I Spent 24 Hours With Roblox Millionaires

This is Cole. These are his two best friends. They all live in the same apartment and they claim to make millions off Roblox.

Yes, this game. But before we get into all that, we got to go back. It all started with a tweet.

Is there anybody actually making money with video games? Hundreds of people slid into my DMs, but one of them really stood out. His name was Cole.

And when he told me how much money he was making, I just couldn't believe it. And I had a lot of questions. Is this actually real?

Is this something that's actually going to last? And how much are you really profiting from this? The only way to find out?

Well, I decided to fly out to Austin, Texas, knock on his door, and have him show me proof. Come join me as I spend 24 hours with Roblox millionaires. I'm Pat Walls, and this is Starter Story.

So, after landing in Austin, Texas, we grabbed a couple crappy airport sandwiches and got ourselves a taxi to Cole's place. At this point, I was still pretty skeptical on if this was actually going to be real. And I had a lot of questions to ask these kids, which is why the ride felt like an eternity.

Finally, we arrived. Okay, I think that's his apartment right there. What if this is all fake?

Like, he's not even there right now. Or what if this is some sort of like rented apartment or something like that and this is all a big sham. All right, let's check it out.

Let's see what's going to happen. Nice to meet you. What's up, man?

What's up? Come on. Let's do this.

Let's check this out. Nice house. Thank you.

Thank you. Nice to meet you, man. Nice to meet you, too.

Thanks for having me in your house. Of course, dude. Tell me tell me about what you do.

Uh, I make Roblox games. Um, I'm one of the top like 50 biggest Roblox developers in the world right now. I have 1 million like daily active users across all my games.

It's mainly kids, mainly in the US, mainly in Canada. Yeah. And when did you start playing Roblox?

I started playing Roblox 2013. So, I think I was about eight or nine years old. But I guess I didn't start making like bringing the money outside of Roblox until I was 16.

And I just I just skipped college. So, as soon as I turned 18, I moved to Austin and I just started going like full in on my my journey. Nice.

Cool. And I understand that you have a brother who also develops Roblox games. Is he your younger brother or older brother?

Twin brother. He lives with me. He lives here.

He lives right here. He's here right now. He's here right now.

Probably in his room. Yo, what's up? So, you also uh make Roblox games.

I do. Yes. Yes.

I made a game during winter break when I was in college and it blew up and then I had enough money to drop out of college. So, Okay. Wow.

Yeah. And tell me a little bit about your game. It used to be called Big to Baby and it was a game where you would bake babies and it went very viral because of that reason.

So, we got a lot of people to see like I show Speed played it. All the big Roblox YouTubers played it. Wow.

I'd probably say around like 100 million views total during the release of the game. Yeah. Cool.

Cool. And where are you guys from? Ohio.

And what brought you to Austin, Texas? A few years ago, I met my friend Jake in person. Eventually, we ended up talking a lot online, like once a week, and then eventually he's like, "Oh, no.

I want to move to Austin. " And so, we ended up moving down. He lives two doors down from us.

So, is he making money on Roblox, too? Yeah. Yeah, he's making money off of Roblox.

Okay. Let's get him in here, too. All right.

Sounds good. Can you give him a call? Yeah.

Yeah. Yo, what's up? Yo, Jake.

Uh, I'm doing this like podcast thing. You want to come over? Oh, hell yeah.

Hold on. Yo, what's up? What's up, Jake?

Good to see you, guys. Good to see you, bro. Good to see you.

Good to see you, man. Nice to meet you, man. You, too.

Tell me about your Roblox business. Yeah, so I run a marketing agency for brands that come to Roblox. We worked with Nicki Minaj and Spongebob when they came to Roblox and we built basically all the video content around that like these trailers for it, social media campaigns and all that.

You know, we've made 450 videos probably now, done like well over 100 million views. Okay, we're going to talk all about your guys' businesses. But first, I want you guys to break down the Roblox economy and really the opportunity here for anyone that's watching.

So, let's go to the whiteboard and let's do some math. Let's do it. Let's do it.

I'd love you explain to me what is Roblox? Like how does the whole thing work? Yeah.

So Roblox is basically just YouTube for video games. Anyone can make a video game on this platform the same way that anyone can put out a YouTube video. So when you go on to Roblox, you basically just have this page with a ton of different games that you scroll through and play.

When someone plays a Roblox game, they basically have this currency called Robux. And this could be used to just buy anything in the game like powerups or skins that a developer can create and add to their game. As the developer of the game, then I receive those Robux and then you turn your Robux into real money.

Then like newer way that games are also making a ton of money is brands sponsoring them. So instead of just going out and you know putting a YouTube sponsor like before this video for example, they can build something that's interactive in Roblox and that's the new way to make people into kind of lifelong fans. Yeah.

Before we get into guys' businesses, I just want to let anyone watching know how big Roblox is cuz I think it's almost kind of unfathomable how big these numbers are. So if you walk me through that, I think it's pretty crazy. Yeah.

So, one in two kids under 16 years old in the US are playing Roblox every day. That equates to there being 400 million monthly active users. So, 400 million unique people playing this game every month.

And the kids that are playing Roblox are spending two times more time on Roblox than Tik Tok. And half the time these kids are on TikTok, they're literally using it to find their next Roblox game to play. All right.

So, sounds like a lot of kids are playing Roblox, but uh what does that mean for the future? Yeah, it means that as big as Roblox is, this is literally the tip of the iceberg. Like, we're not anywhere near the peak because we have all of these kids in the US that are growing up on Roblox that as they grow up continue to be able to play.

And then this just keeps growing and every time the base gets larger and larger as more kids come to the platform. Then there's also this concept of like unlocking demographics. So for a while on Roblox, girls didn't really play, especially like older girls.

Until this game called Drss to Impress comes out. It's this massive fashion game to the point of over a million people have played it at one time. It's been played well over a billion times.

So now we have this huge demographic being unlocked by a new game. And what we'll see is this will happen with the older male demographic eventually. This will continue to happen with different groups and eventually Roblox will cover all bases and be the largest platform.

You even mentioned that Mr Beast is now coming onto Roblox. Oh yeah. This is like a big thing.

Like he's making a massive entrance. He had a meeting with the CEO. He made his own game.

And so he's realizing this opportunity as oh crap this is the next YouTube. I got to be the first person here. Yeah.

For someone like him to come on the platform is huge because he's really up to date on where things are going. And to know that he endorses Roblox as a whole, I think is a huge sign of what's to come for us. Hey guys, it's Pat here.

I'm just putting the final touches on this video right now. But first, I got to show you something. So, these Roblox guys are just killing it with their games, right?

But I wanted to find out if there are other games in the starter story database that are making money. Real quick, I found these three examples. This guy's making $200,000 a year with an online solitaire game.

This dude is making $20,000 a month with his Mexican train game. How funny is that? And my buddy Peter Levelvels is making $50,000 with his plane game simulator.

And it got me thinking, what if anyone could build this? What if anyone could turn an idea into a real working app on the internet? Well, what if I told you you could?

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Okay, personally now I'm convinced that Roblox is the real deal. The only thing that's not clear yet is how to actually build a successful business around it. So, I decided to have each of the boys dive deep into their respective Roblox business, explain how it works and how much money it actually makes.

Let's start off with Cole. I'd love if you could actually pull up your game, pull up some of the money that you're making so that people can see. I'd love to just see what you do specifically.

Yeah, man. I can definitely show you. Yeah.

Uh my game is a game called or Die. I think it's like the top 100 game on Roblox. So the daily active users is about a million.

Oh my god. So you can see every single like So you have Show me up in there. It says you have 13,000 people playing, right?

Yeah. 13,000 people playing right now, but you can see these are like real kids playing. Um and the round starting in 10 10 seconds.

Oh my god. The kids are voting for what map they want. Show me how you actually coded this.

Is are you writing in a code editor or is it like if you could pull up the development and stuff, I'd love to see that. Yeah, there's like Roblox Studio. So, I can press edit in studio where I can like edit anything in the game.

These are all models. There's a bunch of different like folders and and like scripts in here where it maps out code. I actually I'm not a programmer.

I do everything but program. So, I like do all the UI and all the building and all that stuff. I have like a business partner who who does like all the programming for all the games basically.

So, you know, man, it's endless code. It's probably thousands of scripts in here. Yeah.

if you could break down how much money you generally make per month, what channels those come from. And then you did say you have like a split and profits or anything like that. Yeah.

So, it's kind of confusing because it's going to be in Robux. Yeah. But I have like 6 million Robux right now.

For every 1 million Robux, it's 3. 5 grand. We're looking at like 15 grand right now.

So far this month, we've got in the group. How Die is a fairly new success. About like 6 months ago, we launched it and right now it's sitting at about like 45K a month just or Die, that one game.

Wow. Um, before I actually spent like half a million dollars on two projects that both failed. One of them was a Roblox game um that I spent a bunch of money and time on that just didn't end up blowing up and it it like it like destroyed me.

And then I had this other company where you could hire like YouTubers and content creators to make videos on your game. I I spent three years on these projects, spent all my money on these projects. I was like super burnt out and I was like, man, I just want to I just want to make a game quick.

And that's when we made or die. And then we've started to like help out other developers with their game. We're taking like splits of that, too.

This month alone, we're on track to make like 70 grand this month. Wow. And then I split it with my my programmer/ business partner.

He has half of it. Okay, cool. And then I have an accountant and lawyer and a bunch of miscellaneous things, too.

We don't do any ads, so like it's kind of like YouTube or something. You don't really need to advertise YouTube video. It just kind of gets shown to people, but I do have like modelers and and people who make graphics for us that I blow through like 5K a month just paying people for contract work.

Yeah. Sure. Cool.

You mentioned that you had a few games that flopped and then you created this one with less expectations and then it went crazy. Yeah. Uh, tell me a little bit more about that.

Yeah. So, I mean, I spent basically all my high school years and like 300 grand on this game. I basically was trying to like remake all these best games and combine it into this like grand thing.

And within that time frame, I saw Ian over winter break make Bake the Baby. The game blew up. And so, I think I I kind of looked at Ian and I'm like, Ian had so much fun with his game and he did it so quickly and now he's super, you know, he's making a lot of money.

I spent 3 years and all this money on my game and my game failed. I ended up calling my programmer. I'm like, let's make a game in 2 weeks.

And I think it taught me a valuable lesson about test first and then build. Don't build then test. You can waste years building a a startup or a game and then it ends up being worth nothing, but if you build it and it somewhat works to begin with, you know you have something.

Yeah. Now that you had this game that has 13,000 active users right now, is there any sort of like framework of what it takes to get to the top with a Roblox game? Yeah.

So, I always focus on clickability. Is the game clickable? Because if it's not, no one's going to play it.

Bake the Baby, for example, was like that was a crazy title and that's why it worked. And Hide or Die, Hide or Die, that's pretty dramatic. So, I think being like dramatic or or unique in some way, it always works out.

And then another important thing is it's like social. So, Roblox is all about playing with friends. Making a game that's playable with friends or against friends or whatever, it's like super important.

The final thing is it needs to be replayable. And so, when I play your game, if I play it for 10 minutes and know everything that the game has to offer, I'm going to leave. But if I play the game and I'm level 10 and I got to be level 100 to see the next thing, then I'm like, well, maybe I'll play again to see what was behind that door.

So, you got to build a curiosity in the user. Same way for YouTube video. So, yeah, I need to be clickable, social, and replayable.

That's the formula I could give you, but it's probably going to take you a few attempts anyway to get a hit game if you want to hit a game. Cool. Ian, do you want to show off your game?

Sure. Sure. My game is called Bathe the Baby.

It was formerly called Baked the Baby. Basically, it's a game where players will step in this pad and we make all our money from just like daily shops. So, we sell like a pigeon skin, cow skin, and we make money from selling coins as well.

So, you can use these coins right here to buy skins and then you can also buy abilities as well. So, like shoot a meteor at somebody or turn into a ghost and be invisible. But, as you can see, our average revenue per paying user is pretty crazy.

That's high. That's very high. That's a high.

What's the dollar amount on that? It's about $1. 50 50 cents.

Yeah. And we have around 150,000 daily active users. Wow.

Which is close to a top 200 game on Roblox. All right. So, how much does your Roblox game make?

And also go over some of the costs involved with it, too. Okay. Mine makes around 25 grand a month.

And I also have a business partner and we put it 50/50. Basically, the exact same process as Cole. We also have brand deals as well that come in, but my brand deals are closer closer to like 5 grand.

We also have a few modelers, a few people who make graphics for us, like the thumbnails and icons, but it's still a pretty small team, probably like only four or five people are really uh contributing to the game. Yeah. Cool.

Mhm. All right, Jake, tell me about the business you built around Roblox and how it's a little bit different. Yeah, so I built a company called Vector 3.

So, anytime like a brand comes to Roblox, there's a pretty good chance that we're creating the media around it. So, you know, a bunch of Tik Tok videos on the game, have it go viral, and that would bring in players. So, like a new form of marketing.

Cool. Cool. I want to take a step back.

So, how did you even get into Roblox and then this kind of business idea that's adjacent to it? Yeah. So, I started playing Roblox in 2011, so 14 years ago.

For me, I always just like moved around between different interests. You know, one week I was a graphic designer and then I would move and spend a week working in a Roblox cafe as like a barista and just like literally make virtual coffees. Other weeks would like program for people.

And then when middle school hit, I would make these montage edits and I spent years doing that. And that's where I learned that I really, really liked video production, that whole aspect. And with that mentality, I went into kind of video production for brands on Roblox and started building out these trailers and social campaigns.

All of the editors that I knew from middle school that we would make these Phantom Forces montages with actually work at my company now. Yeah. You're running your company remotely, is that right?

Yeah. Walk me through that a little bit. How does how how do you do business?

Yeah, so we run um Discord in just a group chat where we have stuff that we're working on and then our bread and butter is our content management system. I nerd over this like all the time in terms of like how things get done. Let's say we are hired by Nike to make a trailer.

Our head of content, Ryan, will go into this templated project plan where there's a 45step system of how to do the trailer. So every little step in each one of these steps has an SOP that then has a video that I've recorded on how to do it. The way we get about 95% of our clients is LinkedIn.

So I basically built a LinkedIn account where I was putting out, you know, a lot of educational content as well as our work. Over time when people were like, "Hey, I need to either figure out a strategy for coming to Roblox or I need someone to make video content," we were the people that they thought of. I don't do cold outreach.

I don't do cold calls. I also use consulting as a really big way of getting clients. So, you do a paid consulting call, at the end, they also need someone to execute.

That's where we also come in. So, it's like, I'm not paying, I'm getting paid for the lead. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Damn. If you could pull up some of your numbers here, that'd be really cool. Yeah.

So, this month we have, you know, $36,150 coming in so far. 20 to$25,000 of that just comes from our retainers. But on top of that, we'll have like our per project payments.

Yeah, basically it cost me about $10 to $15,000 a month to run it. I have two full-time guys getting a total of like $10,000 a month and then there's probably an additional $5,000 that's going out for like animation contractors, anyone doing motion graphics, actors that are participating, like volunteering. Yeah.

Cool. If you have a framework or something on how to build a company at your age without having to go to college and take that path. Yeah, my framework was take everything that interests you and just put your head down for a little bit.

See if you can get a little bit better than average. If you enjoy that, keep doing that. Work as a freelancer.

Just do the thing for a while until you build up expertise. Don't even think about it from the approach of like wanting to build this business. If you can do that, you put yourself onto a path for success no matter what, right?

And it might not be the thing you started out doing. I bounced around between a hundred different skills. The difference was that because I did them all, I know what I like and how to be good at it and scale it.

Yep. Yeah, that's great advice. All right, boys.

Tell me what a day in the life looks like for you guys building million-dollar businesses while you're not even going to college. Just tell me about what's life like. Probably way less exciting than anyone.

Yeah, I think you you'd imagine like the craziest things ever. And I think it's funny cuz like we have crazy moments, but most of our life is just super boring or like just super normal. I'll wake up at like 10:59 usually for my meeting at 11:00 with my team.

I'll take it in my bed on my phone and then I'll have a really slow morning and then it's you just sit at your desk. You put on your headphones, put your phone in your other room, sit like that for usually 4 or 5 hours. We're really big about like you're either working or you're like resting.

There's not like that in between. So, we'll all just kind of work and then usually around like 5:00 or when sun's starting to set, we just sit out there, no phone, just kind of hang out. Yeah.

I think I want I want to add to that. I think it's like you hear about stories about startups or businesses, it's like you got to work 24 hours every single day, no sleep, sacrifice everything. While that's true maybe to learn a skill or become really good at something, it's not necessarily true like after that.

Creating the space for you to have thoughts, it'll make you like a 10x better entrepreneur because you like you all just have more actionable steps on what to do next. Yeah. I think it's cool that you guys found your people.

I think a lot of people may be watching this feeling like I'm kind of passionate about this thing, but I don't have like friends. Like you guys are all friends. You say you can bounce ideas off each other.

Maybe you can retell the story of how you all got together and then also advice for people who are looking to find other people across the internet to live and work with. It takes awkwardness. I think that's one of the best ways to put it.

The start of our friendship was a Google calendar weekly call just to talk. Literally like scheduling a conversation with each other. But if you can embrace that and do that at scale and keep trying, it'll lead to finding your circle.

And it's it's so so worth it. Yeah. And it's also important when you own a business and you do anything to to build a real relationship, you have to make sure it's not transactional and you have to set the clear boundary of like these are my friends.

These are not people I'm selling to. These are not people I'm doing like a quid proquo for. Like these are like my people, my friends that I would do anything for and vice versa.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Damn. All right, guys. Well, you got a good head on your shoulders.

I mean, what you guys built is amazing. It was great to meet you guys. So, thank you all.

All all pound here. Yeah. Follow this advice and you'll be Roblox millionaires.

Good luck, guys.