Case study

Gabby’s Dollhouse: Reinventing entertainment through Roblox and Youtube

Gabby’s Dollhouse Official on Roblox – A New Way to Engage Fans Through Interactive Play and Content

01

Introduction

DreamWorks Animation set out to take Gabby’s Dollhouse beyond streaming TV and meet their audience wherever they are - especially on Roblox and Youtube. With shortform video and gaming dominating young audience’s attention, our goal was to blend these two channels to create content seamlessly.

02

The Challenge

Create a hit Roblox experience that captures the magic of Gabby’s Dollhouse while also serving as an engaging space for digital content that complements the show's presence across platforms.

03

Solution

We worked closely with DreamWorks to create a vibrant, interactive world that stayed true to the show's creative vision. Together, we opened up new possibilities for content creation on the Gabby’s Dollhouse YouTube channel. The resulting experience is a versatile RP (roleplaying) and tycoon hybrid that serves two key purposes:

Amazon's Holiday Dash

03

Solution

We worked closely with DreamWorks to create a vibrant, interactive world that stayed true to the show's creative vision. Together, we opened up new possibilities for fan engagement and content on the Gabby’s Dollhouse YouTube channel. The resulting experience is a versatile RP (roleplaying) and tycoon hybrid that serves two key purposes:

  1. A fully realized Roblox game that brings the whimsy and wonder of Gabby’s Dollhouse to life, allowing young fans to build their own dollhouse and roleplay with friends.
    ‍
  2. A new way to connect with fans through digital content, using the game’s interactive world to inspire fun, playful videos for YouTube audiences.
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    To support this, we developed a content creation toolkit leveraging Roblox’s Real-Time Facial Animation for Avatars and playable custom character avatars. Paired with The Gang’s custom camera solutions, this provided DreamWorks with a way to create interactive content within the game environment as a unique extension of the brand’s storytelling.

This technical foundation enabled DreamWorks to produce various engaging content formats, including:
‍

  1. "Gabby Says" - A fresh take on the classic game featuring the show's star
  2. "Hide and Seek" - Bringing a favorite childhood game into the Gabby’s Dollhouse universe
  3. "Talent Show" - Showcasing the characters' special abilities in the Roblox setting


The experience launched on November 14, 2024, faithfully recreating all seven rooms (plus the Fairy Tail Garden) from Gabby’s Dollhouse, ensuring it remains deeply connected to the show while introducing new ways for fans to play, explore, and engage.

Amazon's Holiday Dash

04

Results

*The following data is true as of March 13, 2025

The numbers tell a compelling story of success across multiple platforms.
For the Roblox experience:

13.8M+

Over 13.8M visits in just over four months, demonstrating significant user engagement.

Top-10

Top-10 branded experience ranking as of December 2024, proving the game’s competitive positioning among major brands.

99%

7M+ visits in the first 45 days, with 99% organic traffic.

8.51 Min.

8.51 minutes average session length, culminating in over 51 million engaged minutes.

3.81%

Day-7 retention rate of 3.81%, placing it in the 90th percentile of similar experiences.

800,000+

800,000+ favorites, double the amount of similar games.

On YouTube:

22.6M+ Views

Over 22.6M+ total video views, with a weekly upload cadence.

2M+ Views

The most popular video has already surpassed 2M+ views.

New Format

Successfully introduced a new, interactive content format for Gabby’s Dollhouse fans.

What began as an experiment in fan engagement and cross-platform content has evolved into a thriving extension of Gabby’s Dollhouse. By bridging the gap between traditional entertainment and interactive media, DreamWorks is expanding how young audiences connect with their favorite characters—whether through YouTube or immersive play on Roblox.

Ryan Bradley,
Senior Vice President, TV & Brand Marketing at DreamWorks Animation

"Our strategy with this Roblox initiative was always to do double duty: delivering a quality game on a meaningful platform that appeals to the older end of our fanship, while simultaneously giving us a tool to tell original stories that can be programmed into a vibrant, highly engaged community on YouTube. Both components serve the holistic ecosystem approach of our marketing goals, while independently creating access points for fans through different avenues."

"By blending Roblox's real-time facial capture, unmatched graphical fidelity, video recording, and audio features for multiplayer games with The Gang's custom-built camera solutions, DreamWorks Animation has revolutionized the way brands create engaging social media content.
Doing all this while making a viral Roblox game has shown the power of Roblox for brands. As Gabby's Dollhouse has demonstrated, it's a platform not just for gamers but also an effective tool for brands to create social content at scale."

Evan Opperman, Senior Client Director at The Gang

Play Gabby's Dollhouse Official →

Evan Opperman,
Senior Client Director
at The Gang

Evan Opperman, Senior Client Director at The Gang

Play Gabby's Dollhouse Official →