Roblox Rallies on Surge in Video-Game Platform's Bookings

Subrat Patnaik, Bloomberg News

Roblox Corp. website sign up screen on a laptop computer arranged in Little Falls, New Jersey, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. Roblox designs and develops online games such as internet three-dimensional and tutorial games. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Roblox Corp. shares surged 20% on Monday, their biggest one-day jump since November, after the video game platform forecast a significant jump in September bookings as users spent more time on its games.

Bookings are expected to be between $212 million and $219 million, up as much as 15% from a year earlier, the San Mateo, California-based company said. That figure includes revenue, deferred revenue and other adjustments, and defied a stronger US dollar that dampened results from outside the country.

The increase in bookings suggests a “meaningful” monthly acceleration, said Mandeep Singh analyst Bloomberg Intelligence. “The company’s advantage with user-generated content should help expand its user base beyond the core 9-13-year-old group faster than larger rival Meta, which saw a decline in user engagement for its Horizon Worlds offering.”

The company said daily active users jumped 23% in September to reach 57.8 million and hours engaged rose 16% to 4 billion in the same period.

Truist Securities analyst Matthew Thornton was also upbeat on the numbers, noting that “monetization improved to drive the bookings upside.”

While the stock added $4.2 billion in market value Monday, it remains down 59% this year amid a broader selloff in growth and technology stocks. The Nasdaq 100 rallied 3.5% on Monday.

(Updates to market close.)