The honest answer is a range, and a wide one. A Roblox game can cost nothing but your time, a few hundred dollars for a simple game someone else builds, or six figures for the kind of polished, constantly updated game that sits on the front page. Where yours lands depends on three things: who builds it, how much game there is, and how good it has to look and feel.
This guide puts numbers on each of those, explains what drives them, and covers the costs most people only discover after launch. The figures are ranges on purpose: anyone who quotes one exact price for "a Roblox game" hasn't asked what the game is yet.
$0
To make it yourself
Roblox Studio and publishing are free
$300–$1.5k
A simple game, built for you
An obby or a one-loop tycoon
$1k–$6k
A polished simulator or horror game
Pets, rebirths, a monster with real AI
$10k+
Front-page ambitions
Combat, RPGs, custom art, months of work
The short answer
Cost follows two choices: who does the work, and how much work there is. The table below crosses the two. "Simple" means one core loop such as an obby or a basic tycoon; "mid-size" means a simulator or horror game with several connected systems; "ambitious" means combat-heavy games, RPGs and anything built to compete for the front page.
| Who builds it | Simple game | Mid-size game | Ambitious game |
|---|---|---|---|
| You build it | $0 + weeks to months | $0 + several months | $0 + a year or more |
| Freelancers you hire and coordinate | $300–$1,500 | $1,000–$6,000 | $10,000–$50,000+ |
| A development team | $300–$2,000 | $1,000–$8,000 | $15,000–$100,000+ |
The rows overlap, and that's real. A team can cost less than a set of freelancers once you count the hours you spend briefing them and stitching their work together, and a cheap freelancer can turn out expensive once you pay someone else to fix their code. For a deeper split by job and genre, see our Roblox game development cost breakdown.
What it costs to make a Roblox game yourself
In money, almost nothing. Roblox Studio is free to download, and Roblox doesn't charge you to publish an experience or keep it online. The Creator Store has thousands of free models, sounds and plugins (check free models before you use them, because some hide malicious scripts), and a few paid ones if you want a shortcut.
The real cost is time. You'll be learning Luau, Roblox's scripting language, and Studio at the same time as designing the game. Someone starting from zero can usually get a simple obby or tycoon working in a few weeks of evenings; a simulator with saving, pets and a proper UI is more often months. AI assistants now write a lot of the Luau for you, which helps, but someone still has to assemble, test and fix what they write. Our guide on how to make a Roblox game using AI covers where those tools help and where they stop.
Even solo developers usually spend a little on the parts that are hard to do well alone:
- An icon and thumbnails. They decide whether anyone clicks, and a good set from a Roblox thumbnail designer typically costs $10–$200.
- One system you're stuck on. Data saving, trading or a shop that handles purchases correctly. A well-scoped single feature from a scripter usually runs $50–$250.
- Music and sound. A looped track or a pack of effects is often $15–$100, and it does more for how finished a game feels than most people expect.
What it costs to have one made
When you hire, you're paying for hours of skilled work, so the price tracks how much there is to build. These are typical costs for a first version, the one you launch with, by the kind of game it is:
| Game type | What the first version needs | Typical cost | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obby | One course, checkpoints, a shop, saving and a couple of game passes | $300–$1,500 | 1–3 weeks |
| Tycoon | One plot, droppers and upgrades, rebirths, saving and a shop | $500–$3,000 | 2–4 weeks |
| Simulator | A collect-and-sell loop, pets or tools, rebirths, zones and leaderboards | $1,000–$6,000 | 3–8 weeks |
| Horror | Lighting and atmosphere, a monster with real pathfinding, puzzles and chases | $1,000–$7,000 | 3–8 weeks |
| Battlegrounds / fighting | A combat system, hit detection, and an animation and effect for every move | $2,500–$12,000 | 1–3 months |
| RPG / open world | A large map, quests, NPCs, items, inventory and long-term progression | $10,000+ | 3+ months |
These ranges come from adding up typical prices for each part of the build (scripting, building, UI, models and art), using the per-job ranges listed on our Roblox services marketplace. The low end assumes a newer developer, a tight brief and some ready-made assets; the high end assumes experienced developers, custom art and more systems. Games built around one repeatable loop are the cheapest to start, while games where every move needs its own animation or every quest is written by hand cost the most.
Why two quotes for the same game can differ 10x
Send the same idea to five developers and you can get prices from $200 to $2,000. Usually nobody is lying; they're pricing different games. Here's what's behind the gap:
- Systems, not maps, set the price. Saving, trading, combat and shops have to work with a full server and never lose a player's progress. A pretty map with shallow systems is cheap; deep systems are where the hours go.
- Custom art vs. kits. A builder making every asset from scratch costs several times more than one assembling store models and kits. Kits are fine for testing an idea and risky for a game you plan to grow.
- Experience with live games. Developers who have shipped games with real players price in what they know about retention, monetization and exploiters, and that knowledge is usually worth paying for.
- Phones. A large share of Roblox players are on mobile. UI and controls that work on a small touch screen take extra design and testing.
- Deadline, revisions and handover. A rush job, unlimited changes or a full handover of the source files and documentation all add time, so they add cost.
The cheapest quote is only cheap if the game works. Ask each developer what they'd build for the price, and compare the lists rather than the totals.
The costs people forget: launch and after
Publishing is the halfway point. A game nobody hears about stays at a handful of visits, because Roblox's discovery mostly surfaces games that already have players. Three costs arrive after the build:
- Launch promotion. Creator videos are the usual spark for a new game. A first push with a few smaller creators from the BLOXG influencer marketplace can start around $100; a coordinated multi-creator launch wave typically runs $2,000–$10,000. Our guide to promoting a Roblox game covers how to plan it.
- Updates. Players expect live games to change, and the games chasing the charts often update every week or two. Each update is more scripting, building and art, so a live game has a monthly cost even when nothing is broken.
- Fixes. Exploiters, Roblox engine changes and the bugs only real players find all create work you didn't plan for. Keep some budget back, or agree a bug-fix period with whoever builds the game.
The payback math
Roblox keeps 30% of each game pass and developer product sale, and its Developer Exchange (DevEx) pays out $0.0038 per earned Robux, once you have at least 30,000 to cash out. So to earn back $1,000, a game needs about 263,000 earned Robux, which means players buying about 376,000 Robux worth of passes and products. Premium Payouts add a little on top. Most first games don't get there, which is why it pays to start small and spend on launch, not just on the build.
How to spend less without making a worse game
- Start with one loop. Launch the smallest version that's genuinely fun, then add systems once players show you what they want. Most of the budget that gets wasted goes on features nobody uses.
- Use a proven genre pattern. Simulators, tycoons and obbies have well-understood loops, so they're cheaper to build and easier to promote than an untested mechanic.
- Pay properly for what players notice. Saving that never loses progress, purchases that always work, and an icon worth clicking. Save money on the parts they don't notice.
- Fix the scope and pay in milestones. A written brief with a fixed price beats an open-ended hourly deal for a first version. Our guide on how much to pay a Roblox developer covers rates and safe payment terms.
- Own it from day one. Keep the game in your own account or group and add developers as collaborators, so you never have to buy your own game back.
Common questions
Is it free to make a Roblox game?
Yes. Roblox Studio is free and there's no fee to publish an experience, so a game you build yourself can cost nothing but your time. Money usually comes in for the parts you can't or don't want to make: an icon and thumbnails, music, a scripter for a system you're stuck on, and promotion at launch.
How much does it cost to pay someone to make a Roblox game?
For a first version, roughly $300–$1,500 for a simple obby or tycoon, $1,000–$6,000 for a polished simulator or horror game, and $10,000 or more for combat-heavy games, RPGs and anything aiming for the front page. BLOXG's game development packages start at $299 (Starter), $499 (Viral) and $999 (Studio), with a quote within 24 hours.
How long does it take to make a Roblox game?
A solo beginner usually needs months for a first game. An experienced team is much faster: our Starter games take 1–2 weeks, Viral 2–3 weeks and Studio 4–6 weeks. On bigger games most of the time goes into systems like saving, trading and combat, and into testing them with a full server.
Can a Roblox game earn back what it cost to make?
It can, but most don't, so budget as if the first version is a test. Roblox keeps 30% of each game pass and developer product sale, and DevEx pays out $0.0038 per earned Robux, so earning back $1,000 takes about 263,000 earned Robux: about 376,000 Robux of player purchases.
Do I need a marketing budget as well?
Usually. New games rarely get found on their own, because Roblox's discovery favours games that already have players. A first push with a few Roblox creators can start at around $100 and a multi-creator launch wave typically costs $2,000–$10,000, so keep part of your budget back for launch instead of spending it all on the build.