How one of Roblox's top games is using Valentine's to drive marketing and monetization.
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An important way that Roblox games maintain audience attention is through live operations (LiveOps) updates. These can range from adding in new content (such as map areas or characters) to introducing new game features (such as a pet trading system).
Not only do updates help attract player attention, but they also send a positive signal to the Roblox algorithm, potentially boosting organic discoverability. With that in mind, let's look at how one top Roblox game rolls out LiveOps updates.
Adopt Me! is a perennial top-performer on the platform whose LiveOps strategy is very well-developed. Created in 2017 and with over 38 billion lifetime visits, Adopt Me! is currently averaging over 8 million daily visits with a strong 16-minute average session time.
Let's look at the various ways that Adopt Me! incorporated Valentine's Day into it's game and marketing channels.
On the Roblox Platform
Here's how Adopt Me! is communicating and executing its LiveOps updates on Roblox itself.
Game Icon & Title
The first place you'll notice Adopt Me!'s update is on the game icon and within the game title. They've featured the new Valentines Cupid Dragon on the icon image, which appears in Roblox search results and on the homepage in the "Continue" section. They've also changed the game's title to call out the update along with a heart emoji at the start, so players will notice this event right away.
Game Details Page
On this page, we can see an updated thumbnail, which in this case matches the artwork of the icon. We can also see the updated title, and the description calls out the event in colorful language. So instead of saying, "there's a scavenger hunt," it says, "Stop to pick up and smell the Roses!"
In-Game Welcome Screen
The first things players see is this splash screen, which calls out the event and the special purchasable event pet, the Cupid Dragon.
When players click on the "unlock" button for the pet, it brings up this option to purchase the special pet for 1000 Robux, which is the equivalent of $12.50 USD.
In-Game User Interface & Scavenger Hunt
On the left hand side of the screen, there's a special Valentines icon that opens up a special event quest. Throughout the map, there are several roses, which are part of a scavenger hunt.
In-Game Quests
After you click on the Valentines UI on the left side, it open up the task board, which calls out a special event quest focused on the scavenger hunt.
Scavenger Hunt Currency
When a player collects a rose from the scavenger hunt, they earn hearts, which can be used on special event pets. The heart count is displayed at the to of the screen.
In-Game Valentine's Day Area
In the game's central hub, there's a Valentine's Day area. It displays pets that can be earned with the Valentines heart currency, and there are other pets that require Robux to purchase, such as the Cupid Dragon. This area draws a lot of attention, given it's design and location. I saw several plays approach to check out the pets while I was in the game.
Earnable Event Rewards
Here's one of the in-game pets that players can unlock with the hearts collected from the event scavenger hunt.
Off the Roblox Platform
Here are ways that Adopt Me! is communicating and executing its LiveOps updates off of Roblox, such as across its marketing channels.
YouTube
The Adopt Me! YouTube channel has posted a couple of videos that promote the update. They have solid view counts and keep their audience informed and excited.
Twitter / X
In additional to the usual promotional posts Adopt Me! makes to promote the event, the Adopt Me! Twitter account will often repost fan-made content. In this example above, they're posting an image related to the Valentine's event pet, the Cupid Dragon.
I don't typically think of Instagram as a popular marketing channel for Roblox devs and players, but Adopt Me! has over a 1 million followers on the platform, so they use it actively.
This was an interesting Instagram post about digital print outs for Valentine's Day notes. Very fun way to extend the brand into the real world.
TikTok
The Adopt Me! team is posting some of its same content on Instagram to TikTok.
Discord
Adopt Me! has a large Discord community of over 400K members. For Valentine's Day, they have launched a poetry contest, where select winners can earn the special paid pets as prizes. While not directly tied to players having to play the game, this contest does offer ways for players to show off their skills and creativity, fostering strong community vibes.
Website
Adopt Me! has its own website, where they post blogs about game updates.
While most Roblox games don't have the significant resources and knowledge required to support all of these touch points, these are good to understand and can serve as a blueprint for those developers looking to level up their LiveOps and marketing efforts.
Have a Roblox game you'd like me to write about? Send me an email with more details: steve [at] metaversemarcom.io
Stephen Dypiangco is a strategy and marketing consultant , helping brands reach young audiences on Roblox.
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