Roblox Is Lowering the Highly Engaged Player Threshold to 100 This November: What It Means for Creators
Roblox confirmed at RDC 2026 that it's cutting the Highly Engaged Player threshold — the entry bar for Kids and Select audiences — from 250 to 100 this November, the third such cut in 2026. Here's what it changes for creators and what else Roblox announced about publishing alongside it.
Roblox is lowering one of its biggest barriers to entry for new games. At RDC 2026, the company's annual developer conference, Roblox confirmed it is cutting the Highly Engaged Player (HEP) threshold — the bar a game has to clear to become eligible for the Roblox Kids and Select audiences — from 250 down to just 100, with the change rolling out this November. It's the third time in 2026 that Roblox has loosened this requirement, and for small and first-time creators it's one of the more consequential changes to come out of the conference.
Here's what the Highly Engaged Player threshold actually does, how it got to 100, and what else Roblox changed about publishing alongside it.
1. What the Highly Engaged Player Threshold Actually Controls
A "Highly Engaged Player" is Roblox's internal metric for a visitor who spends meaningful, sustained time in a specific experience rather than bouncing off after a few seconds. Roblox uses a rolling count of these players as the entry bar for the Kids and Select audience tiers — the broader player pools that most games need to reach in order to get real discovery and a shot at sustained traffic. A game that hasn't yet reached the HEP threshold is capped to a much smaller slice of the platform's audience while it's still proving itself.
That makes the threshold one of the single biggest gatekeepers for new Roblox games. Clear it, and a game becomes visible to vastly more players through recommendations and discovery surfaces. Stay under it, and even a well-built experience can struggle to find an audience at all.
2. From 500 to 100: How Fast the Bar Has Dropped in 2026
Roblox has quietly relaxed this requirement several times over the course of the year:
- July 6, 2026 — Roblox relaxed the definition of a Highly Engaged Player, which it said increased the number of new games entering the catalog by 33%.
- July 16, 2026 — the separate "maintenance bar" (the lower threshold a game needs to stay in the catalog once it has already qualified) dropped from 100 to 25 Highly Engaged Players.
- August 19, 2026 — the entry threshold itself was cut in half, from 500 down to 250.
- This November — announced at RDC 2026 on September 11, the entry threshold is being cut again, from 250 down to 100.
In other words, the bar for a brand-new game to reach Kids and Select audiences has dropped by 80% in under five months. Roblox has framed each cut the same way: opening the door to more games while keeping the same content-safety bar in place.
3. What Changes for Creators This November
Practically, a lower threshold means a new game needs far fewer sustained, engaged visits before it starts showing up to the Kids and Select pools that drive most of Roblox's discovery traffic. For a solo developer or small team launching their first experience, reaching 100 engaged players is a dramatically more realistic early milestone than 500 was at the start of the year.
It doesn't change what counts as "highly engaged" — Roblox adjusted that definition back in July — and it doesn't touch content moderation standards. A game still has to pass the same safety review regardless of how many players it has. What's changing is purely how many of those engaged players a game needs before the platform treats it as proven enough to widen its audience.
4. The Other Publishing Changes Announced at the Same Time
The HEP threshold cut was one piece of a larger "publishing made easier" push Roblox detailed at RDC 2026. Alongside it, the company announced:
- Less disruptive moderation mid-development. Roblox is introducing a way for creators to build and change a game while it's still taking shape, without it triggering the same moderation checks that apply to a published, live experience.
- Fewer bans for well-intentioned mistakes. Roblox said it is adjusting how it handles content violations, and expects the change to cut bans by nearly 40% for creators it judges to be acting in good faith rather than deliberately violating policy.
- A simpler age-rating step. To reach players aged 16 and up in most regions, creators can now answer a single question instead of filling out the full content questionnaire. Games with restricted content — as defined by Roblox's Restricted Content Policy — still have to complete the full process.
None of these require a creator to do anything differently today; they're platform-side changes that reduce friction at the points where creators most often got stuck in the past.
5. Why Roblox Is Loosening the Rules Now
Roblox tied the announcement to figures it shared at the conference: an average of 123 million daily users last quarter, up 10% year-over-year, with game visits up 55% over the previous twelve months. Creators earned roughly $1.7 billion through DevEx in the same period, up about 50% from the year before. Roblox also noted that in August, 28% of its top 100 games by hours played — and 33% of its top 1,000 — had launched in just the preceding 90 days, a sign that newer games are already breaking through under the current rules.
Lowering the HEP threshold again is Roblox's attempt to keep that churn of new hits going by making it easier for the next wave of games to clear the first real hurdle to visibility. It sits alongside other creator-facing announcements from the same event, including the new Scene Generator and 2D engine tools for building faster, and plans for a Roblox Wallet that pays creators out automatically. You can read everything else unveiled at RDC 2026 for the full picture of what the conference covered.
6. What This Means If You're Building a New Game
If you're sitting on an experience that hasn't broken through yet, the math has changed in your favor three times this year. A game that stalled out under the old 500-player bar in the spring may already clear the new 100-player threshold once it takes effect this November, without you changing anything about the game itself. It's worth revisiting a shelved project with that in mind, rather than assuming it's permanently capped.
This is also a good moment to look at the rest of Roblox's recent publishing changes together. Combined with October's publishing and Studio tools update, the direction is consistent: Roblox is trying to shorten the distance between finishing a game and getting it in front of real players. If your plans also involve selling items or passes once you do reach an audience, it's worth understanding how Marketplace seller fees and requirements work before you launch.
Quick Recap
- The Highly Engaged Player threshold — the entry bar for Roblox Kids and Select audiences — drops from 250 to 100 this November.
- It's the third loosening of this requirement in 2026, down from 500 at the start of the year.
- Alongside it, Roblox is reducing moderation friction during development, cutting bans for good-faith mistakes by an expected 40%, and simplifying the age-rating step for most 16+ games.
- None of this changes content safety standards — only how many engaged players a game needs before it reaches a wider audience.