Roblox announced that its seventh annual Bloxy Awards drew more than 4 million concurrent players during the peak of the show and 600,000 spectators for the show itself. The event ceremony, staged inside Roblox’s game world, raised $100,000 for nonprofits.
San Mateo, California-based Roblox enables young programmers to make a living creating games within the blocky world of Roblox. And its annual Bloxy Awards is aimed at rewarding player creators.
Over the weekend, the real-time celebration helped raise money for two non-profit organizations: Make-A-Wish and Code.org. Overall, Roblox has more than 120 million players, and it recently raised $150 million.
For the first time, the awards ceremony, which took place on Saturday, March 21, was fully-animated and streamed live on the Roblox platform, bringing the community virtually together to watch the Bloxys with their friends from within a custom-made viewing experience, complete with a lazy river with floaties, racing scooters as well as quests to complete and souvenirs to collect.
This year’s Bloxys also featured exclusive, community-made virtual items supporting two nonprofit organizations: Make-A-Wish and Code.org. The $100,000 raised from the sale of the six items made by Roblox creators EvilArtist, Beeism, and supernob123, will go directly to these organizations and their worthy causes.
David Baszucki, Roblox CEO, said in a statement that the company takes its role in helping people very seriously, and the Bloxy’s was a “great demonstration of the Roblox community coming together to support one another and give back, particularly during these very difficult times.”
“We are honored to have the support of the Roblox community,” said Alice Steinglass, Code.org president, in a statement. “Now when online learning is more important than ever, we thank the Roblox community for making it possible to continue our work in bringing computer science to the world’s students.”
The hosts for the ceremony, including Roblox Video Star Leah Ashe from YouTube and Roblox emcee, JParty, announced the winners in 14 categories and debuted exclusive, never-before-seen music videos from YouTube creators including Loginhdi, Cybernova, and Kawaii Kunicorn.
“The outpouring of support from this event was a bright light for us during a challenging moment. It’s such a comfort to be able to gather virtually—from across the world—when we can’t come together in person,” said Betsy Biern, Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area CEO, in a statement. “Many of our wish kids are part of the Roblox community and I know the generous support from the community brought them all so much hope and joy.”
The 2019 record-breaker Adopt Me! and its creators, DreamCraft, took home multiple awards, including Best Game Update of the Year and Best Studio of the Year. The coveted Game of the Year award went to Arsenal by ROLVe, while the Builderman Award of Excellence was awarded to both Dungeon Quest by vCaffy and Super Striker League by Cinder Studio.
The Bloxy Awards show will play every hour inside the Bloxy experience on Roblox between now and March 31. The 14 Winners Featured in the Bloxy Awards Show include:
- Game of the Year: Arsenal by ROLVe
- Sleeper Hit: Adventure Up! by Ready, set, play!
- Best Game Trailer: Arsenal by ROLVe
- Roblox Video of the Year: The Final Four Finale – RB Battles Championship for 1 Million Robux! playing (Roblox Epic Minigames)
- Best Video Content Creator: Denis
- Builderman Award of Excellence: Dungeon Quest by vCaffy and Super Striker League by Cinder Studio
- Studio of the Year (Developer of the Year): DreamCraft
- Mobile Game of the Year: Welcome to Bloxburg by Coeptus
- Xbox Game of the Year: Murder Mystery 2 by Nikilis
- Best Game Update of the Year: Adopt Me! by DreamCraft
- Best Sound Design: Arsenal by ROLVe
- Best Showcase: Toyokawa Inari Shrine by nezko
- Best Breakout Game: Ninja Legends by Scriptbloxian Studios
- Best Use of Tech: World // Zero by RedManta Project 3
Author: Dean Takahashi.
Source: Venturebeat
