$RBLX

Roblox Facing Engagement Headwinds Amid Age-Check Rollout, Wedbush Says

Roblox (RBLX) is seeing signs of weakening user engagement across key metrics amid its mandatory age-check rollout, Wedbush Securities said Friday.Earlier this year, the video game platform implemented an age-check feature for accessing chat. In late April, the company said the move has slowed new user acquisition and hampered growth.Roblox's weekly concurrent user growth fell to about negative 10% year over year in recent weeks, completing "a steady deceleration" from a roughly 65% growth rate seen earlier this year, Wedbush analysts, including Alicia Reese, said in a note to clients Friday.On an annual basis, concurrent user growth has decelerated every month since its August peak, according to the brokerage."Engagement weakened across all metrics this period," the analysts said. "Part of the (concurrent user) step-down is the hard comp we flagged previously, as we now lap the (2025 second half) viral/international surge."Average weekly daily active user growth has turned "modestly negative," the analysts wrote."More telling is the (concurrent user-to-DAU) ratio, which has compressed toward summer (2025) lows -- the first real challenge to the engagement-intensity thesis anchoring our constructive stance," Wedbush said. "Because the ratio informs session depth within the period, its decline is not a comp artifact: per-user engagement appears to be thinning modestly."The weakness is largely "self-inflicted" as the new protocols make signing up tougher and restrict the social features that help extend session lengths, the analysts said. "We're not abandoning our thesis here, but the onus is now on Roblox to prove it out."The brokerage has an outperform rating on the company's stock, with a $65 price target.Roblox shares were down 4.3% in Friday afternoon trade. The stock has lost nearly 49% in value so far this year.Recently, UBS Securities said Roblox's growth could decelerate in the near term amid engagement headwinds tied to the mandatory age-check rollout.Price: $41.59, Change: $-1.76, Percent Change: -4.06%