The other day, I was scrolling through the Roblox marketplace and noticed something interesting. This probably isn’t new, but I’ve seen a lot of clones of top games on the Steam charts. Counter-Strike has always been a game that gets cloned, in the past, there was CS:RO, and now there’s a game called BloxStrike. It’s not just Counter-Strike, Call of Duty has also been cloned with games like Combat Arena and Frontlines.
If it weren’t for the block arms, I’d think this was CS 2.
It made me realize that none of the AAA studios licensed the IP for these games when they were created. Why haven’t AAA studios released their own versions of popular games on Roblox? The reality is that independent developers, probably still in high school, are quickly building these games, running live ops, and never receiving any takedown notices from studios.
Don’t Worry About Cannibalization
Maybe studios are worried about cannibalization if their games also exist on UGC platforms like Roblox or Fortnite. The gaming audience on Roblox is growing rapidly, and I think games like Counter-Strike 2, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto could benefit from introducing younger players to their IP early. That way, when those players transition into teenage gamers on console, they already have loyalty to those titles.
It also depends on the audience. Roblox skews younger, and much of the player base for games like BloxStrike and Frontlines is playing them because they aren’t allowed to play the M-rated AAA versions. Console gaming is expensive, and kids around the world are playing Roblox on Android phones and iPads. Roblox is extremely popular internationally, where many kids primarily game on their phones.
Studios Need To Own Their Roblox Clones
One of the most popular clones I’m seeing while writing this is BloxStrike, a Counter-Strike 2 clone. On any given day, it sees between 15K and 50K concurrent players and generates an estimated $40K per month on the low end to $200K on the high end, all with very low operating costs. I can understand why Valve wouldn’t necessarily care, given how much their game on Steam makes from selling in-game cosmetics.
I don’t think these deals need to be complicated. There are already great Roblox development studios behind some of the top games on the platform. The easiest way for AAA studios to get involved would be to license out their IP. Valve, for example, could license Counter-Strike to a Roblox studio, take a percentage of the game’s revenue, and even allow it to use the official Counter-Strike name. Not every dev team needs to be large or come with significant overhead. Just looking at the community Rivals has built, with 37M members, Valve has a clear opportunity to grow a massive audience of younger players who haven’t yet gotten into Counter-Strike 2.
As Roblox Players Age Up, Where Will They Go?
It’s not just younger gamers that studios should be trying to attract. Roblox’s fastest-growing demographic is now 17–24, so whether studios like it or not, they’re already competing with Roblox. The obvious assumption is that as players age up, they’ll transition from games like Frontlines to Call of Duty. But there’s also a world where gamers never leave Roblox, especially as developer tools become more advanced and game quality continues to improve. We’ve already seen this play out on platforms like YouTube, where production and editing quality have improved dramatically, even compared to just a few years ago.
The Big Takeaway
Roblox has real player demand, and studios are already competing with it whether they acknowledge it or not. Indie devs are building versions of these games and making real money while AAA studios sit it out. This isn’t about replacing the main game, it’s about showing up where players already are and extending your IP. The real risk is letting someone else build your game first.
If you didn’t know, OpenAI has acquired the popular tech industry talk show TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network), marking the AI company's first major media acquisition. Huge congrats to John Coogan and Jordi Hays, excited to follow this story over the next few months.
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