Roblox officially launched on 1 September 2006, although work on the platform began a couple of years earlier. That makes Roblox nearly 20 years old in 2026.
It did not arrive with millions of games and a giant avatar shop. The early version was much smaller and focused on building things with blocks and physics.
2004: the project begins
David Baszucki and Erik Cassel started developing the idea in 2004. An early working name was DynaBlocks, which described the moving blocks used to build and experiment.
The name Roblox was being used by 2005. It was shorter and better suited to a platform that was becoming more than one building experiment.
2006: Roblox opens
Roblox launched publicly on 1 September 2006. Players could create an account, build places and visit things made by other people, but the catalogue was tiny compared with the platform today.
Classic games from that period look simple now. They still mattered because they showed the main Roblox idea: players were not only the audience, they could also make the games.
The years after launch
Robux, badges, groups, mobile apps, consoles, modern avatars and voice features arrived across different years. Roblox also moved from calling creations places and games to calling them experiences.
The graphics changed, but the basic plan stayed recognisable. Somebody builds an idea in Roblox Studio, publishes it, and other players can join it.