“SpongeBob SquarePants“-themed game “SpongeBob Tower Defense” is debuting its revamped 2.0 version amid the increasing popularity of the title, which currently sits as the highest-earning game based on existing IP on Roblox.
Set in the world of Bikini Bottom, “SpongeBob Tower Defense” sees players collect and deploy beloved “SpongeBob” characters as towers to fend off waves of enemies — earning upgrades, unlocking skins, and progressing through content updated every Friday.
Per “SpongeBob Tower Defense” developer Wonder Works’ description for the title, “the game blends deep strategic gameplay with the colorful charm of the SpongeBob IP, creating an experience that’s accessible to newcomers and compelling to long-time fans alike.”
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Launched in December 2024 as an officially licensed title made in collaboration with Nickelodeon and Paramount, “SpongeBob Tower Defense” has drawn more than 633 million total visitors to the game since its debut. The game, which won Best of IP at the 2025 Roblox Innovation Awards, has peaked at more than 9.6 million monthly active users and on Feb. 14 reached 191,984 peak concurrent users.
The game launches its 2.0 update Friday (April 24), which will include more than 50 new assets to collect (units, mounts, pets), new maps based on iconic “SpongeBob” settings, new rewards, new economy, and more. The 2.0 release will also see all 296 in-game units updated and rebalanced.
Below, Variety speaks with Wonder Works CEO Zach Letter to break down the success of “SpongeBob Tower Defense” and plans to expand the partnership with Paramount.
How did the Wonder Works-Paramount partnership first come about? Did they come up with the concept for the “SpongeBob” game and ask you to execute it, or did you pitch ideas and “Tower Defense” was selected?
Wonder Works was operating as work-for-hire for multiple years, but I really believed in the team and talent that we had and wanted to move into long-term relationships and experiences. I took a look at the Roblox platform for signals of underserviced genres and players and found something interesting in the tower defense genre: there were only 5 of them in the top 25 earning experiences. While some may see that as oversaturation already, I saw it as an opportunity to come in and do something polished, special, and head-turning. Once I knew I wanted to make a tower defense game, I began thinking about the best IP to pair it with. Most IPs were paying to be on Roblox in one way or another, so I wanted to offer a partner the chance to have a presence on the platform at no cost to them. Instead, they would share in the profit with us.
I had this idea in August 2024, and a month later at RDC I had two people in mind that I really wanted to approach. I knew that, for this to work, the partner would have to be able to operate quickly, have an interest in experimenting, and be willing to trust us as experts. One of the people I approached was named Jennifer Sharp, and she had just joined Paramount from Activision. I imagined she’d be interested in making changes and showing fast success in her new role, and her being at RDC was a great sign that she would probably be interested in what we do.
She was kind enough to give me 30 minutes, and I used that time to pitch my grand vision for SpongeBob Tower Defense. SpongeBob was my goal because it’s a brand with immense staying power, and it speaks to people across generations, whether you’re a millennial or Gen Alpha. Thankfully, Jennifer saw the vision, she loved the idea, and she gave me the handshake to do it. So the idea was born in August, the meeting occurred in September, we signed in October, and the game was made six weeks later. Fast forward to today and we’re Roblox’s number one branded experience of all time. It’s honestly incredible to look back on! I don’t think I reflect about this often enough.
What differentiating factors do you see that have made “SpongeBob Tower Defense” the highest-earning branded game on Roblox? What makes the game so appealing, beyond just the “SpongeBob” IP?
We took a multi-prong approach with this experience. It wasn’t just about making a great game, which I’m proud to say we achieved, but we also wanted to make sure this game reached the right people, because making a great game isn’t enough. I spent over a decade in full-time content creation, so I always think about content first. How many users can we get in front of? Across how many platforms? So we immediately created a YouTube channel, Discord, and TikTok channel to leak and tease content. That built buzz and community from day one, and it was essential to our success.
We didn’t wait to promote the game later with hired streamers; we didn’t guess at how to make an impactful social media campaign. A lot of studios in the space are still trying to figure this out, but we have the background in content creation, and we make content that is appealing to players and fans, creating an influencer and building our audience. As the game grew, the influencer grew, and it created this flywheel that just kept feeding each other by design. We also established a robust star creator content program right from the get-go. On day one we had two tiers where smaller creators could receive rewards and items for making content, and larger creators would get early access to updates and exclusive information. That evolved into a star creator program today, where creators have a code that players can enter in the shop to receive a percentage of sales.
So, this influencer program – that isn’t actually a program – is as core to our game as the gameplay itself. It succeeded in creating an ecosystem across multiple platforms that feeds one’s success into another. We’re really passionate about this at Wonder Works, and it’s one of our biggest advantages. Our goal is to feed influencers. We’ll only feel successful if influencers that cover our experiences can become millionaires from doing so.
What can we expect in the 2.0 launch? How many of the updates and changes are based on player feedback, and did Paramount have suggestions?
Our 2.0 launch is almost twice the size of our 1.0 launch. We’ve been working on this release longer than the original game. The original was created in six weeks, and 2.0 has been in development for three months while we maintained weekly support and updates for 1.0, so we’ve been busy. In SpongeBob Tower Defense 2.0, players will experience an entirely new meta. We’re introducing new characters like Cool Bob, a SpongeBob variant, and Robo Plankton. There are 31 new units, and nearly 300 units in the game have been completely rebalanced, and we’ve changed how we approach synergies, status effects, and abilities to make the game feel new and challenging. Players will be experimenting to figure out the most effective tactics available for weeks, if not months.
We’re also grateful to be making it past a year and topping revenue month over month, so with this rework we’re also saying we’re committed to the next year, and we’re already looking at the year after that. We’re also introducing 11 new mounts, which are like vehicles, plus 3 new pets, which are sidekicks to your loadout. Players will also experience new maps, including New Kelp City, which is our take on New York in an evolving map that changes every 25 waves. Then we’re readying the Pro Mode for May, which will test all your knowledge about tower defense and reward you for your expertise, and the player-versus-player mode in June, where you’re sending towers at your enemies and they are sending defense against your towers, and there’s a lot of strategy and in-game economic complexities that come with that. I could keep going, because there’s more, like an energy system that levels the playing field for our most dedicated players across mobile and PC, but I’ll stop there. 2.0 is truly a rebirth and relaunch.
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With increased concerns about child safety on Roblox, what do you see as the biggest reason why Hollywood and entertainment brands should continue their efforts to make experiences for Roblox? Why take the risk?
I believe Roblox is taking the proper steps to strengthen safety across the platform and implement new policies and features. They have new safeguards and settings like Roblox Kids and Roblox Select, which modify the features you can access based on your age, and that definitely helps keep users protected. I believe Roblox will continue to release features like these to make Roblox a safe platform. And that’s good news, because Roblox is one of the only ways to reach an unreachable generation of consumers in Gen Alpha and Gen Z.
They are probably the most sought-after demographic, and they are on Roblox for hours a day, for two and a half hours or more in SpongeBob Tower Defense alone, and this is engagement you can’t buy somewhere else. That’s why we’re passionate about what we do and why we want to work with studios who want to be successful on Roblox, licensing their IP and moving fast. These demographics aren’t watching television like we did; they’re frankly watching UGC on social media and then playing that UGC on Roblox themselves. That’s why SpongeBob Tower Defense is so successful and why we believe our model is the best approach. If an entertainment brand isn’t on Roblox, they’re behind. And if they’re on Roblox but they’re not making the right experience with the right partner, then essentially, they are still not on Roblox. It’s science, art, and passion, and we are truly passionate about it at Wonder Works.
What is Wonder Works’ long-term strategy, and what other revenue streams are you exploring?
We’re a boutique studio with a focus on partnering with the right IP. It’s not about quantity; it’s about quality, so we’re going to select a handful of IPs over the next couple of years to enter a long-term, multi-year partnership with. With SpongeBob Tower Defense, the Roblox experience is at the center, and then we have our Krabby Krew YouTube channel, Discord, and social media presence. We use that name for all of our SpongeBob product IP, and we want to make more games and then go into consumer merchandise. We kicked this off last year with Paramount, and we will have many different collections in a major retailer this year.
We want to reach people in as many ways as we can, which is why we’ll have multiple SKUs in a major retailer – more on that soon – and why we’ve partnered with Overwolf to make a desktop launcher for Krabby Krew, and it will house all of our SpongeBob games. Players will use it to connect, communicate, play, earn rewards, and get notifications on our experiences. We’ll have a mobile app with Overwolf that’ll deliver similar functionality. So we’re treating SpongeBob as a true business within our business, and we’re figuring out how many channels of revenue we can have and how we can expand that revenue and be an extremely valuable partner. Moving forward, our strategy is to find more partners who are willing to move as fast as Roblox moves and build more experiences like SpongeBob Tower Defense, because this model truly works and players are hungry for these transformative, transmedia experiences. And we’re hungry to make more of them!
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