Hey everyone!
I’m back to talk about two of the most successful subscriptions on Roblox: Welcome to Bloxburg and Slap Battles, both of which are monetizing at a consistently high level.
Before we get into these two examples, let’s review what we established in the previous forum post. Developers should consider the key principles presented in the Subscription Design materials, which focus on:
- Value: The subscription content presented to players should have sufficient value to be worth renewing every month, and
- Trust: The developer maintains the trust of their player community by ensuring that subscribers have continual access to the compelling content as long as the subscription is active.
Subscription content should tie into the core loop of the game to solidify the content’s relevance and utility.
First, let’s talk about Welcome to Bloxburg:
Context
As one of the most popular role playing/simulation games on the platform, Bloxburg has a large and passionate community that would immediately understand the value of a subscription offering.
The core loop of Bloxburg is:
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Do jobs to earn funds/unlock content
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Customize your avatar and house
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Connect with other players
As stated, the two most important factors in creating a subscription are Value and Trust. Bloxburg did a great job conveying both.
Subscription offering
Bloxburg took a unique approach to their subscription. Their offerings are two different base quantities of Money and Blockbux, the two in-game currencies, plus a “loyalty bonus” on top of each quantity in consecutive months 2 and 3. Instead of offering a flat assortment of content that’s the same every month, the quantity of bonus currency increases each month for 3 straight months, topping out at the 3 month bonus level.
This structure hits the two key components of Value and Trust:
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Value: the large quantity of Money and Blockbux provides clear value for the monthly dollar cost of the subscription.
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Trust: the incentives provided in the form of the monthly bonus increase through month 3 onward tells players that the developer is committed to providing value on an ongoing basis. The bonus amounts are substantial and motivate players to retain their subscription status.
Implementation
Bloxburg’s subscription offering can be found in the “Buy Money” and “Buy Blockbux” options in the shop. Both options are key purchasing points in the game, being the two types of currencies.
The subscription offers follow several merchandising best practices:
- Attract attention:
- The placement at the top of the shop makes the subscriptions the first offers players see.
- The red price tag clearly states pricing and differentiates the offers from the rest of the currency packs.
- Communicate value:
- The currency amounts are clearly stated.
- The phrase “increases per month subscribed” identifies a creative and attractive subscription bonus.
Additionally, there are two price tiers to appeal to a wide range of spend behaviors.
Tapping into each offer opens up a detailed description of what is included and gives the schedule of bonuses unlocked by remaining a subscriber for 2 and 3+ months. To further clarify, the last note provided states that the bonus requirements are reset to 0 upon cancellation, providing all the information players need to make an informed purchasing decision.
Another great example is Slap Battles.
In this unique game, players do exactly what the name implies: engage in slap battles.
Core loop
The core loop of Slap Battles is:
- Participate in battles
- Earn “Slaps” (victory points)
- Acquire upgraded gloves
Subscription offering
Slap Battles’ $2.99 subscription is called the “VIP Club” and includes a variety of unique content and unlocks, including:
- Unique gloves
- Gifting (of “Slaps”)
- Chat tag
- Slap multiplier
- Special slap effects
- Engagement-based slap awards
Implementation
Slap Battles’ VIP Club is prominently featured on the main Shop page, with differentiated presentation. The text is just descriptive enough to draw attention to the offer, enticing players to tap in to learn more.
The VIP Club offer shows off its diverse content, each with high-quality art, animation and descriptive text; players know exactly what they’re getting and why these items are desirable.
Tapping “Join the Club!” shows the price, monthly renewal and lists out the contents.
Comparing Welcome to Bloxburg’s and Slap Battles’ use of the “Subscribe” window, notice how in Bloxburg’s case, the bulk of the relevant information is presented in the Subscribe window and in Slap Battles, most of the visual information is presented before players see the Subscribe window. Both are fine approaches.
Slap Battles’ subscription does a great job showcasing best practices:
- Valuable: Ensure immediate value recognition upon subscribing, with benefits that continue to resonate alongside new content releases.
- The content is immediately useful to players, with the special benefits being obvious and significant relative to other content in the shop.
- Informative: Continue to teach players about different parts of your core loop and expand their playstyle through the subscription content.
- With the Slap 2X multiplier and Passive Gain, players learn about the value of Slaps and the benefit of increased Slap acquisition.
- Diverse: Provide a mix of items to cater to all player preferences and playstyles.
- The subscription includes a creative mix of core loop-enhancing items and boosts, along with a social component (gifting).
- Engaging: Use subscriptions to showcase exclusive and special content that ties into exciting in-experience events and systems.
- Focusing on Slaps enhances awareness of and participation in the core loop, with exclusive characteristics (multiplier, passive gain) obtained from the subscription.
That’s all for now! If you’re looking for more technical information on how to integrate subscriptions into your experience, please visit the Subscriptions documentation page.