This morning, someone asked me how much money Roblox developers make for selling items.

The sad truth is that we only get 24.5% of what players purchase.

In other words, Roblox Developers are losing 74.5% of all their sales.

Here’s how it works:

How Roblox Developers Are Taxed Like Crazy

Let’s say that Player A was playing your Roblox game and saw that you were selling something amazing for 1,000 Robux.

So, Player A goes to purchase some robux, where they will pay about $10 for 1,000 robux.

At this point, Player A has bought $10 worth of Robux form Roblox.

Now, when Player A buys my 2x Gold gamepass, they will spend their $10 worth of Robux.

The First Fee – Marketplace Fee

A lot of new developers think that they’ll get all 1,000 robux.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The first fee that Roblox collects is the Marketplace Fee, which is 30%. This means that the owner of the game will collect 70%.

When Player A buys my 2x Gold gamepass, I will get 700 robux, as 700 is 70% of 1,000 robux.

In other words, out of the original $10 they spent for 1,000 robux, I get $7.

Okay.

I mean, sure, Roblox has to make some money too, right?

It doesn’t end there.

The Hidden Fee That Beginners Don’t Realize

However, now, let’s say that I want to convert my 700 robux to USD to pay my bills.

Okay, so that means I should get $7, right? I mean, Player A spent their $10 of hard earned money, and Roblox already took their cut of $3.

Wrong.

Roblox has program called DevEx, which allows developers to exchange their money.

As a developer, you can exchange your robux at a rate of $3.5/1,000 Robux.

Yes, that means that, out of your 700 robux (which is technically $7 of Player A’s money), you will receive $3.5/1000*700=$2.45 when exchanging it using the DevEx program.

That means that Roblox once again took a fee of $7-$2.45=$4.55.

So, in total, out of $10 of Player A’s hard earned money, as a Roblox Developer, you keep $2.45.

And that is 24.5% of the $10.

In other words, Roblox has taken 100-24.5=75.5% of your money.

Percentage Developers Get Even Less

So, out of the $10 that was originally spent, you will get $2.45.

But, that’s assuming that you keep everything.

Often, Roblox games are split into a structure with many developers, where each developer gets a small % of the game.

Let’s say that you’re scripting for a game, and you get 30% of the revenue.

That means that out of the $2.45, you are getting 0.3*2.45=0.735$.

Thus, out of the $10 that a player had originally spent, you’re left with 74 cents.

Disclaimer: I’m not saying that you should do everything yourself to keep all the revenue. It is a great idea to work with other developers and you should work with others and split the game up if possible; it makes the development process more fun. These are just the mathematics behind how the robux is spent (educational purposes only).

Is It Really That Bad Though?

At point, knowing that you’re going to get only 24.5% of the money that a player spends on your game, is it still worth it to develop on Roblox?

I mean, if you do a lot of work to get a player to spend $100, you will get at most $24.50.

It’s kind of a bummer.

But remember that by developing games on Roblox, you are given so many different tools that you don’t have to worry about.

Roblox handles the servers for you, provides you with tools to make games with, handles all of the nitty-gritty optimization stuff and networking. The list is endless.

And the most important part? Roblox drives players to your game through the Roblox algorithm.

So, even if you’re only keeping $2.45 of the original $10 a player spends, the Roblox algorithm help you to get more players, which in turn will get you more sales.

Roblox vs. Your Own Game Engine

Let’s say that you weren’t on Roblox and you developed your own game engine. Then, you’d have to find someone to pay you $10 for 2x Gold. You’ll get $10, but you’ll probably have to work a lot harder to get someone to try it out.

But if you’re on Roblox, Roblox will basically find people for you that will pay you the $10 through the algorithm.

And if your game is good (and has good stats and monetization), Roblox will probably find multiple people for you to pay you $10. Even if one gamepass sale gets you $2.45, Roblox will compensate for your loss by finding more players through the algorithm.

For example, in a given day, the Roblox algorithm might result in a lot of people playing your game, and then, you’ll probably get 10 different people to buy your $10 gamepass.

Then, you will get $24.50.

Now, it doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Top Developers Still Make a Lot

Despite all of these fees, top Roblox games still make a lot of money.

I know some people that have made $18,000-$23,000+ in a single day from their Roblox games.

And you know what’s crazy?

Those numbers are after fees.

In other words, even after factoring the huge fees that Roblox takes, they are still able to make that much money.

Of course, this isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work, time commitment, and investment. But, it’s possible.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while Roblox does take a lot of money from Developers, in my personal opinion, it’s worth it, due to the support Roblox provides through the game engine and algorithm.

Best of luck to you and I hope you make a fun game!

If you enjoyed reading this article, you may be interested in this article about where you can start learning Roblox development.