Character customization has become a measurable part of digital self-expression. On Roblox, users made 274 million avatar updates per day in the first half of 2025, while Meta reported more than 1 billion avatars created across its technologies by July 2023. The available evidence points to customization as both a high-frequency activity and a way to explore identity, emotion, fashion and brand preferences.
Contents
- How often people customize avatars
- Fashion, hair and makeup choices
- Emotional expression and social identity
- Digital style and physical life
- Brands, shopping and spending
- Marketplace scale and customization inventory
How often people customize avatars
Roblox reported 165 billion avatar updates from January through September 2023, a 38% year-over-year increase. During the same period, users bought nearly 1.6 billion digital fashion items and accessories. These figures describe Roblox activity specifically, rather than the entire avatar or gaming market. They nevertheless show that character customization can be a repeated behavior rather than a one-time setup step. (Roblox, “Insights From Our Latest Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report”)
Roblox’s first-half 2025 figures provide a more recent activity snapshot. The platform recorded 274 million avatar updates per day, and its Marketplace averaged 18.8 million daily visitors. Marketplace daily visitors were up 17% year over year. An avatar update is not necessarily a purchase, so update volume and marketplace traffic measure different parts of the customization journey: changing an appearance and browsing available items. (Roblox, “The 2025 Roblox Replay: Decoded Through Search and Style”)
| Measure | Result | Period | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avatar updates | 165 billion | January–September 2023 | Roblox |
| Avatar-update growth | 38% year over year | January–September 2023 | Roblox |
| Daily avatar updates | 274 million | First half of 2025 | Roblox |
| Daily Marketplace visitors | 18.8 million average | First half of 2025 | Roblox |
| Marketplace visitor growth | 17% year over year | First half of 2025 | Roblox |
Taken together, these measurements suggest two layers of demand. People repeatedly revise their characters, while a large audience visits a marketplace where appearance-related choices can be discovered, compared and acquired.
Fashion, hair and makeup choices
Hair is one of the clearest customization categories in the Roblox data. More than 139 million Roblox hairstyles were purchased in 2023, up 20% from the prior year. More than 7.3 million users bought at least five hairstyles that year. The repeat-purchase figure indicates that customization can involve collecting and rotating several looks rather than selecting a single permanent style. (Roblox, “Insights From Our Latest Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report”)
Survey results add context to the purchase totals. In a 2023 survey of Gen Z Roblox users, 35% considered daily or weekly avatar-makeup customization important. Among self-identifying female respondents, the comparable result was 51%. These are survey responses, not platform-wide behavioral measurements, and the subgroup result should not be treated as representative of every Roblox user. (Roblox, “Insights From Our Latest Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report”)
Roblox’s 2026 survey of Gen Z Roblox makeup users reported several additional measures. Fifty-eight percent had worn Roblox makeup in the prior three months, and 84% of those users used it a few times a week. Eighty-two percent called makeup important to self-expression, while 77% said they felt more like themselves when wearing it. The same survey found that 52% said avatar makeup helped them find similar styles and 49% said it helped them belong to a community. These findings concern surveyed Gen Z Roblox users and makeup users, not all avatar-customization participants. (Roblox, “Avatar Makeup Launches Today on Roblox Marketplace”)
The pattern is consistent across the available measures: visual features such as hair and makeup operate as both inventory categories and identity tools. Purchase counts show how much activity occurs, while survey percentages describe why some users value the choices.
Emotional expression and social identity
Character customization extends beyond static appearance. In Roblox’s 2023 survey, 86% of surveyed Gen Z users said avatar emotion expression mattered for feeling represented. Sixty-two percent cared a lot that their avatar looked good to themselves, compared with 37% who cared a lot that it looked good to others. The results suggest that personal satisfaction was more prominent than external approval in that survey. (Roblox, “Insights From Our Latest Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report”)
Forty percent said presenting their authentic selves was easier in the metaverse than physically. Respondents were twice as likely to say they were judged less on looks in the metaverse, and 2.2 times more likely to say avatar expression felt more like them than posting 2D photos. These are comparative survey findings; they describe respondents’ perceptions rather than an independently measured reduction in judgment. (Roblox, “Insights From Our Latest Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report”)
The same 2023 survey found that 88% thought immersive self-expression likely helped them express themselves more comfortably physically. Of those respondents, 29% attributed the benefit to building connections and 24% to increased confidence. The source reports these attributions as survey responses, so they should not be read as proof that avatar customization causes either outcome. (Roblox, “Insights From Our Latest Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report”)
Roblox’s 2025 survey found that 73% of surveyed Gen Z users wanted avatars to express a full range of emotions. Emotes served several purposes: 54% used them for fun and aesthetic reasons, 49% to reflect feelings in an experience, 48% to entertain others and 43% to communicate with other players. In addition, 61% said a full range of dance options helped them feel fully represented. (Roblox, “The 2025 Roblox Replay: Decoded Through Search and Style”)
Digital style and physical life
Avatar experimentation can also cross into offline style. In Roblox’s 2025 survey, 84% said their physical style was influenced by their digital self, and 87% felt more comfortable expressing themselves offline after online avatar-style experiments. Seventy-six percent said experimenting with style in immersive spaces was highly important. These figures reflect surveyed users’ reported experiences, not a controlled study of offline behavior. (Roblox, “The 2025 Roblox Replay: Decoded Through Search and Style”)
The survey also connected digital fashion with purchasing decisions. Sixty-nine percent said digital trends influenced their physical purchasing decisions, while 88% used digital fashion as a preview before buying physical clothing. Sixty-four percent were extremely or very likely to consider a brand physically after wearing it virtually. At the same time, shopping preferences remained mixed: 41% still preferred shopping with friends physically, and 54% preferred digital shopping with friends or enjoyed both equally. (Roblox, “The 2025 Roblox Replay: Decoded Through Search and Style”)
These results frame character customization as a low-stakes testing environment. A user can try a silhouette, color, makeup style or branded look digitally, then decide whether the idea fits an offline purchase or personal style.
Brands, shopping and spending
Branded items are already part of avatar customization. Seventy percent of surveyed Gen Z Roblox users had worn branded digital fashion. Sixty percent considered recognized-brand avatar clothing extremely or very important, and 69% said branded avatar items helped them try styles and express themselves. Fifty-four percent felt more positive about a brand after trying its avatar items. (Roblox, “The 2025 Roblox Replay: Decoded Through Search and Style”)
Context matters to acceptance. Sixty-eight percent said branded style options must align with the game theme. This indicates that brand presence is not evaluated separately from the environment where the avatar is used; the item’s fit with the experience is part of the customization decision. (Roblox, “The 2025 Roblox Replay: Decoded Through Search and Style”)
The 2023 Roblox survey reported several monthly spending thresholds for digital fashion. Fifty-two percent were comfortable budgeting up to $10 monthly, 19% were willing to spend up to $20 monthly, and 18% were open to spending $50–$100 monthly. These categories are reported willingness-to-spend measures, not observed average spending or market revenue, and the thresholds should not be added together. (Roblox, “Insights From Our Latest Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends Report”)
In the 2026 survey of surveyed Gen Z Roblox makeup users, 83% wanted favorite makeup brands on avatars, and 76% said branded avatar makeup increased real-life brand consideration. Those results extend the digital-to-physical relationship into beauty, while remaining specific to the surveyed group and the survey period. (Roblox, “Avatar Makeup Launches Today on Roblox Marketplace”)
Marketplace scale and customization inventory
Meta’s figures show how large avatar systems can become outside Roblox. Meta said more than 1 billion Meta Avatars had been created across Meta technologies by July 2023. In June 2022, Meta said its system offered more than 1 quintillion free avatar combinations. The combination figure describes available possibilities, not the number of combinations actually used by people. (Meta, “Real-Time Avatar Calls for When You’re Not Camera-Ready and More”; Meta, “Introducing the Meta Avatars Store”)
Meta also reported individual brand additions to its avatar store: six Valentino outfits in July 2023 and seven PUMA outfits in an April 2023 announcement. These are specific announced inventory additions, not a complete count of Meta’s clothing catalog. (Meta, “Real-Time Avatar Calls for When You’re Not Camera-Ready and More”; Meta, “Customize Your Meta Avatar With New Body Shapes, Hair and Clothing”)
Across the Roblox and Meta measurements, customization has three distinct scales: frequent individual edits, large marketplaces with recurring visits and purchases, and enormous systems of possible combinations. The statistics also show why character customization matters to avatar design: people use appearance, makeup, emotion and movement not only to decorate a character, but to explore how they want to look and be recognized in digital spaces.