SpongeBob SquarePants-themed game SpongeBob Tower Defense debuts an improved 2.0 version as the title continues to grow in popularity. The title currently ranks as Roblox’s highest-grossing game based on existing IP.
Set in the world of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob Tower Defense lets players collect popular SpongeBob characters and deploy them as towers to fend off waves of enemies, earn upgrades, unlock skins, and progress through content updated every Friday.
According to the title description from SpongeBob Tower Defense developer Wonderworks, “The game combines deep strategic gameplay with the colorful charm of the SpongeBob IP, creating an experience that’s accessible to newcomers and equally engaging for longtime fans.”
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SpongeBob Tower Defense, which launched in December 2024 as an officially licensed title in partnership with Nickelodeon and Paramount, 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, peaked at over 9.6 million monthly active users and reached peak concurrent users of 191,984 on February 14th.
The game will release its 2.0 update on Friday (April 24). This includes over 50 new assets to collect (units, vehicles, pets), a new map based on the iconic SpongeBob SquarePants setting, new rewards, a new economy, and more. The 2.0 release updates and rebalances all 296 in-game units.
Below, Variety speaks with WonderWorks CEO Zach Letter about the success of SpongeBob Tower Defense and plans to expand the partnership with Paramount.
How did the partnership between Wonder Works and Paramount first come about? Did they come up with the concept for a SpongeBob game and asked you to execute it, or did you pitch the idea and they chose Tower Defense?
Although Wonder Works had operated as a work-for-hire organization for several years, I truly believed in our team and talent and wanted to build a long-term relationship and experience. As we looked into underserved genres and player signals on the Roblox platform, we found something interesting in the tower defense genre. Only five were in the top 25 for experience earned. Some may see it as already saturated, but I saw this as an opportunity to come in and do something classy, special, and attention-grabbing. Once I decided I wanted to make a tower defense game, I started thinking about the best IP to pair with it. Since most IPs paid to be on Roblox in some way, I wanted to offer partners the opportunity to have a presence on the platform for free. In return, they will share the profits with us.
I came up with the idea in August 2024, and a month later at RDC, I had two people in mind that I really wanted to approach. For this to work, we knew our partners needed to be able to work quickly, be interested in experimenting, and 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 would be interested in making a change and finding immediate success in her new role. And her presence at RDC was probably a great sign that she was interested in what we were doing.
She was kind enough to give me 30 minutes, and I used that time to pitch her grand vision for SpongeBob Tower Defense. SpongeBob was my goal because it is a brand that has tremendous staying power and resonates with people across generations, including Millennials and Generation Alphas. Thankfully, Jennifer saw the vision, liked the idea, and shook my hand to make it happen. So the idea was born in August, the meeting was in September, it was signed in October, and the game was created six weeks later. Fast forward to today, and we boast the #1 brand experience of all time on Roblox. Honestly looking back it’s incredible! I don’t think I’ve reflected on this enough.
What do you think is the differentiator that makes SpongeBob Tower Defense the highest-grossing branded game on Roblox? Beyond just the SpongeBob IP, what makes this game so appealing?
Based on this experience, we took a multifaceted approach. We didn’t just want to make a great game, and we’re proud of what we accomplished, but we also wanted to make sure this game reached the right people, because making a great game isn’t enough. I’ve been creating content full-time for over 10 years, so content always comes first. How many users can we get in front of? How many platforms are there? So we quickly decided to create a YouTube channel, Discord, and TikTok channel to leak and tease content. This built buzz and community from day one, which was critical to our success.
We then didn’t wait to hire streamers to promote the game. We never guessed how to create an impactful social media campaign. A lot of studios in this space are still trying to figure this out, but we have a background in content creation, creating engaging content for players and fans, creating influencers, and building audiences. As the game grew, so did the influencers, creating a flywheel that by design kept feeding each other. We also established a strong star creator content program from the beginning. There were two tiers on day one, with small creators receiving rewards and items for content creation, and large creators gaining early access to updates and exclusives. Today, that has evolved into the Star Creators Program, where creators have a code and when players enter it in the shop, they get a cut of the sales.
So this influencer program (which isn’t really a program) is as core to our game as the gameplay itself. We have successfully built an ecosystem across multiple platforms where the success of one platform feeds back into another. At Wonder Works, we’re very passionate about this, and it’s one of our biggest strengths. Our goal is to feed influencers. We will only feel successful if the influencers who feature our experiences become millionaires by doing so.
What can we expect from the 2.0 release? How many updates and changes will there be based on player feedback? Have you received any suggestions from Paramount?
The 2.0 release is almost twice as large as the 1.0 release. We’ve been working on this release longer than the original game. The original was created in six weeks, and 2.0 took three months to develop, but maintaining weekly support and updates for 1.0 kept us busy during that time. In SpongeBob Tower Defense 2.0, players will experience a completely new meta. Introducing new characters such as Cool Bob, a variant of SpongeBob, and Robo-Plankton. There are 31 new units, nearly 300 units in the game have been completely rebalanced, and we’ve changed the way you approach synergies, status effects, and abilities to make the game new and challenging. Players will spend weeks, if not months, experimenting to figure out the most effective tactics.
I’m also grateful to have made it through the year and achieved some of the best returns each month. Therefore, through this review, we have announced that we will do our best for next year, and we are already looking ahead to the year after next. We’re also introducing 11 new mounts like vehicles and three new pets to accompany your loadouts. Players will also experience new maps, including New Kelp City, a representation of New York in an evolving map that changes every 25 waves. And we’re preparing a Pro mode in May that will test all your tower defense knowledge and reward you according to your expertise. June features a player vs. player mode where players send towers to the enemy and the enemy sends defenses against your towers. This involves a lot of strategy and in-game economy complexity. There’s more I could go on, like the energy system that levels the playing field for the most dedicated players on both mobile and PC, but I’ll stop here. 2.0 is truly a rebirth and reboot.
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With growing concerns about child safety on Roblox, what do you think is the biggest reason Hollywood and entertainment brands should continue to strive to create experiences for Roblox? Why take the risk?
We believe Roblox is taking appropriate steps to strengthen security across the platform and implement new policies and features. There are new protections and settings like Roblox Kids and Roblox Select that change the features you have access to based on your age and definitely help keep you protected. I think Roblox will continue to release features like this in the future to make Roblox a secure platform. This is good news because Roblox is one of the only ways to reach unreachable consumers in Gen Alpha and Gen Z.
They’re probably the most sought-after demographic, using Roblox for many hours a day, with over two and a half hours of SpongeBob Tower Defense alone. This is engagement you can’t buy anywhere else. That’s why we’re passionate about what we do and why we want to move quickly, licensing our IP and working with studios who want to succeed on Roblox. These people don’t watch TV like the rest of us. They frankly observe UGC on social media and play that UGC themselves on Roblox. That’s why SpongeBob Tower Defense is so successful and why we believe our model is the best approach. If your entertainment brand isn’t listed on Roblox, you’re behind. And if they’re on Roblox, but they’re not providing the right experiences with the right partners, then they’re essentially not on Roblox yet. It’s science, art, and passion, and at Wonder Works we’re passionate about it.
What is Wonder Works’ long-term strategy and what other revenue streams are they exploring?
We are a boutique studio focused on partnering with the right IP. It’s not a question of quantity. Because quality is important to us, we will be selecting several IPs to enter into long-term, multi-year partnerships over the next few years. SpongeBob Tower Defense will center around the Roblox experience, with the addition of the Krabby Krew YouTube channel, Discord, and social media presence. We use that name for all of our SpongeBob product IPs, and we hope to create more games and then move into consumer products. We launched this initiative with Paramount last year and will be rolling out the collection to major retailers this year.
We want to reach people in as many ways as possible. That’s why we offer multiple SKUs at major retailers. We’ll discuss this in a moment. We’ve also partnered with Overwolf to create a desktop launcher for Krabby Krew. This includes all of our SpongeBob games. Players use it to connect, communicate, play, earn rewards, and receive notifications about their experiences. There will also be an Overwolf mobile app offering similar functionality. So we’re treating SpongeBob as a real business within our business and thinking about how many revenue channels we can have and how we can grow that revenue and become a very valuable partner. Our strategy going forward is to find more partners who want to move as fast as Roblox and build more experiences like SpongeBob Tower Defense. This model really works because players are demanding these transformative transmedia experiences. And we want to make more of it.
