Who wants to farm potatoes in the metaverse? Exploring Roblox’s corporate hell-worlds

Everyone from Samsung to Victoria's Secret is getting in on Roblox. We hunted down the very worst branded experiences in the all-ages game platform (and an unofficial Ryanair world)

Gone are the days where a billboard at the side of the road and an expensive TV advert during the X Factor were enough to get your product noticed. Now you've got to advertise in online video games, such as Roblox. If you haven't heard of Roblox, it's basically a more rubbish version of Minecraft. Instead of creating worlds, people - mostly children - create complete games. Then, they can upload and potentially monetise them.

Roblox now houses more than 50m games that can be played on your phone, computer or games console, and 19% of all children in the UK are said to play it. It has had its success stories, turning the occasional teenager into a millionaire from their bedroom, but it also has a dark side, with children running up bills in the thousands buying pixelated meta-tat and, worse, receiving allegations of games being used for grooming. But none of that has stopped corporations getting involved with their own branded Roblox worlds. Who wouldn't want to virtually recreate the thrills and spills of checking in to a budget airline flight, or learn how frozen chips are made? We trawled our way through the worst Roblox corporate tie-ins and an unofficial Ryanair world, so you don't have to.