Roblox Hires Its First-Ever Chief Growth Officer to Chase Adult Spending
Roblox hired John Ciancutti as its first Chief Growth Officer on May 14. Ciancutti comes from Amazon, where he ran the live radio app Amp and served as VP of Consumer and Technology for Amazon Music. He previously founded audio news service 60dB, which sold to Google in 2017, and spent 13 years at Netflix in product and engineering roles. Roblox's 18-and-over user base has grown 50% year over year and now accounts for 26% of U.S. players. Adults spend 50% more money in-game than younger users, and Roblox has already started paying developers higher rates for games built for an older audience.
THE BREAKDOWN
Roblox hiring a C-suite growth executive with a background in audio, streaming, and consumer tech is a direct commercial bet on adult monetization. Platform developer earnings are already going up for adult-targeted games, and the CGO hire confirms the push has executive commitment behind it. For agents with gaming clients who have Roblox audiences, the window to negotiate deeper platform partnerships, early access to new adult-focused features, or development funding is now, before the adult pivot becomes widely understood and creator competition on the platform increases. Brands that buy teen-focused Roblox activations today will be pricing adult-skewing campaigns within two years, which changes the rate floor for any creator with an established platform presence there.
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