The gaming platform Roblox is quickly becoming one of the most lucrative marketplaces in gaming — especially for teens who can code, according to Bloomberg. A growing number of young developers are creating hit games and selling them for mns on the platform, thanks to a booming secondary market for popular titles on the platform.

A bit of coding knowledge can go a long way: A 19-year-old developer built a soccer-anime game called Blue Lock: Rivals with a few co-creators in just three months. The game became a breakout hit with over 1 mn simultaneous players, and sold for over USD 3 mn just months later, according to the news source. Not too shabby for a side gig.

Seven of the fifteen highest-earning games on Roblox were bought from their original creators in June. The surge comes after a recent policy change that made transferring game ownership easier — essentially greenlighting a fast-growing secondary market for Roblox games.

The big buyers? Companies like Do Big and Voldex are leading the charge, snapping up popular titles and revamping them for even more growth. Voldex, which acquired Brookhaven RP and turned Ultimate Football into an official NFL experience, says Roblox’s payout model is attracting more ambitious creators, and even more money.

Why now? Roblox is on track to pay its creators up to USD 1 bn this year, and top creators are already earning up to USD 36 mn annually. As a result of the financial incentives, young developers are now selling games like startup founders offloading apps — often through low-key Discord transactions, sometimes before they’re old enough to legally sign contracts.

But it’s not all overnight success. Roblox’s game economy moves fast — one viral hit can get buried the next week by a new one. That’s why many developers sell off early, often selling for just a few months’ worth of revenue. The market rewards speed, popularity, and timing — a very “capitalist” recipe, as Voldex CEO Alex Singer puts it.

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