How MJ Studios Turned a Saudi Teenager’s Roblox Hobby into a 100-Million-Visit Phenomenon

What began as a creative pastime for a Saudi teenager has blossomed into a major commercial milestone within the global gaming ecosystem. MJ Studios, a development outfit rooted in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, has officially crossed the 100 million visit mark with its flagship title, Kingdom World, establishing itself as one of the most prominent Arabic-language experiences on the Roblox platform.

Unlike many traditional startups that rely heavily on venture capital, angel investors, or external debt financing during their formative stages, MJ Studios has forged a self-sustaining business model. The studio funds its ongoing development, expansions, and team growth almost entirely through organic revenue generated by in-game purchases and the platform’s internal developer economy.

To understand the trajectory of this rising enterprise, we caught up with MJ Studios founder Mohammed Mohammed and lead developer Idiris Mustaf. Together, they discussed the monumental success of Kingdom World, the complexities of crafting an authentic Saudi environment designed to resonate with a worldwide user base, and the distinct opportunities and hurdles of building a game studio from the MENA region.

Humble Beginnings and the Evolution of a Hobby

MJ Studios was officially established in 2020, emerging during a period when global audiences turned increasingly to digital platforms for connection and entertainment. Reflecting on those initial years, founder Mohammed Mohammed likens the process of building the studio to watching a child mature.

"To me, those early years felt almost like watching your own child grow up," Mohammed explained. "I started making games simply because I enjoyed it, without really thinking about money or whether it could become a business. Seeing something I created slowly grow, improve, and succeed was something I was truly proud of."

Over time, what started as a casual solo endeavor expanded into the operation behind one of the largest Arabic games on the platform. While hitting major metrics shifted his perspective on the viability of the project, Mohammed emphasizes that financial gain was never the primary driving force behind the studio’s inception. Instead, the motivation stemmed from seeing an expanding audience engage with their virtual creations. His long-term vision has consistently remained focused on positioning MJ Studios at the forefront of Arabic game development within Roblox.

The Advantage of Platform Infrastructure

When scaling a creative concept into a massive virtual world, traditional development routes often present significant financial and technical bottlenecks. According to lead developer Idiris Mustaf, leveraging Roblox as a foundational platform bypassed many of these early barriers.

"Roblox has made it possible for us to build, launch, and grow games much faster than we could have with a traditional game studio," Mustaf noted. "The platform already provides important infrastructure such as multiplayer systems, servers, publishing, monetisation tools, and access to a large existing player community."

By utilizing this pre-existing architecture, the development team could channel its time and resources into refining gameplay mechanics and cultivating immersive environments, rather than spending months or years engineering foundational network systems from the ground up.

Translating Game Design into Real-World Engineering

At just 19 years old, founder Mohammed Mohammed is now embarking on a university degree in engineering, a path he credits directly to his formative years designing virtual spaces. The spatial reasoning, structural planning, and technical problem-solving required to build complex digital assets provided a practical sandbox for engineering principles.

Through designing showcases, architectural structures, and immersive spaces on Roblox, Mohammed mastered the fundamentals of 3D modeling and design. Long before building public-facing experiences, he routinely constructed detailed virtual environments—ranging from functional gas stations and commercial hotels to meticulously designed interior rooms—starting entirely from scratch in empty digital spaces.

This iterative design process fostered a strong attention to detail and spatial coordination. It also provided a working familiarity with foundational digital design tools, effectively bridging the gap between recreational game development and formal engineering studies.

Crafting an Authentic Saudi Experience for Global Audiences

At the core of MJ Studios’ success is Kingdom World, a sprawling experience meticulously modeled after the everyday sights, sounds, and rhythms of Riyadh and Saudi Arabia at large. Rather than simply dropping stereotypical elements into a generic setting, the developers sought to capture the genuine atmosphere of contemporary Saudi life.

"With Kingdom World, I wanted to create a world that actually feels like Saudi Arabia, especially Riyadh, rather than just a game that happens to have Saudi buildings in it," Mohammed said. "A lot of the inspiration came from things we see in our everyday lives—the streets, architecture, shops, cars, clothing, and the small details that make Riyadh feel like Riyadh."

Achieving global appeal while maintaining local authenticity required a delicate balance. While local players can step into the virtual world and instantly recognize familiar landmarks and cultural touchstones, international visitors can engage with the environment through universal activities such as exploring urban landscapes, roleplaying, driving with friends, and navigating daily routines.

"You don’t really need to understand Saudi culture beforehand to enjoy those things," Mohammed observed. "Saudi players can enter the game and recognise things from their real lives, while international players can enjoy the same game and, at the same time, experience a little bit of Saudi culture naturally."

Navigating Development Stages and Global Reception

While the studio’s official website presents Kingdom World as a live, fully operational experience, its Roblox page continues to display a beta tag—a lingering artifact of a platform-side technical bug that currently restricts description updates. Regardless of nomenclature, the game remains active, highly populated, and continuously evolving. The developers view Riyadh itself as a dynamic, growing metropolis, and they intend for their virtual counterpart to expand in tandem with the city.

Surpassing 100 million visits has validated the team’s global outreach efforts, demonstrating that players outside the MENA region readily connect with a culturally specific Saudi setting. For Mustaf and Mohammed, future success is measured less by sheer volume and more by the depth of community engagement and cultural exchange.

"At this stage, success isn’t just about getting more visits," Mustaf emphasized. "We want to keep improving the quality of the game, build a strong community, and introduce more international players to Saudi culture in a fun and natural way. If someone from the other side of the world can play Kingdom World, enjoy it, and learn something about Saudi Arabia along the way, that’s a success for us."

A Self-Sustaining Economic Model

Without relying on venture capital or external equity partners, MJ Studios achieved financial viability through the steady accumulation of an active player base. The developer economy embedded within Roblox allows the team to generate reliable daily revenue streams through optional in-game purchases.

According to Mustaf, the studio reached financial sustainability once player retention solidified. On slower days devoid of major content updates, the platform generates roughly 150,000 Robux—equivalent to approximately $525 USD—solely from microtransactions. This consistent incoming capital is systematically funneled back into the studio to finance subsequent updates, expand technical capabilities, and support team expansion. For the founders, this self-reliance remains one of the platform’s defining professional advantages.

Operating Behind the Scenes

Despite commanding an audience numbering in the tens of millions, MJ Studios maintains a deliberately low public profile. The founder operates anonymously, and details regarding the broader development team are kept minimal. This intentional separation between public persona and creative output allows the developers to focus squarely on community curation and world-building.

"We’ve always preferred to let our games speak for us," Mustaf explained. "I never really wanted to make myself the face of MJ Studios or build a personal following around it. For me, the focus has always been on what we create and the community around our games. Keeping the team relatively private also allows us to work comfortably without too much attention on our personal lives."

Opportunities and Challenges Within the MENA Market

Operating from Saudi Arabia presents distinct advantages alongside specific market challenges. The MENA region hosts a massive, highly active community of Roblox enthusiasts, granting local developers an intuitive understanding of regional trends, player preferences, and cultural nuances.

However, this concentrated player base also presents creative hurdles. Mustaf points out that a substantial segment of the Arab Roblox community exhibits a strong preference for roleplaying games, which can occasionally make it difficult to introduce entirely novel genres or convince users to experiment with unconventional gameplay mechanics. Nonetheless, the team views this dynamic as an invitation to diversify the regional ecosystem by introducing higher-production-value experiences tailored specifically to Arab audiences.

Looking Ahead

As MJ Studios contemplates its long-term future, the leadership team remains open to expanding beyond the confines of a single platform. Transitioning successful properties to traditional desktop computers, mobile devices, or dedicated home consoles represents a logical frontier for future enterprise growth.

At the same time, the developers feel no immediate urgency to abandon their foundational ecosystem. Roblox provides a familiar, stable environment where the team understands the community, technical parameters, and pathways to commercial viability.

"We definitely agree with expanding into PC, mobile, or console in the future, and it’s something we would support and be open to," Mustaf concluded. "At the same time, I don’t see staying primarily on Roblox as a problem. For us, Roblox is comfortable—we understand the platform, the community, and how to build successful experiences there. If the right opportunity comes to expand beyond Roblox, we’d be happy to take it."