By Gavin Boyle
In June, Roblox hit over 30 million players on the platform at one time, a new peak in concurrent players, but its innovative structuring allowed it to serve so many individuals without a lapse in quality.
“Most of us computer scientists were taught that you’d never publish your entire code in one go, and you do it when your traffic is low,” said Anupam Sing, senior vice president of engineering at Roblox. “In our case, it’s almost the opposite.”
This approach, though counter to conventional wisdom, is not because of Roblox’s staff but because the coders who make games for Roblox often generate hype before releasing a new update. This means more players than normal are waiting to play a game the moment it releases or updates.
On Tuesday, when Roblox hosted 31.6 million players at the same time, more than 21 million of them were all playing the same game, called “Grow a Garden.” Considering this game did not exist a month ago, in most cases, it would crash when over 20 million people try to join at once. However, Roblox built out its infrastructure to handle the release of new hits, and its system can make over 4 billion decisions per second.
While the popularity of Roblox seems mind-boggling, it has not come without growing pains over the past 19 years.
As the platform became a hub for young gamers, it has faced serious allegations, from exploiting young developers to enabling underage gambling to allowing bad actors to sexually exploit young people. In August 2023, for example, a lawsuit was filed against Roblox for its role in an underage gambling ring.
Related: Get Ready to See Paid Videogames on Roblox
“The plaintiffs allege that Roblox has created a clearinghouse for illegal transactions within the virtual playground, and that Roblox facilitates those transactions and profits from them,” explained U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria. “They allege that these deliberate design decisions by Roblox created the risk of harm to the minor plaintiffs who otherwise would not have been exposed to the virtual casinos.”
“It seems entirely foreseeable that developers would want to create highly addictive experiences, such as gambling games, that entice users to spend a lot of Robux,” he added. “What’s more, according to the complaint, the virtual casinos were well known to both users and Roblox itself.”
In the past year, though, Roblox has worked extra hard to bolster its child safety and provide parents with more control over the content their kids can access. Given how many gamers use the site daily, it is incredible just how smoothly the platform runs, though it also continues to serve as a hub for bad actors looking to exploit the millions of young gamers playing Roblox.
Read Next: Roblox Reveals Latest Step to Protect Kids. Will It Work?
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