Key Points:
- Grow a Garden, a calming plant-growing game on Roblox, recently broke records with over 16 million concurrent players, many under 13.
- The game offers a peaceful simulation: planting seeds, harvesting crops, and selling them, while gardens continue growing offline.
- While gameplay can be slow, its competitive and collectible elements keep kids engaged and spending.
- Critics raise questions about real-world impact and the influence of in-game spending on children’s financial literacy.
- Safety concerns around Roblox remain, despite the platform’s popularity and reassurances from the company.
Roblox is known for fast-paced action and high-energy games. But Grow a Garden, where players quietly plant seeds and cultivate a patch of land, has unexpectedly become a viral sensation. Created by Splitting Point Studios in New Zealand, the game has now had more than 9 billion visits since its March debut.
While some adults scoff at the appeal, others see potential. Educators and gaming experts say the game’s popularity highlights both the positive engagement and risks of monetised play. And while Oxford professor Andrew Przybylski is sceptical that virtual gardening will lead to real planting, others in the gardening world are hopeful it might just sow some seeds.
Still, the game raises concerns around in-app purchases, screen time, and platform safety, especially for Roblox’s young user base.
BBC -> Read more here
