One in four group owners plans to shut down. Only one in four plans to pay. Here is what 272 staff, developers, and airline operators told us in the five days after Roblox announced a policy that rewrites the rules of youth-accessible games.
On April 13th, Roblox announced that from May 19th, 2026, any game accessible to players under 16 would require the creator to verify their ID, submit to a face scan, and maintain a $5-a-month Roblox Premium subscription. This is what 272 owners, and developers sent back.
To publish a Roblox game accessible to players under 16, a creator must now:
For context: Ro-Aviation is almost entirely built on under-16 players. Airlines recruit teenage staff, tech groups sell scripts and assets to those airlines, and the whole economy only works because the games are open to everyone.
The headline finding is not that people hate the $5. It is that the $5 is not the point. Owners who could easily afford the subscription are walking away anyway, over ID verification, over face scans.
We asked what they plann to do when the policy takes effect, group owners split almost evenly between continuing, restricting to users over 16, and shutting down, with the largest group still undecided.
Columns scaled by share. 246 owners answered the pay / restrict / shut down question.
Roblox is losing one of its unique values: free creation without paying.airline owner
Only 26% of owners plan to pay the $5. Almost the same share, 24%, plan to shut down entirely. Another 21% will lock their game to 16+ only, and 36% haven't decided.
25% of airline-only owners plan to shut down. Only 20% will pay. Of the 34 respondents who picked the hardest option, not continuing AND shutting down are airline operators. One of them is walking away from a game with 1.4 million visits.
34% said yes. 42% said "not sure." 22% already said no.
66% of tech-group owners said they are worried about revenue loss, rising to 75% among tech owners aged 13 to 15. Their customer base is the airlines. And the airlines might shut down.
Among airlines that plan to stop operating, 47% also said they would stop buying from tech groups. Only 6% said they would keep spending. The damage will hit both sides.
Teens are 2x more likely to shut down than restrict (28% vs. 10%). Older respondents are 3x more likely to restrict than teens (27% vs. 10%). A 14-year-old going 16+ loses their entire group. A 17-year-old can keep going without them.
ID verification, face scans, Premium bundling, and the end of free publishing come up in comment after comment.
I don't trust them with my ID or my face.survey respondent
272 respondents, evenly split by age. 9 in 10 run a Roblox group. Nearly half left a written comment.
Airline operators dominate the sample, which tracks with Ro-Aviation's actual composition.
Group owners were asked if they plan to keep operating after May 19th. 34% said yes. 22% said no. The 42%, said they don't know. Among airline-only owners, that climbs to 45%.
Tech-only owners are the most confident, at 56% yes. They are also the smallest segment. Airline owners, the revenue source for tech groups, are the least sure.
this is the final nail in the coffin for real this time.airline owner
Three options on the table: pay for Premium, lock your game to 16+, or shut it down.
| Plan | Count | Share | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not sure | 88 | 36% | |
| Pay the $5 | 63 | 26% | |
| Shut down | 60 | 24% | |
| Restrict to 16+ | 51 | 21% |
Teens shut down. Older users restrict.
Lock your airline to 16+ when your entire staff are 13-15 and you have shut the game down anyway. The older half of the community has no such restriction, and uses it.
I've worked so hard since 2014 just to be shutdown by the game we all once loved.airline owner, 12 years in the community
Tech groups build products, uniforms and liveries that airlines buy to run their operations.
Airlines were asked if they will still buy from tech groups. The answer depends almost entirely on whether the airline itself survives.
| Airline status | Will still buy | Not sure | Won't buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuing n=64 | 61% | 28% | 6% |
| Not sure n=93 | 30% | 46% | 20% |
| Stopping n=51 | 6% | 41% | 47% |
Read it diagonally: as you move from continuing to unsure to stopping, the share still buying from tech falls off a cliff, from 61% to 30% to 6%. The airlines that go down take the tech groups with them.
Nobody will buy Roblox Studio products due to restrictions to their game making our product useless.tech group owner
Grouped by the case each respondent was making.
This is the absolutely crappiest roblox update ever. The whole point of roblox is that you can make games for free, this update practically defeats the platform's original goal. If it really gets implemented, I'll have no choice but to leave roblox game development for good.
Roblox is losing one of its unique values: free creation without paying, it's a shame to see them gradually transforming into an evil company.
its funny how we have got to pay roblox to make games for them that will or might attract players for them.
It's utter rubbish you used to be able to publish games for free now ya can't
The update shouldn't have been added in the first place, if Roblox is a social game, then at least they could've let us be free on what we wanted to do.
I hope roblox reverts this update and its just not viable to navagate this update because I have already given roblox my face and I do not trust this company with my id or my bank card. #fuckroblox
forcing id verification, that is so ethically wrong its insane.
I'm not showing my ID I don't feel safe!
Its not a bad idea in practice, but they have gone about it in a corporate manner. Why pay $5? Why not pay with ROBUX..? Why do I need the other pro benefits? I only want to upload games to all ages. And forcing id verification, that is so ethically wrong its insane.
I think for the larger, already established airlines this won't NECESSARILY be a major setback, as their already earning good amounts, however where this will really show is for the smaller/upcoming airlines that can't afford to be paying, and so I think if this policy stays in place we will see quite a big decline in numbers of new airlines
I find this completely unnecessary; it closes the door to several small creators who don't have or don't want to pay $5.
Small tech groups will lose so much just because they need to pay for the subscription. Roblox is limiting our freedom, a way to earn money as a side job, it is truly devastating and disgusting to see Roblox kill so many Roblox communities.
Again it affects the smaller (roleplay) groups. Roblox is failing to effective moderate valid rule violations and just try to prevent abuses by affecting the smaller groups and makes then very hard to grow up.
it will end so many great eras within Roblox.
Ro-av is not worth doing anymore in 2026.
Not really but roblox update is getting worse and worsen the fact the largest community ro ava will die
Roblox s updates keep on getting the worst, they need a change otherwise roav will die 😭
This update will kill ro aviation
It's a diabolical update that's going to shaft the majority of communities, the majority of transport groups are going to be heavily impacted along with roleplay groups entirely. The only communities that can sort of (possibly) survive are ones that are already designed to be for a more mature audience such as semi realistic graphic military stuff
this is the final nail in the coffin for real this time. pretty much all roblox airlines are net negative profits wise, so i doubt anyones spending real money on roblox plus unless theyre like spa or sm
ROBLOX has thrown terrible updates our way and we've overcome them before. This one is extra tough, but I don't see how we can't do the same here. Perhaps now its time to start thinking about passion over profit, the way it used to be; this may be an opportunity for greater community cohesion, for example community airports with multiple operators under a single user / group.
I think this won't end ro-av, but it will drastically change the scene. I actually think it's a good thing in a way, in my opinion, ro-av has become incredibly overpopulated and diluted with new startup airlines, most of which fail. This change will likely reduce that number drastically and refocus the attention to the large airlines that have already proven successful.
I plan to keep going, this won't stop me from trying to build the airline I have been attempting to for many years now.
I understand that this policy may lead to the disappearance of many airlines, but I believe that paying $5 per month greatly contributes to Roblox's operations, helping to accelerate development and expand server capacity, bringing many positive outcomes. To be honest, it is unfortunate, but I have decided to subscribe.
I believe restricting the tech group marketplace to 16+ only is the only reasonable change because finance is a sensitive topic and may not be suitable for younger audiences. Underages should learn how to utilize open source assets before cosidering on spending currency for a sometimes unnecessary upgrade. However, restricting roleplays to 16+ without a subscription is not reasonable. Underage audiences are the majority of the platform. This change will cause roleplay groups to lose many audiences, leading to bankruptcy.
I would love to keep my airline open because I've worked so hard since 2014 just to be shutdown by the game we all once loved. However if there is no point in continuing why would I? Roblox is destroying itself and putting limits on the people that created communities.
People who put hours and hours of work into something have to shutdown because a platform is making changes and it's not about time it's even about money played can put so many money into the game to get nice things and now shutdown not fair let's bring creative Roblox back where people can show their talent without paying anything.
It's definitely a devastating loss. It's harder to create airlines and roleplay games. Whilst everyone is still trying to make an airline or a tech group, there's zero point in doing so currently. Developing games have also begun to be useless due to funds being very low and not being able to afford many essentials already.
I'm gonna be honest here but I don't like this I own a group of my airline that i made on the 12th and then Roblox the mad greedy person decided to take all my ambiens away because they've stuck me behind a paywall and I'm not showing my ID I don't feel safe! I hope they remove it, I really hope they do.
Man to be honest, I never expected this to happen. I just want to grow my airline like normal
Owning a RoAv Airline brings little to no profit these days, and if my group does not make more than 6 USD a month, I am not giving a single extra penny to this shitty corrupt company.
The update is so bad it literally ruins people's careers and makes it bad. They want you to spend money for a MONTH instead for like one time purchase like the other platforms. We creators spend money to put things into roblox and now basically roblox is destroying your items to get money which is 5$ pretty expensive in my currency. People have other currencies which is bad. So people can get alot expensive like me. 50kr I won't purchase that for a MONTH. That isn't happening.
Roblox should seriously reconsider all of these decisions, they are making their own platform lose developers. Even UNITY, sure they charge a fee but thats only 100$ ONE-TIME, and also if you get 1000$ from your games you get your 100$ back? Roblox needs to learn that you cant just pressure all the developers for 'the children' you need to be logical, otherwise everyone will leave.
My business sells Roblox studio products and discord services. However my main payment is Robux and gamepasses will be restricted as it is part of a game. Also nobody will buy Roblox Studio products due to restrictions to their game making our product useless.
I don't have concerns for me since my small tech group is mainly inactive and I really can't dev anymore. This update will ruin roav.
roblox devs need to be fired there shit its like there trying to ruin the company then david bazuka gets the hate
Yeah roblox tryna lose their stocks again, hire a proper CEO.
Fuck Schlep, Fuck Roblox.
fuck this update am quitting my fuckin 1.4 mIL game bye bye fuck off roblox suck my cck" ok bro
My airlines is already dead, but with this we need to close operation, and i cant run anymore my airfield so
I will most likely leave ro-av as it's becoming less and less survivable. Roblox rolled out so many new updates that are basically made to kill roleplay communities such as this.
My idea is to make gamepasses that are able to be used by all age groups and giving the products manually hi I'm oaty btw
I hate the new changes. We need a petition game or something.
im thinking of moving to a different platform
Why pay $5? Why not pay with ROBUX..?
They should make it how it was. It was always safe. Always.
its shit
its pretty shit like lwk gives 67 fornite borgor vibes
cringe change, roblox is evolving backwards, genually depressing to see this
Absolutely fucking ridiculous change
F*CK THIS UPDATE. ROBLOX, THIS IS YOUR WORST UPDATE.
Roblox sucks
Horrific Update
It's limiting all of us.
This NEEDS to be reverted
Roblox are digging a massive hole for themselvs.
They don't give a flying shit about their community, and they are ruining it step by step
lowk this kinda just proves roblox dont give a shit about its devs
It's completely brainless, it will end so many great eras within Roblox.
It's a money grab