Roblox’s public debut also anointed it a COVID-19 market winner, a category dominated by tech companies like Zoom Video Communications Inc. That compares with a gain over the same time period of about 57% for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, which reflects a broader cross section of companies that benefited from the pandemic’s dislocations. One popular market proxy, the VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports ETF, returned about 95% in the year ended Feb.

With schools and offices shuttered last year to limit the spread of the virus, spending on games globally, including mobile and consoles, shot up about 20% compared to 2019, according to games market data company Newzoo, putting it on pace to reach $218 billion by 2023.

The expansion of mobile connectivity and proliferation of free-to-play games have been driving the growth of the industry for more than a decade, making it bigger than movies and music combined, according to Stone. “Not a lot of industries that large are growing that quickly and it checks a lot of the investment theme boxes from the pandemic.” “Video gaming has a lot of strong tailwinds,” says Jimmy Stone, a finance expert in the Toptal network since 2018 and managing partner at financial consulting firm Alderbrook Companies LLC. In a nutshell, the industry is scorching hot, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating growth just as it has fueled the digital transformation of the global economy. The rich valuation reflected both Roblox’s business model, which focuses as much on entertainment as it does on creating an immersive social experience, and the market for online gaming. Not bad for a company with no history of blockbuster titles whose biggest market segment is preteens. That represented a more than tenfold increase in the company’s worth since a funding round in February 2020 and catapulted it ahead of some of the industry’s biggest names, like Electronic Arts Inc., known for sports titles like FIFA, and Take-Two Interactive, which controls Grand Theft Auto. Roblox Corporation, founded in 2004, went public on March 10, listing shares on the New York Stock Exchange at an opening price of $64.50, translating to a valuation of $42 billion. But if you’re an investor, you’re probably paying attention now.

If you don’t have kids, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Roblox, a free online gaming platform best known for its Lego-like graphics.

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