Roblox morning briefing — October 20, 2026: a game from 2014 is outdrawing every 2026 release but one, and games without a custom thumbnail drop off the home page
A game from January 2014 sits second on Roblox on the back of its Halloween event, Roblox stops recommending games that show only a default image, and players can now keep what they draw inside a game.
Murder Mystery 2 opened on 18 January 2014. This morning it is the second-busiest game on Roblox, with 400,096 players inside it. 12
Only Steal An Egg is bigger. Brookhaven, Break and Steal an Egg, 99 Nights in the Forest, Adopt Me! and Blox Fruits all sit behind a game that has been open since January 2014.
Its Halloween 2026 event is live on its own listing, described as "A retro Halloween". Its audience has grown by more than half since yesterday morning.
This edition covers the 24 hours to 08:00 CEST on Tuesday 20 October.
The oldest game in the top five is the one gaining players
Murder Mystery 2 is by Nikilis. It has taken 31.4 billion visits and 24.6 million favourites. 1
At 08:09 this morning it carried 400,096 players. Steal An Egg, at 991,207, was the only game above it. 2
Yesterday at 08:14 the same game stood at 262,439. 3
| Game | 08:14 Monday | 08:09 Tuesday | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steal An Egg | 1,102,030 | 991,207 | −110,823 |
| Murder Mystery 2 | 262,439 | 400,096 | +137,657 |
| Brookhaven | 206,202 | 190,906 | −15,296 |
| Break and Steal an Egg | 152,058 | 134,597 | −17,461 |
| 99 Nights in the Forest | 135,220 | 119,243 | −15,977 |
Four of the five lost players over the same 24 hours. Murder Mystery 2 gained 137,657, a rise of 52 percent. 3
Its Events rail carries one card now, reading "Halloween 2026" with the subtitle "A retro Halloween". The card offers a Join Event button, which means the event is already open. 1
The listing was last updated at 20:41 yesterday evening. 2
A developer on the game posted concept work from the update to X on Monday morning: one image, captioned "Some of my concept work from the Murder Mystery 2 Halloween update". 4
Shorts angle: open on the 2014 date, cut straight to the Events card, then walk the retro lobby with the pumpkin-headed avatar. The oldest game in the top five is beating everything released this year, and the lobby is the proof.
Roblox stops recommending games that have no thumbnail
Roblox's announcements board got a new post at 23:26 last night. Under the rule it sets out, games without a custom thumbnail are no longer eligible for homepage recommendations. 5
"Games with only a default thumbnail are not eligible for homepage recommendations," the post reads. Its stated reason is that a placeholder image gives players too little to judge before they join. 5
Roblox's own documentation defines that placeholder. It is an auto-generated picture, taken from Studio's camera position at the place's most recent publish. 6
The fix runs through the Creator Dashboard: Configure, then Places, then the Thumbnails tab.
That tab has separate slots for the Home Page and the Game Detail Page. Roblox asks for at least one 16:9 image, ideally 1920×1080, and up to five in total. 5
One thing stays put. A game a player has already opened keeps its place in their Continue row, thumbnail or no thumbnail. 5
The thread's first question was whether an AI-generated thumbnail counts as custom. Replies settled on the wording covering only the default placeholder, and no member of staff had answered by this morning. 5
Shorts angle: put a game's auto-generated Studio shot beside the thumbnail its developer replaced it with. Same game, same moment, two pictures, and the reason for Roblox's rule is on screen in one beat.
A drawing made inside a game can now be kept
Roblox switched on in-game image publishing yesterday evening. A player can make a picture inside an experience and save it to their own inventory. 7
The method behind it was renamed in the same post.
AssetService:PromptCreateAssetAsync is now AssetService:PromptCreatePlatformContentAsync, and it takes an Object in place of an Instance. 7A published image travels. It can be used in other experiences, and off the platform entirely. 7
The step players see is a prompt. It puts the drawing beside a name and description field, above a line the player agrees to before pressing Submit: "this experience will submit my image to moderation and upload to My Creations". 7
EditableImages are the only asset type supported for now. Roblox closed the post by asking which one should come next, audio or meshes. 7
Two settings gate it: the experience needs Allow Mesh / Image APIs switched on, and testing has to happen in a published place. 7
Developers spent the thread's first hours on what protects a player whose inventory fills with something a game pushed there. Roblox staff replied that images made this way go through normal image moderation. 7
Shorts angle: draw something badly in one game, publish it, then load a second game wearing it. One continuous recording, one save button, and the audience sees the item leave the first game and arrive in the second.
Top Fall Games to Watch
Every date and time below was read this morning of 20 October from the game's own Roblox listing. Times are Central European, CEST until 25 October and CET after.
- The Hollow — opens Thursday 22 October across nine games. The only start time attached to that day is DOORS' card for THE CANDY VAULT at 20:00. 89 Pitch: two nights out, the useful Short is a map: one clip per game, each showing where its entrance sits and how empty it is before the crowd.
- Tower Defense Simulator — Solar Requiem: Night II is live on version 2.15.0, and Night III opens Friday 23 October at 18:00. 10 Pitch: film the last wave of Night II today, so Friday's audience arrives knowing what Night III has to beat.
- Adopt Me! — Halloween Week 3 is live. 2X Bucks and XP opens Tuesday at 23:00 UTC, which is 01:00 on Wednesday here. Halloween Week 4 opens Friday 23 October at 17:05. 11 Pitch: the multiplier lands at one in the morning, so film the same shop before and after it, and let the price difference carry the clip.
- Dandy's World — the Halloween event is live, and its next dated card, "Only Two Weeks Left!", lands Friday 23 October at 21:00. 12 Pitch: with a closing date posted, film the floors deepest in, which most players will not reach before the event shuts.
- Dress To Impress — HALLOWEEN! is live with a new styling brief. Tales of the Dark King opens Saturday 24 October at 17:00. 13 Pitch: film a winning outfit tonight, then the same brief on Saturday, and let the two runs sit side by side.
- Animal Hospital — Halloween! is live. Halloween Part 2 opens Tuesday 27 October at 20:00 CET. 14 Pitch: record one clean shift now as a baseline, so Part 2 lands as a visible change to a place the audience already knows.
Closing notes
Live counts at 08:09 CEST: Steal An Egg 991,207; Murder Mystery 2 400,096; Brookhaven 190,906; Break and Steal an Egg 134,597; Adopt Me! 132,652; Steal a Brainrot 128,095; 99 Nights in the Forest 119,243; Blox Fruits 118,563; RIVALS 111,900; Fish It! 70,141; Anime Dice 66,003; Fisch 55,428; Jujutsu Shenanigans 55,403; Evade 54,302; Dress To Impress 49,920; Dandy's World 46,094; Vanguards 44,059; Violence District 44,012; Animal Hospital 17,101; DOORS 13,799; Tower Defense Simulator 8,361; Duck Duck 1,436; Caramel 577; Total Drama Island 262. 2
Murder Mystery 2 is the oldest game in that list. Adopt Me!, the next oldest, opened in July 2017. 15
Roblox's own accounts had said nothing for a fourth day when this edition went out. Its newest post on X is still the Robux mini packs at Target, from Friday. 16
Its newsroom has published nothing since 13 October. 17
The news instead came from Roblox's Developer Forum, where both announcements above went up yesterday evening. Both change what creators can publish.
The TextChatService takedown thread reached 480 posts and 9,193 views, with its newest reply at 05:19 this morning and no staff post since 12 October. 18
Roblox's status page reports every system operational, and the newest incident on it is still the site issue of 5 October. 19
Today's sections rest on Roblox's own announcements board, and on the listings and counts the platform publishes for itself.
References
- 1Murder Mystery 2 on Roblox
roblox.com
- 2Roblox games API — live player counts
games.roblox.com
- 3Roblox games API — the same five games, read on both mornings
games.roblox.com
- 4
- 5
- 6Roblox Creator Hub — Thumbnails
create.roblox.com
- 7Developer Forum — In-Game Editable Image Publishing
devforum.roblox.com
- 8
- 9DOORS on Roblox
roblox.com
- 10Tower Defense Simulator on Roblox
roblox.com
- 11Adopt Me! on Roblox
roblox.com
- 12Dandy's World on Roblox
roblox.com
- 13Dress To Impress on Roblox
roblox.com
- 14Animal Hospital on Roblox
roblox.com
- 15Roblox games API — creation dates
games.roblox.com
- 16
- 17Roblox Newsroom
about.roblox.com
- 18
- 19Roblox Status
status.roblox.com
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