Roblox

Roblox isn't a single game but a platform on which millions of individual titles are created by the players themselves using the built-in development tool Roblox Studio and the Lua scripting language. It arrived on mobile phones in 2016, expanding a user base that had previously been able to play only on PC to include an entire generation of children and teenagers controlling the world through a touchscreen – from simple platformers through simulators to ambitious RPGs built by the community, not a studio. It's precisely this openness that made Roblox one of the most popular platforms for Generation Alpha, for whom creating your own content is just as natural as playing it.

Controls differ depending on the specific game within the platform, but Roblox unified the basics for mobile, such as a virtual joystick and contextual action buttons, so switching between thousands of different titles works without having to relearn everything from scratch. Economically, the whole platform runs on the Robux currency, which players use to buy cosmetic extras, access to certain games, or virtual items within them – game creators can exchange this currency back into real money for successful titles, which turned Roblox into a business phenomenon with its own creator economy as well. The platform has repeatedly come under criticism for aggressive monetization aimed at a young audience and for weak control over content uploaded by the users themselves, so parental oversight plays a bigger role here than with an ordinary mobile game.

Why play: For children and teenagers who want to create and play in one place, though parents should keep spending on Robux under control and keep an eye on what content their kids play within the individual games on the platform.