Roblox starts trading at $64.50, as public investors get their first chance at the popular kid's game.

Roblox (RBLX), the world's largest user-generated games site where players can also build and share online worlds, is now valued at $45 billion, up from $4 billion just over a year ago. On Wednesday, the company went public in a direct listing in which no new shares were issued. It closed its first day of trading at $69.50 a share, $34 more than the reference price of $45.

Roblox stock symbol is RBLX.

When the pandemic hit and forced people to stay at home, no one anticipated the explosive growth it would mean for the video game industry. A record $56.9 billion was spent on gaming last year in the United States, up 27 percent from 2019, according to the NPD Group. Sony, which released the PlayStation 5 in November, recently reported a 62 percent profit jump while Microsoft tallied $5 billion in quarterly gaming revenue for the first time, helped by sales of its new Xbox devices. Mobile games like Among Us became internet phenomena essentially overnight and hundreds of gaming start-ups have sprung up during the pandemic.

Roblox, a site that was launched in 2006, is probably one of the biggest companies to benefit from the lockdown. It is a universe in which players can interact and choose from more than 20 million unique games. They can then use their avatars to do various things, like -break out of prison, explore tropical jungles or adopt pets. Players also pay for premium memberships, as well as for items and clothing for their avatars using a digital currency called Robux.

On average, 32.6 million people logged into Roblox daily, nearly double the 2019 average of 17.6 million, according to the company. Most are children aged 12 or under.

In 2020 the firm generated close to $1.2bn from the Apple App Store and Android's Google Play store.

Revenue last year jumped 82% to $923.9 million. Still, Roblox’s net loss widened to $253.3 million from $71 million in 2019 as the company almost tripled the amount of money it paid to developers through its revenue sharing program. More than 1,250 developers made at least $10,000 last year through virtual sales in their Roblox games.

Roblox had planned to go public late last year through a traditional IPO. The company delayed its offering after Airbnb and DoorDash debuted and underpriced their shares, leading to a huge discount for new investors. Roblox opted to go the direct listing route and raised smaller funding round in January to minimize dilution.

The company then again delayed its debut last month and restated its financials after the SEC scrutinized the way it recognizes revenue from sales of Robux, its digital currency.

Roblox is forecasting rapid growth in 2021, although at a much slower clip than last year. Revenue is expected to climb between 56% and 64% to $1.44 billion to $1.52 billion, the company said last week. That suggests higher revenue per user because the company sees the number of daily active users only increasing 6% to 12%, while total engagement hours are expected to be roughly flat.

With vaccinations rolling out and pandemic restrictions easing in some places, there are fears that gaming behavior may begin to change.

Roblox is a particularly difficult company to value because there’s no telling what will happen when schools reopen and kids return to playing with their real-life friends. The company has been adding content for older audiences, such as virtual concerts, meet-ups, and educational experiences, but it’s still primarily reliant on kids using their parents' money.

One big question a lot of investors have is whether the company's meteoric growth - sales rose from $325m in 2018 to $508.4m in 2019 and $923.9m in 2020 - is sustainable.

The CEO, David Baszucki thinks it is. He said in a statement on Wednesday,

"Roblox has been growing for 15 years, driven by our community, driven by the awesome content, driven by our creators, and driven by our ability for people to do things together. That’s a long-term growth path and we believe that continues forward, even after Covid."

"We headed into 2020 with strong organic growth which was further bolstered by social distancing restrictions," Michael Guthrie, Roblox’s finance chief, said in the guidance statement. “As those restrictions ease, we expect the rates of growth in 2021 will be well below the rates in 2020, however, we believe we will see absolute growth in most of our core metrics for the full year.”