give you a proportion of their membership fee for that month. The lag also helps us ensure that your payout is not affected by refunds or other payment complications.
Q: How are my Premium Payout Robux Earned related to my Premium Playtime Score?
A: Your Premium Playtime Score gives you an early, directional indication of how your Premium Payout will change next month. However, the relationship is not exact because your Premium Playtime Score is calculated on a daily basis but your payout is calculated over the entire past month.
Q: Why aren’t paid games eligible for Premium Payouts?
A: We want to enable a frictionless experience for Premium subscribers so games that charge for access are currently not included in Premium Payouts
Q: How much can I expect to be paid?
A: You can use the Premium payout chart to anticipate how much you can expect each month.
Q: How long should I wait to see what impact Premium Payouts will have for me?
A: We recommend being patient when testing Premium Payouts and experiment with it - test new features to increase engagement, tweak them and use dashboards to measure impact. Give it a few months in order to see how much Premium Payouts benefits you.
Q: Why is my Premium Payout Robux Earned line dotted?
A: Your Premium Payout Robux Earned line will initially be dotted because we are showing you a prediction of how much Robux you will earn from that day of Premium playtime in your game. We’ll need a month to process your Robux earned and make sure that the amount is accurate. Once we’ve finished analyzing, the Robux earned line for that day will be included in your Pending Robux.
Q: Do I need to do anything specific to receive Premium Payouts?
A: If your game is already popular among Premium subscribers, you will receive a payout without having to change your game. As Premium subscribers spend more of their time in your game, you should see payouts increase.
Q: How are Premium Payouts distributed for group owned games?
A: Group distribution for Premium Payouts works just like any other earning from game passes or developer products. So if your group has automatic distribution set up, earnings from Premium Payouts will honor that.
Let us know if you have any more questions below! 
Our vision is to give you a way to make money from creative content and gameplay that doesn’t rely purely on game passes and developer products. We can’t wait to see what you’ll create!
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