Millions are flocking to grow virtual gardens in viral Roblox game
created by teenager
[July 31, 2025]
By BARBARA ORTUTAY
Whether it serves as a chill escape from the onslaught of the real world
or simply a way to beat vacation doldrums, a viral Roblox game about
gardening has become the surprise hit of the summer.
Grow a Garden, created by a 16-year-old in a few days, has shattered
records for the most concurrent players of any game in history, beating
out video games that take years and millions of dollars to develop.
And there’s no one to shoot, fight or race. If your last attempt at
cultivating vegetables was FarmVille in 2010, don't worry — your
tomatoes will grow even if you never water them.
Grow a Garden is as simple as its name suggests — players can fill a
plot of land with plants and animals, harvest and sell, trade or steal
each others' bounty. The game is low stress, with an aesthetic
reminiscent of Minecraft and a soundtrack of soothing classical tunes
such as Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca playing in the background. Its
popularity has further cemented Roblox' place not just in the gaming
world but in popular culture — for better or for worse, it's where the
kids hang out.
“The word I keep hearing used over and over to describe this particular
game is that it’s chill, which is just such a nice alternative. I get a
lot of sort of that Animal Crossing vibe from it. You know, like you can
check in, you can check your gardens, you can get some new seeds, you
can plant them,” said Becky Bozdech, editorial director at the nonprofit
Common Sense Media. “I have an 11-year-old son who (plays it) and he
says to him the big difference is that a lot of games have a big giant
objective that you have to do, but in Grow a Garden, you can just kind
of hang out and do what you want.”
Coincidence or not, Grow a Garden soared to popularity around the same
time that Take-Two Interactive announced it would delay the launch of
its wildly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 until next year. In late June,
the gardening game logged 21.6 million concurrent players, surpassing
Fortnite’s previous record of 15.2 million according to Roblox. Analysts
who follow Roblox's stock say Grow a Garden is helping boost the
company's revenue and will push the company's quarterly earnings numbers
above Wall Street's expectations.
While it's not clear if the GTA audience flocked to this simple
gardening game to pass the time until then, the timing reignited the
age-old debate about who gamers are and what titles are taken seriously
by the video game establishment. It happened with Candy Crush, with
puzzle games, with Animal Crossing. Are people who play cozy games true
gamers? Or is the title reserved for the folks who shoot enemies in Call
of Duty or drive around creating mayhem in GTA?
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This image provided by Janzen Madsen shows the Roblox game called
"Grow a Garden." (Janzen Madsen via AP)
 “There’s a huge percentage of gamers
that play Roblox and the actual industry just views it as like this
esoterically immature platform of weird gameplay habits,” said
Janzen Madsen, the New Zealand-based CEO and founder of Splitting
Point studios, which acquired the game from its teenage creator.
“Well, I actually think in five years this is what player
expectation is gonna be. And because you guys haven’t embraced it,
like you’re not gonna know how to make games.”
To start growing your garden, you'll need a Roblox
account. The game will start you out with an empty plot and some
money — sheckles — and a starter seed. From there, you can plant
seeds, harvest and sell your crops and buy more seeds, animals or
tools for your garden. While it is possible to play the game without
spending real-world money, it will take longer. Once you sell enough
crops, you earn money to buy more expensive seeds beyond basic
carrots and blueberries.
“For me, I just, I really want to get all the rarest stuff. I’m a
completionist, so I want everything and that’s what’s fun for me,”
said Leah Ashe, a YouTuber who plays Grow a Garden and other popular
games to an audience of 5.3 million. “It’s really cool because you
can come together because the seed shop is global, so everybody’s
shop is the exact same. So you can work with other people and be
like, ‘Oh my gosh, the sugar apple is in stock. Get online!’ The
seed shop updates every five minutes, so there’s always something
pulling you back into the game.”
For Roblox, which has faced a backlash for not doing enough to
protect kids on its gaming service, Grow a Garden has served as
something of a reprieve — along with new safety measures such as
chat restrictions and privacy tools.
New players get help from more established peers who send them gifts
and let them know when rare seeds become available in the seed shop.
Bozdech said that “if you have the right supervision and guidance,”
Roblox can be a positive experience for kids, allowing them to
create their own designs or practice coding, for instance.
“Something like Grow a Garden, particularly, is a nice opportunity
maybe for parents and kids to play together,” she said.
And perhaps the slow cultivating of a magical garden can benefit
parents too.
“It’s hitting a nerve, you know?” Bozdech said. "People need an
escape from the world, I think we all do.”
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