FILE PHOTO: The Roblox logo is displayed on a banner, to celebrate the company's IPO, on the front facade of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 10, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photo
(Reuters) -Roblox raised its annual bookings forecast on Thursday and beat quarterly results estimates, a sign that spending on its vast library of user-generated videogames was holding up despite economic uncertainty driven by U.S. tariffs.
Shares of the company rose more than 4%.
The platform has aggressively tried to lure deep-pocketed older players with new game genres including horror to boost in-game spending on virtual items.
Analysts have said Roblox's free-to-play model could also help offset a broader pullback in consumer spending stemming from worries of a possible recession and a spike in inflation due to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Roblox now expects bookings, a measure of in-game spending, to be between $5.29 billion and $5.36 billion for the full year, compared with its prior forecast of $5.20 billion to $5.30 billion.
In the first quarter ended March 31, its bookings rose 31% to $1.21 billion, beating analysts' estimates of $1.14 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Loss per share of 32 cents was also smaller than expectations for a loss of 40 cents per share.
"It's very clear that the search and discovery algorithms are uncovering more and more content and doing a better job of matching that content to the users... as a result, we're finding more users that are engaging on the platform," outgoing CFO Michael Guthrie told Reuters.
Average daily active users, a key measure of engagement, rose 26% to an all-time high of 97.8 million in the quarter, while hours engaged jumped 30%, the most since the first quarter of 2021.
The strong engagement and its vast Gen Z user base have allowed Roblox to break into the advertising market, adding a fresh revenue stream as it battles rivals such as Fortnite.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said Roblox will have to rely more on its existing model to drive growth as advertising demand is likely to face challenges from Trump's tariffs.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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