Does Roblox Work in China?

How to play Roblox in China

To play Roblox in China, set up a roaming eSIM that routes your data outside mainland China, or a VPN, before you fly. On Chinese mobile data and Wi-Fi alone, players say the game won’t connect. Our guide eSIM or VPN for China? explains how the two differ.

On a roaming eSIM

Roblox can run on a roaming eSIM that routes your data abroad, with no VPN, travelers on Reddit report. A parent said on r/travelchina in October 2025 that the kids had played Roblox in China on Trip.com eSIMs, and that the family didn’t use a VPN at all. It was slow, the parent said.

Airalo, which sells eSIMs, says its China, Regional Asia and Global eSIMs send your traffic through gateways outside mainland China, so you don’t need a VPN. MyChinaGuide, which makes a China travel app, says that for phone users the most reliable option in 2026 is a roaming eSIM, not a VPN.

Not every eSIM works this way. Salil Kanhere, a cybersecurity expert at UNSW, told the Bega District News in July 2026 that certain travel eSIMs bypass mainland filtering by routing traffic through offshore gateways such as Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia. A local Chinese SIM or a China-specific eSIM, he said, typically remains subject to local filtering. Compare plans on our eSIM page, including Trip.com’s.

It only works on mobile data. Airalo says you get access to blocked sites “as long as you are using your eSIM data (and not the hotel Wi-Fi)”. On hotel Wi-Fi, you need a VPN.

With a VPN

A VPN works on any connection, including hotel Wi-Fi, but reports on Roblox are mixed. Some players in China get into games after switching servers. Others say their VPN doesn’t work with Roblox at all, or stopped working one day while Google and YouTube still loaded (see the reports below). MyChinaGuide says that after a crackdown in April 2026, VPNs work but have become unreliable. Airalo says VPNs can slow down your connection.

Players report lag. A player in China said in July 2026 that Roblox worked over a regular VPN, “albeit with 400 ping even in asia servers”. The parent whose kids played on eSIMs said it was slow too. See which VPN works in China now, and compare the VPNs we track on our VPN page.

Game accelerators, apps that promise lower lag in online games, are another route, with thin evidence. NetEase’s UU accelerator, an app in Apple’s China App Store, lists Roblox among the games it speeds up. The same July 2026 player said Leigod and other accelerators logged them out of Roblox or showed an HTTP error. Our Steam page covers accelerators for PC games.

The UK government says China’s cybersecurity rules require online products and services such as VPNs to be licensed by the Chinese government. Read Is a VPN legal in China? before you go.

Roblox’s rules on VPNs and location

Roblox’s Community Standards don’t permit “using VPNs to mask your location in order to gain unauthorized access to Roblox, including to a specific feature or account”. Roblox doesn’t say how this applies to travelers.

Roblox’s help center says your account’s location is detected automatically from signals including your IP address, and that a VPN can affect its accuracy. The location helps decide things like your default settings, the ads you see and which version of the Roblox app you should use. Roblox also says some features vary by region, including trading, chat and voice chat, and certain content.

Playing Roblox in China as a visitor

Get Roblox ready at home. Roblox isn’t in Apple’s China App Store, so install and update it before you leave, and sign in on every phone or tablet you’ll play on. One player in China couldn’t log in at all over a VPN (see the reports below).

Plan for data. The kids in the family above had 2 GB a day each on their eSIMs, and the parent said they burned through it fast. Another Reddit user said they shared a Trip.com eSIM’s data with an iPad through their phone’s hotspot to run Roblox. Check that your plan allows hotspot use.

For hotel Wi-Fi, test your VPN with a Roblox game before you fly. Our guide to VPNs for hotel Wi-Fi in China has more.

Is Roblox blocked in China?

For the game, yes, according to players in China. They say Roblox won’t connect on Chinese networks without a VPN or a roaming eSIM. In December 2025, a user on r/chinalife told a player who couldn’t log in that “Roblox is blocked in China. You have to use a VPN to be able to play.”

The website is a different story. GreatFire, which tests websites from mainland China, answers “Yes” to whether www.roblox.com opens there, in its latest check on October 1, 2026, and “Usually” for roblox.com, checked on October 17. GreatFire checks whether a web address opens, not whether a game connects.

Roblox isn’t in Apple’s China App Store: Apple’s App Store lookup returns no result for it in China. It is listed in Hong Kong.

Roblox in China: what Reddit users report

These are individual accounts, not tests.

• May 2025, eSIM. A parent planning a family trip asked on r/travelchina whether Roblox would work on a travel eSIM. One user replied from first-hand experience that a Trip.com eSIM allowed Roblox sessions. Another said Roblox wouldn’t connect on Chinese internet without a VPN but worked with one, and warned that real-time online games are often slow or laggy in China.
• October 2025, eSIM. The parent reported back: the kids could play on their Trip.com eSIMs, and the family didn’t use a VPN at all, but it was slow and the data ran out fast.
• August 2025, VPN. A user in China who usually played through a VPN said on r/ChinaVPN that Roblox suddenly stopped connecting, on several server locations, while Google and YouTube still worked.
• September 2025, VPN. A player in China couldn’t log in on a PC over a VPN. The password login failed, the email code didn’t work, and logging in through their phone failed because the VPN made the locations not match.
• November and December 2025, VPN. A player in China said their VPN didn’t support Roblox. A visitor on holiday in December said neither LetsVPN, on a premium plan, nor CatVPN worked for Roblox.
• May 2026, VPN. A student in China said LetsVPN works if you keep switching servers, such as Japan, Korea or the Philippines, until a game loads, and that joining from the app works better than from the browser. Another user replied that LetsVPN had shown them an error code every time since April.
• June 2026. A user on r/chinalife said their cousin’s VPN had stopped working, leaving him without Roblox.
• July 2026, VPN and accelerators. A player in China said game accelerators, including Leigod, logged them out of Roblox, while a regular VPN worked with a 400 ms ping on Asian servers.
• October 2026, proxy. A user on r/chinalife said Roblox showed a connection problem through their proxy service.

What is Roblox called in China?

Roblox’s Chinese name is 罗布乐思 (Luobulesi, also written LuoBuLeSi), TechCrunch reported in 2020. It’s the name of the Chinese version that Roblox launched with Tencent in July 2021. That version has been offline since December 2021.

Roblox and Tencent announced their partnership in May 2019, starting with education and a joint venture based in Shenzhen, TechCrunch reported. Roblox’s filings say the joint venture was formed in February 2019 with Songhua River Investment, a Tencent affiliate, and that Roblox holds 51% of the votes. Under the deal, the venture licenses a localized Roblox app to Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems to publish in China.

LuoBuLeSi got the licenses it needed from Chinese regulators at the end of 2020 and launched in July 2021, Reuters reported. It was separate from Roblox’s global version. On December 8, 2021, it was shut down and disappeared from mainland app stores. Roblox told Reuters this was part of “a number of important transitory actions” as it built the next version, and that it needed to invest in its data architecture. It gave no date for a return.

In October 2023, Roblox China cut 15 roles, TechCrunch reported. Roblox said it remained “committed to our long-term vision and plan for the LuoBu platform in China”.

Roblox’s annual report, filed in February 2026, says the Luobulesi app is “not currently available to users in China” while Roblox and Tencent build the next version. It warns that the publishing license could be withdrawn if Tencent fails to comply with existing or future regulations. On the earnings call that month, CEO David Baszucki said Roblox continues to be “a great partner with Tencent” and sees “a huge opportunity in China”. He added: “If we were to go live in China, we would do it in an air-gapped way.” He didn’t give a date.

Is Roblox banned in China?

In practice, global Roblox is off-limits on Chinese networks: players there say it won’t connect without a VPN or a roaming eSIM, and it isn’t in Apple’s China App Store. The licensed Chinese version, LuoBuLeSi, is offline too. We found no public statement from Chinese authorities about the global game.

Chinese alternatives

• Eggy Party (蛋仔派对). NetEase’s party game has a workshop of maps made by players, according to its website. Mobilegamer.biz said in March 2024 that it was “taking a crack at Fortnite and Roblox”, and reported an analyst’s view that it began as a platform for user-made content in 2019.
• Minecraft China Edition (我的世界). NetEase runs Minecraft in China. Its website says accounts must pass real-name verification to log in, and minors can log in only from 8 to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

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