Shares of Roblox pop 17% after company's third-quarter results beat estimates

Shares of Roblox popped 17% in premarket trading Wednesday after the company released third-quarter results that beat on top and bottom lines and showed strong user growth.

Here's how the company did:

The revenue figure is what Roblox calls bookings, a category that includes sales recognized during the quarter and deferred revenue. Bookings rose by 20% year over year. Roblox reported $702 million in bookings in the year-ago quarter. 

The company generates revenue from sales of its virtual currency called Robux, which players use to dress up their avatars and buy other premium in-game features.

Roblox reported 70.2 million average daily active users, up 20% from a year earlier. Users spent more than 16 billion hours engaged in Roblox during the second quarter, up 20% year over year.

The company reported a net loss of $277.2 million for the quarter, which ended Sept. 30. Roblox reported a net loss of $297.8 million for the same period in 2022.

In a letter to shareholders Wednesday, the company said topline growth was particularly strong in East Asia and Europe, and that Roblox has slowed its spending growth across major expense categories. The company said it will also begin providing guidance in fiscal 2024.

The company said average bookings per daily active user was $11.96, flat year over year.