The gaming platform Roblox has filed a registration statement for an initial public offering.
The company, which relies entirely on user-generated games, has seen a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 crisis as kids turned to in-game events.
Roblox said 75% of American kids aged 9 to 12 play the game regularly with friends. It averages more than 36 million users per day and 25% of them under the age of 9.
In October, the company reached $2 billion in lifetime revenue from mobile users, according to the app tracker Sensor Tower, but it has yet to turn a profit.
“We have experienced rapid growth in the three months ended June 30, 2020, September 30, 2020, and for a portion of the three months ended March 31, 2020, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic given our users have been online more as a result of shelter-in-place policies,” the company said in its registration filing.
In July, users logged three billion hours playing its games, Roblox said, double the hours logged in February. It reported revenue of $589 million for the nine months ended September 30, an increase of 68% for the period, but its net loss grew from $46 million to $203 million.
In its prospectus, the company said it earned nearly $1.2 billionselling virtual currency during the first nine months of the year, a jump of 171% over the same period in 2019.
The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, the company said. In February, the company raised $150 million in a fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz. At the time, the company reportedly had a valuation of $4 billion.
The company is planning to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RBLX.