Walmart Inc. released two sites on Roblox Corp.’s “metaverse mega-platform” Monday, just in time for the holidays, and one of those sites is aimed squarely at a demographic the platform has targeted for needed growth. The descriptions for one of those sites, Walmart Land, suggests Walmart
WMT,
+0.96%
is looking to accomplish a similar goal to Roblox
RBLX,
+0.03%
: Bringing older users into the game. Roblox executives have been targeting the teenage to mid-20s demographic — both those who are new to the site as well as retaining former tweens who have been users for years — and Walmart seems to have those same users in mind with “Electric Island” music festivals and “House of Style” virtual dressing room and boutique in the game.
Online concerts have grown in popularity since Epic Games Inc.’s “Fortnite” held its first virtual concert with electronic-dance producer Marshmello back in 2019. In a recent poll of 401 consumer by MarTech, the marketing data site found that most surveyed, 68%, ranked “music” as their top virtual world experience they were interested in, with “travel/tourism” coming in at 58%, with “shopping/virtual stores” and “live events” tied for third at 53%. Walmart appears to be targeting some of those most popular responses with its new release, writing in a statement that “Walmart Land will bring the best fashion, style, beauty and entertainment items directly to the global Roblox community of over 52 million daily users.” Roblox has been trying to attract older users since it went public in March 2021, noting in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company’s ultimate goal was to “be a brand that serves all ages,” and that its 17-to-24-year-old user group had grown faster than its core under-13 age group over the nine months ended September 2020. In an update earlier this month at the company’s investor day presentation, executives said that users aged 17 to 24 had grown 41% in the previous year, to 13.2 million, wh …