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We created a music MMO that can scale 10x of Roblox

3 min read / Valentin burov

January 30,2025

MMOs & metaverses typically serve 40 simultaneous users per server. There are two cardinal constraints: ability to receive server bandwidth and on device rendering on mobile.

DigitRaver can serve 400 clients running on a Pixel 9 Pro. This includes animation, music stream decoding, post processing, shadows, avatars, and cross network interaction.

I initially built the spawner as chaos monkeys, thus network latency test is not 1:1 with live users, but for rendering and network decoding, the biggest bottleneck, it’s on par.

Maybe first, I’ll explain why this isn’t just a flex.

DigitRaver is a virtual venue, built for electronic music. If you’re simming a rave, size matters. But this is a show, not tell, so let’s see how it looks like at default size, 40 clients:

We’ve got Ravers (the robots), Performers, transmitting face pose over the network in this as well. 40 users seems fine on paper, but feels empty. I concentrated the chaos monkeys within a small area for this stress test. Humans typically wander around in which case the load on the computer is reduced. But we aren’t here to make it easy for us, are we?

Let’s 3X this to 120 Clients:

That’s more like it. Under typical human behaviour, this is close to what you’ll see in any one place.

MOAR…and let’s switch to another Stage, just for fun:

~24 avg FPS at 320 clients. Contrary to common belief, some popular mobile games run sub 30 as a baseline, notably in the casual genre.

Lets see if we can tank it. 400 clients:

~18 FPS is suboptimal, but I’m still not getting frame drops or visible latency. Furthermore, the platform still runs at full speed when I’m not rendering all the clients simultaneously. This is a natural tendency as, unlike NPCs, humans venture and explore the worlds, but will still run fine when a large crowd gathers near a Performer.

How did we do it? By not throwing the kitchen sink at our tool stack. Most tools are generic and are compute hogs. They need to cover all the edge cases for all use cases in games. Sometimes the trade off just isn’t worth it and custom tooling will give you the edge to get 400 users in a single server!

Want to check it for yourself? We just launched today:

https://DigitRaver.com

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Massive 250+ user rooms

0.5 min read / Author

Using novel optimization techniques DigitRaver is able to handle over 5X concurrent single server traffic what most open world platforms can offer, with theoretical infinite capacity via server instancing.

DigitRaver is a breakthrough that can do this on a mid-range phone.

 

 

Rough calculation shows

0.5 min read / Author

To provide a more balanced and realistic estimate, let’s re-evaluate the revenue sources, considering that Super Chats and Super Stickers typically generate significant revenue, but not to the extent of overshadowing CPM and memberships by several orders of magnitude.

Revenue Sources and Assumptions 

  1. Ad Revenue (CPM)
  2. Super Chats and Super Stickers
  3. Channel Memberships

Detailed Breakdown 

Ad Revenue (CPM) 

Assume an average CPM of $2.50:

  • With 40,000 concurrent viewers, assume each viewer watches 5 ads per hour.
  • Total Ad Impressions per hour: 40,000 viewers * 5 = 200,000 impressions.
  • Total Ad Revenue: 200,000 impressions / 1,000 * $2.50 = $500 per hour.
  • After YouTube’s 45% cut: $500 * 0.55 = $275 per hour.

Super Chats and Super Stickers 

Based on a more moderate engagement rate:

  • Assume 0.5% of viewers (200 viewers) donate via Super Chats or Super Stickers.
  • Average donation: $3.
  • Total Donations: 200 viewers * $3 = $600 per hour.
  • After YouTube’s 30% cut: $600 * 0.70 = $420 per hour.

Channel Memberships 

  • Assume 1% of viewers are members (400 members).
  • Monthly membership fee: $4.99.
  • Monthly Revenue: 400 members * $4.99 = $1,996.
  • Daily Revenue: $1,996 / 30 ≈ $66.53.
  • Hourly Revenue: $66.53 / 24 ≈ $2.77.
  • After YouTube’s 30% cut: $2.77 * 0.70 = $1.94 per hour.

Total Estimated Revenue per Hour 

  • Ad Revenue: $275
  • Super Chats and Super Stickers: $420
  • Channel Memberships: $1.94

Total Revenue per Hour: $275 + $420 + $1.94 ≈ $696.94 per hour, $0.017 per user

How much can you make

0.1 min read / Author

– Pokémon GO
– Roblox
– Fortnite

Based on the breakdowns for Fortnite ($0.18 per user per hour), Roblox ($0.053 per user per hour), and Pokémon GO ($0.0412 per user per hour), a realistic upper limit for the most profitable free-to-play games would be $0.10-$0.30 per user per hour.

Keep in mind, that Fortnite, at $0.18 per user hour, Fortnite’s estimated revenue was approximately $4.4 billion, accounting for about 85% of Epic Games’ total revenue. This revenue is predominantly derived from in-game purchases, as the game does not charge for downloads or subscriptions.

Business of Apps

This revenue is predominantly derived from in-game purchases, as the game does not charge for downloads or subscriptions. Therefore. This is why we have Massive 250+ user rooms.

Selling information that is inherently free will ultimately drive its value to zero

This phenomenon was brought to my idea by Benn Jordan’s analysis on YouTube, this is

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Musician Onboarding

3 min read / Author

Make sure your YouTube stream is allowed to be embeddable. Without it your set will not play.

Welcome

We’re thrilled that you want to be part of this project. 

We welcome all to apply, but will select based on genre fit and following size. 

Without headcount there’s no revenue to share with you, and with a style mismatch, well it just won’t mix. 

That said, if you don’t have a following, apply anyway. The platform’s not zero-sum, and history shows that talent is not always rewarded with an audience. 

As much as we can, we want to help up and coming musicians.

`Watch For Musicians Video`

-Apply to Join

Fill out the form, which includes your YouTube channel and preferred set times:

`Fill out form`

https://forms.gle/guAnRLB9ppC1Gf2aA

and then give us the URL of your avatar to include in the set.

We also have billboards that are free to use. There’s a main horizontal 16:9 billboard, and two smaller ones, vertical and horizontal. If you would like to brand your set, please set us high res images you would like to use.

In the near future, a cool company may advertise on the set via one of them, from which you’ll also accrue commission on.

-Let others know of your DigitRaver set

You will receive a custom “deep” link that will lead visitors directly to your set, when it occurs. Post it on your channel!

This link will prompt the user (when accessed on mobile) to either install the app, or, if installed, take them to the stage where your set occurs.

You can also access the `public line-up calendar` which will list the set for your day(s) that others can add notifications for.

While there will be cross-pollination of other ravers that are not directly inbound from you, the best way to funnel your listeners is to lead them to the platform yourself.

-Participate in your set with your avatar

Your fans are there because of you, so be there with them. The performers see only one instance of a room (250 users), but instances thereafter will see you, but you won’t see them. They can also take virtual selfies with you, so be on the lookout for social media. Your blurbs and blasts are free, but theirs are (mostly, there is a rewards system) not. Humans mirror behaviour, and this is the exact behaviour that we want to elicit.

When you login with your whitelisted account, you cannot participate as a raver. Your chosen avatar will load only when your set begins.

-Check your dashboard

When you’re logged in with your performer email, you have access to a realtime dashboard. If you read our business model metaphor that we are a club with rev-share, only the drinks are virtual, and with perfect attribution, this is actually less granular than the system. The ticks on your set are not purchases, they are usages of blurbs, blasts, and private rooms. In order to encourage repeat usage, we reward users with some virtual goods. Virtual goods are also sold at discount in large quantities. Long story short, virtual goods will result in different payments.

https://digitraver.readyplayer.me/

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-Payment

At the end of the calendar month, we pay performers via paypal if the total sum earned is over $3. We are a new platform, and don’t expect the first few months to be very profitable. You are making an investment in the platform as you will be one of the few and thus hold a disproportionate share of attention as it grows. For further analysis, please see Why join now, and How much can you make.

The music industry is currently lame, so lets change it together by changing the business model.

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