Roblox and Minecraft are playing a big role in helping kids flex their creative muscles and build life skills, according to a new research report called The Creation Generation from UK-based advertising/strategy studio Bodacious.
Featuring findings from an online survey of 2,054 kids ages five to 13 across the US (plus 39 in-depth interviews), this study was funded by Arkansas-based Walton Family Foundation, with Dubit on board as a research partner.
Unlike the players-only passive participation exhibited by past generations, Gen Alpha is having a significantly different experience, due to growing up with “creation gaming” platforms like Roblox and Minecraft (pictured), which give kids more agency and access to make things.
For one thing, there’s a higher rate of enjoyment among creator-players compared to players only, and the variance was particularly wide for RPG games (30% for players only, 51% for creator-players) and chat spaces (8% for players only, 25% of creator-players).
Creator-players on both Roblox and Minecraft identified creativity (70%), design (63%) and problem-solving (52%) as the top three skills they were developing on the platforms. The study also highlights that kids are increasingly seeing the monetary value in their creations: “Almost a quarter of Roblox Studio users ages 13 and under are [selling their creations] on the Roblox Marketplace.”
And in another key takeaway, 41.5% of kids are interested in seeing Minecraft and Roblox used in schools to support their learning and engagement. In support of this potential, roughly one-third of tweens (ages eight to 13) reported learning at least one school subject on Roblox (33%) and Minecraft (35%).
The study notes that these platforms could also improve social intelligence and teamwork skills since kids are much more likely to play them with friends and siblings. Less than a quarter of kids say they play Roblox (21%) and Minecraft (24%) on their own. And a whopping 95.5% of young creators say they share their creations with other people, typically friends and family.
For more detail, the full report is available for download on The Creation Generation website.