The sheer variety of ROBLOX games is pretty astounding. If you look at the most popular games on Steam, or in terms of retail sales, the genres and themes are similar across the board. But the diverse community of ROBLOX players and creators makes the popular games list the most varied collection of games around.

The top games of January feature everything from murder mystery games, tycoons, and first-person shooters to roleplaying games, survival games, and the ROBLOX exclusive genre: making a bunch of pizzas.

Top 20 ROBLOX Games of January, 2015

It’s the first time in a while that one of the “murder game” trio hasn’t been in the top three games. Taymaster’s Twisted Murderer comes in fourth place and The Mad Murderer and Murder Mystery 2 are both present as well, but we’re seeing some new faces making their way higher up on the lists.

There are numerous new games on the list this month, most notably Ripull Minigames. A game that was finalized and rebranded just weeks ago, Ripull Minigames has found a huge audience. It speaks to the value of fast-paced multiplayer gameplay that is easy to pick up. But Ripull has done a lot of work to add to the experience through purchasable upgrades, pets, and a leveling-up system that displays your level to all players so you can wear it like a badge of honor.

Ripull Minigames made its debut on the top games list in January.

The Tycoon Renaissance

Also new to the list are both of Zednov’s tycoon games. Advanced Warfare Tycoon came in at the 12th spot, and Murder Tycoon crept in at 19th. Both games are interesting for multiple reasons. For starters, the games are a clever combination of two things:  a popular game genre (tycoon), themed around a different popular game genre (murder mystery and military first-person shooter). It clearly resonates with fans of the genres, as evidenced by the nearly 1.8 million plays between the two games.

Another noteworthy fact is that both games are using berezaa’s tycoon kit. The kit, first introduced in 2 Player Gun Factory Tycoon (the 18th game on the list!), is offered for free to budding game developers who want to try their hand at making a tycoon. If you’re new to game development, berezaa’s kit, and his tutorial videos, can give you a nice jump start. The berezaa model for tycoon’s has proven extremely popular. Adding a combat element to the game adds an element of competitiveness to games that generally require a lot of patience while your income builds up.

It’s not just Zednov taking advantage of this new tycoon model; many other developers — veterans and newcomers — have created their own unique tycoons using berezaa’s kit.

We’ll be chatting with berezaa this Friday, February 13 at 2 p.m. Pacific Time as part of our new developer interview show on Twitch. If you ever wanted to play a game of Gun factory Tycoon with the creator himself, or just get to know the guy behind some of the most popular games on ROBLOX, tune in to twitch.tv/ROBLOX on Friday!