Grow a Garden

Grow a Garden is a multiplayer farming simulator idle video game released on the game platform Roblox in March 26, 2025. It gained widespread attention for its concurrent user (CCU) records, with over 21.3 million players having been online on June 21, 2025—the day of its "Summer Update". The figure, if true, would be the highest CCU recorded in video game history.^[1][2] The game previously achieved a peak of over 5 million CCU on May 17, the highest ever for any Roblox game.^[3][4] The game is jointly owned by its original developer and Splitting Point Studios, a development team owned by Janzen "Jandel" Madsen, with Do Big Studios holding a minority share.^[5][6]

Grow a Garden is a free-to-play farming-themed idle game. The player begins with an empty plot of farmland among other player's farmlands, and some in-game currency called "Sheckles" (¢) to buy carrot seeds. By planting and harvesting crops, they can earn more Sheckles to buy progressively more exotic plants.^[7][6] The seeds may go in and out of stock, and exclusive items are released each week that players must be online to claim, boosting player retention.^[8][9] The plants grow even when the players leave the server.^[5] Players can obtain pets like monkeys or the Bizzy Bees by opening loot boxes.^[9] Roblox's built-in premium currency, Robux, can be used to speed up waiting and gain additional perks.^[5] Robux can also be used to steal other's crops.^[10] The game uses lego-style textures that are common in old-school Roblox games.^[11]

The game was created by an anonymous 16-year-old who goes by the username "BMWLux".^[9][10] Jandel's Splitting Point Studios bought a share of the game in April, a time where it still had around 1,000 concurrent users. According to Jandel, the original developer owns "50% of the game", and the initial version was developed in only three days.^[5] Some time later, Florida-based Roblox game development company Do Big Studios came to hold a minority share.^[10][5] Do Big Studios have been criticized for introducing excessive monetization to the game.^[10][12] Roblox lists the game as top-earner in revenue,^[1] though Jandel has declined to share the exact numbers.^[6]

On May 18, the game released its "Blood Moon" update, breaking the previous CCU record for a Roblox game, which had been held by Blox Fruits.^[7] Upon the release of "Bizzy Bees" event on May 31,^[13] the game reached a peak of over 11.7 million CCU, according to RoMonitor.^[14][15] In June 14, the game released its "Working Bees" event update, and achieved over 16 million CCU,^[11][16] breaking Fortnite's CCU record of 15.3 million from December 2020.^[9] Additionally, the game surpassed CCUs of top-played games on Steam, such as PUBG: Battlegrounds and Counter Strike 2 on several occasions.^[17][3] On June 21, the "Summer Update" was released, bringing new seeds, cosmetics, and events, and the day saw a peak of 21 million concurrent players.^[2] As of June 25, the game has received over 10 billion visits, with around 4 million favorites.^[18] Grow a Garden is the fastest Roblox game to have reached a billion visits.^[19] Jandel has stated that around 35% of the playerbase is under 13-years-old.^[9] An unofficial replica of the game can be found as a Fortnite Creative map.^[20] The game's CCU record, if accurate, would be the highest CCU recorded in video game history.^[1][2]

The game averages slightly less than 3 million CCU as of June 25.^[1] There have been concerns that some of Grow a Garden's player count consists of automated bot accounts. Roblox has pushed back on this idea, stating “our preliminary analysis confirms genuine popularity, not artificial inflation, validating the game's authentic community-driven growth.” Upon the game reaching 5 million CCU, investment company TD Cowen alleged that fraudulent bot activities artificially inflated Grow a Garden's visibility in Roblox's game recommendation algorithm, pointing to an "upsurge" of account creation rates in Philippines and Indonesia. However, it later retracted its claims of manipulation, while still noting the upsurge.^[6][5][17] Some in-game items are only available for a short period of time during updates, which may incentivize bad actors to use bots to collect them.^[7] Many players offer to exchange rare items for real-life money through unofficial avenues such as eBay or Discord. Such practice is prohibited under Roblox's terms of service.^[21]

Finance publications such as Investor's Business Daily, Barron's, and Motley Fool have partly attributed the recent rise in Roblox stock prices—including a 21% growth in June—due to the sudden popularity of Grow a Garden.^[22][23][24]

Nicole Carpenter, writing for Game File, called the game the "new generation’s FarmVille", while noting its simplicity.^[17] Ted Litchfield of PC Gamer noted that as an outsider, "there is a cognitive dissonance to learning that it's far more popular than any game I've ever covered or played".^[5] Zack Zwiezen of Kotaku commented that the game looks more like a prototype rather than a finished game.^[3] PCGamesN listed it among the best Roblox games of 2025 but commented it was "a pretty standard AFK game" despite apparently being "hard to put down for millions of Roblox players".^[25] Kieran Press-Reynolds, writing for the New York Times, noted that "there is barely any long-form content proportional to the game’s success [...] this one is all short-form videos".^[9]

• List of Roblox games
• Dress to Impress (video game)
• Adopt Me!
• Sonic Speed Simulator

• "Beginner's Guide to Grow a Garden" by IGN