Who Makes Popular Content? Information Cues from Content Creators for Users’ game Choice: Focusing on User-Created Content Platform “Roblox”

•Exploring user decision making process on mod-intensive UGC platforms.•Generation Z's preferences for game platforms analyzed.•Signaling theory used to understand game popularity.•Analysis of 1,301 Roblox games to determine influence on popularity. User-generated game platforms have emerged as a channel fostering creative activities in online communities. Therefore, this study reveals users’ decision making at UGG platform such as Roblox, where millions of users contribute to game creation and play the game. In particular, teenagers, who are digital natives and known as Generation Z, select a game from various UGGs on Roblox. Thus, this study focuses on how game creator information in personal profile plays a significant role in determining digital natives’ choice of UGG. Drawing the signaling theory, this research focus on creators’ abilities and popularities as indicators for UGG choices. We collect a total of 1,301 fighting games from Roblox and game creator information. To address endogeneity, a two-stage least squares(2SLS) analysis was conducted using instrumental variables. The results show that the number of limited items and followers achieved by the creator positively affect game popularity.