Shares of Roblox jumped as much as 16% in a long-awaited public trading debut that left the online gaming company with a $44 billion valuation.

Roblox, the platform for user-generated games, will go public through a direct listing of its shares on March 10.

Roblox (RBLX) closed at around $69.50 on its first day of trading on on Wednesday. Shares began trading at $64.50 each, well above their reference price of $45 set by the New York Stock Exchange ...

The offering could raise Roblox's valuation as high as $8 billion, Reuters reported earlier this month. That would double the $4 billion valuation it received in a February funding round.

Furthermore, there's no telling exactly how expensive Roblox stock will be by the end of the first trading day. We don't even have a firm IPO date yet, nor a final asking price for the new stock.

Roblox had been preparing to go public since at least October 2020. However, the firm opted for a direct listing due to concerns that its stock would be under-priced in a traditional IPO.

Executives at gaming giant Roblox pushed the company's planned IPO back to 2021, as they reportedly sought a higher initial listing price.

According to Roblox's S-1 filing with the SEC, just released, the company averages 31.1 million daily average users (DAUs), generating $589 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2020.

When does the Roblox direct listing go live? Originally announced in February, Roblox will go public on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. The company will being trading under the RBLX ticker.