Roblox Releases Latest Metaverse Fashion Trends Report
The fashion metaverse isn’t just alive and well — for Roblox, it’s fuel for 38 percent growth in revenue this past quarter, per the gaming developer’s earnings report on Wednesday. Now the company reveals why in its latest research into Gen Z’s favorite virtual fashion trends, released Thursday.
The 2023 Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report, which surveyed 1,500 members of Gen Z in the U.S. and U.K. who are active on platforms like Roblox, offers a follow-up to Roblox’s head-turning and oft-cited Metaverse Fashion Trends study last year, which revealed that, among Gen Z users, 70 percent tied their real and virtual styles together.
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In the year since that first study came out, the influence of virtual fashion on Gen Z didn’t wane, but deepened, and to a rather notable degree: According to the latest survey, 84 percent acknowledged that their avatar style inspires their physical style to some degree, including 54 percent who are extremely inspired by avatar fashion. Fifty-six percent consider how they dress their avatars to be even more important than how they dress themselves.
One might expect older Gen Z to prioritize virtual fashion less. One would be wrong. Even more of these respondents, who ranged in age from 22 to 26 years, felt the same way as their younger counterparts.
“People are coming on to our platform — you know, 70 million people per day, all over the world — and they’re connecting with people, their friends, and they’re doing things together,” Christina Wootton, chief partnerships officer at Roblox, told WWD. “And so it’s really important to them, how they represent themselves.”
Some observers may find the Digital Expression report surprising, nonetheless, especially during a year that drastically undercut the metaverse hype. But perhaps not those who have been paying attention to Roblox over the past couple of years. The company has been actively working with fashion houses on their virtual efforts and releasing updates — like last year’s Layered Clothing tech, which enables hyper-realistic digital apparel, and this year’s Roblox Limiteds, a new offering that allows for small runs of fashion avatar wearables to ensure rarity and excitement, including through resale.
“Creators and brands especially are very excited about the scarcity. They can release a certain quantity of items on the platform and we’ve seen amazing results,” Wootton said. “Take Gucci Ancora, for example. In less than an hour, 10,000 Gucci Ancora hair items sold out. There was a MonsterCat ruby pendant necklace that was sold within minutes for around $10,000.”
Metaverse naysayers and critics often argue that the metaverse is dead, pointing out how the media has shifted focus to artificial intelligence. But it’s hard to argue with the numbers. In the third quarter, Roblox drove $839.5 million in bookings and $713.2 million in revenue at gains of 20 percent and 38 percent, respectively, while daily active user levels surged 20 percent to 70.2 million gamers.
Some of that momentum is a natural result of high-profile projects, like the Gucci Ancora experience that summoned players to beat challenges to earn Limiteds, or MonsterCat’s shockingly valuable ruby necklace.
The Digital Expression study offers plenty more to ponder. Below, a list of some of the most noteworthy numbers:
In the first three quarters of 2023, Roblox saw 165 billion avatar updates, up 38 percent over last year, and people bought 15 percent more digital fashion items and accessories, at nearly 1.6 billion virtual products. According to the company, millions of Roblox users update their avatars daily.
84 percent of survey respondents said digital fashion is at least somewhat important for them, 85 percent believe it has grown to some extent over the past year and more than half, at 53 percent, said it’s grown a lot.
Three out of four said sporting virtual fashion wearables from a known brand is important to some degree. Forty-seven percent consider it extremely important.
84 percent are likely to consider buying physical product from a brand after wearing or trying on one of its items in the virtual world. Fifty percent said they’d be extremely likely to do so.
52 percent are comfortable budgeting up to $10 each month to digital fashion. Another 19 percent bump that up to $20 monthly, and 18 percent more are open to spending $50 to $100 each month.
Resales of Limiteds typically sold for more than the original price.
Digital expression also includes beauty: Avatar makeup, a point of interest for brands such as Fenty Beauty, Maybelline, NARS, Givenchy Beauty, NYX and L’Oréal, has a willing audience on Roblox. More than a third of all survey respondents consider it important to customize their avatar’s makeup daily or weekly, at 35 percent. For self-identifying female respondents, the number goes up to 51 percent.
Hair is a growing category on Roblox. Users bought more than 139 million hairstyles, an increase of 20 percent over last year, spanning more than 7.3 million people who bought five or more hairstyles in-game.
As if to address metaverse skeptics specifically, Roblox added one more thing in a blog post announcing the new report: 40 percent of its Gen Z survey participants “feel it’s easier to present their authentic selves in the metaverse than in the physical world.”
Respondents were “2.2 times more likely to say that expressing themselves in immersive spaces via their avatar feels better (’more me’) than posting 2D photos from the physical world on social media,” Wootton and Manuel Bronstein, chief product officer, wrote.
Fashion’s role in that is pivotal to Wootton. “Our hypothesis has always been that digital fashion is extremely important in how you express yourself in immersive experiences,” she added, in her comments to WWD. “[With] this report, compared to the one that we put out last year, it’s just really amazing to see the uptick and how important digital fashion really is.”
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