Roblox: How The Children's Game Became A $38 Billion Bet On The Metaverse

Roblox (RBLX) closed at around $69.50 on its first day of trading on Wednesday. Shares began trading at $64.50 each, well above their reference price of $45 set by the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

The stock surged to roughly $74 during session highs, giving the company a market cap greater than $37 billion. Back in January, the online gaming company raised money at a $29.5 billion valuation.

Roblox went public via a direct listing, allowing current investors to sell shares. In direct listings, banks do not set an IPO price, like those seen in initial public offerings. Instead a "reference price" is used — which in this case was $45 a share. At that price, the company's market cap value came in at $30 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

Roblox's user base has soared in the past year as more people turned to gaming amid the pandemic. The company said its daily active users (DAUs) grew to 32.6 million in 2020, compared to 17.6 million in 2019. Roblox estimates 54% its users are under the age of 13.