We’ve published a number of articles that look back at 2012: a letter from our Founder and CEO David Baszucki, a recap of the hottest blog articles of the year, and a who’s-who of popular games and catalog items. There’s just one left, and it illustrates not only ROBLOX’s annual growth as a unified platform, but your collective passion for creation and exploration. Let’s draw some conclusions.

1. It’s hard not to spend time on ROBLOX.

There’s just so much to see and do, as evidenced by these stats:

• Total gameplay hours exceeded 176.3 million, a 50% increase over 2011
• Total page views reached 13.3 billion, a 37% increase over 2011

For the year, you and other ROBLOX users racked up the highest number of gameplay hours and website page views we’ve ever seen. The number of visits to Roblox.com rose to 685 million for 2012, a 66% annual increase over the previous year. On top of that, 86% of new ROBLOX users in 2012 came to the site via word of mouth (as opposed to an online advertisement), which grew the total number of word-of-mouth accounts by 56% over 2011. It’s great to see such organic growth in the ROBLOX community. Keep helping us spread the word!

2. Online shopping really is fun.

In 2012, more than 17.6 billion Robux — equivalent to $176 million U.S. dollars — changed hands among you and other users in the ROBLOX economy. This activity represents a more than 150% increase in virtual currency exchanged since 2011, and highlights the entrepreneurial spirit of many ROBLOX users.

With a bunch of new economy-based features arriving in 2012 — the Trading System, Game Passes and Add Gear to Game to name a few — we’re continuing to diversify the ways you can earn and spend your Robux.

3. If you want to make a game, ROBLOX is the place to be.

For the first time, four well-known ROBLOX games topped 10 million plays, while 149 other places accumulated at least one million plays each. This is proof that if you build something entertaining on ROBLOX, you can reach a huge audience of gamers, builders and shoppers. Some of the top user-created games and places on ROBLOX in 2012 were names you’ll probably recognize:

• Base Wars: The Land, developed by the 18-year-old d4rk886 from Hong Kong, received 15,189,409 plays. Base Wars: The Land is a real-time modern battle game where great teamwork is the key to winning.
• Paintball!, developed by the 17-year-old daxter33 from Massachusetts, received 14,114,928 plays. Paintball! is a team-based first person paintball shooter, similar to what you might play in real life. It’s the Red team vs. the Blue team to win the round (by most points, flag captures, etc.) and players can level up to unlock new gear.
• Catalog Heaven, developed by 18-year-old Seranok from Illinois, received 12,108,593 plays. Catalog Heaven is a social game where you can try on and test practically any hat, gear, face or package from the ROBLOX catalog.

You can read a more detailed listing of the top 15 ROBLOX games (plus gear and hats) of 2012 at this previous blog post.

All these numbers are great and we’re proud to share them, but we ultimately have to give credit to you, the ROBLOX community, for spending time on ROBLOX and building highly entertaining stuff. You’re what makes ROBLOX such a vibrant place.