Why Do Long-Running Roblox Servers Experience Memory Leaks in Telemetry and RbxTransport Systems?

A recent discussion on the Roblox Developer Forum has highlighted a significant server-side memory leak affecting games with long-running servers. According to the report, two Roblox-internal systems — telemetry/stat and RbxTransport/Protocol/ListenerHandler — can consume approximately 380 MB of server memory after just 10+ hours of continuous uptime, completely independent of any game scripts.

This memory leak pattern represents a critical performance concern for developers running persistent worlds, roleplay experiences, or any game designed for extended server sessions. Unlike typical memory leaks caused by poorly optimized scripts, this issue originates from Roblox's own internal systems, making it impossible for developers to directly fix through code optimization.

What Are the Telemetry and RbxTransport Systems on Roblox Servers?

The telemetry/stat system collects diagnostic and performance data from running servers to help Roblox monitor platform health and identify issues. RbxTransport/Protocol/ListenerHandler manages network communication protocols between clients and servers. Both are essential Roblox-internal systems that operate automatically on every game server.

These systems run independently of your game code, meaning they exist even in completely empty baseplate experiences. They're part of Roblox's infrastructure layer, designed to facilitate data collection, network management, and platform monitoring without developer intervention.

How Much Memory Do These Systems Leak Over Time?

The reported memory consumption follows a gradual accumulation pattern. After 10+ hours of continuous server uptime, the combined memory usage from these two systems can reach approximately 380 MB. This represents a significant portion of available server memory, particularly for games approaching Roblox's server memory limits.

The leak appears to be linear or near-linear, meaning the longer a server runs, the more memory these systems consume. For games designed to run 24+ hour sessions or persistent worlds that rarely restart, this can lead to performance degradation or even server crashes as available memory depletes.

Memory accumulation breakdown: Roughly 190 MB per system over 10 hours, with no automatic cleanup or garbage collection occurring during normal server operation.

Why Can't Developers Fix This Memory Leak Directly?

Because these systems are internal to Roblox's engine infrastructure, developers have no script access to modify, optimize, or clear their memory usage. Standard Luau garbage collection methods don't affect these internal C++ systems. The leak exists at the platform level, not in user-generated code.

This distinguishes platform-level memory leaks from script-level leaks. When your own code causes memory issues, you can profile using memory snapshots, identify problematic references, and optimize accordingly. With internal system leaks, you're entirely dependent on Roblox engineering to investigate and patch the underlying issue.

Which Types of Games Are Most Affected by This Issue?

Games with frequent natural server turnover (players leaving, triggering shutdowns) or those designed around short 10-20 minute sessions will experience minimal impact since servers restart before significant memory accumulation occurs.

What Are Temporary Workarounds Until Roblox Patches This?

The most effective temporary solution is implementing scheduled server restarts before memory consumption reaches critical levels. For games requiring long sessions, consider implementing a graceful restart system that migrates players to fresh servers after 8-10 hours of uptime, before the leak becomes severe.

Use server memory snapshots to monitor actual consumption patterns in your specific game. This helps you establish safe uptime thresholds and determine optimal restart intervals. You can track total server memory using memory profiling tools and set alerts when consumption approaches dangerous levels.

How Should You Report and Track This Issue?

If you're experiencing similar memory leaks, contribute data to the existing DevForum thread or file a separate bug report through Roblox's official channels. Include server memory snapshots showing the telemetry and RbxTransport consumption over time, along with your game's typical server uptime patterns.

Document the rate of memory accumulation in your specific game context. Different game architectures, player counts, and network traffic patterns may affect how severely these systems leak memory. The more data Roblox engineering receives, the faster they can identify patterns and develop a fix.

Keep your server memory profiling enabled and track consumption trends over multiple days to establish baseline patterns for your game's specific configuration.

What Performance Impact Should You Expect?

Beyond raw memory consumption, these leaks can trigger cascading performance issues as servers approach memory limits. Garbage collection becomes more aggressive, causing frame rate hitches. Network replication may degrade as the RbxTransport system struggles with its own memory overhead. Players may experience increased latency or connection instability.

In extreme cases, servers can crash entirely when memory is exhausted, resulting in abrupt disconnections for all players. This is particularly problematic for games with unsaved progress or those lacking robust state persistence systems. The unpredictability of crash timing makes it difficult to implement graceful recovery.

How Does This Relate to Other Server Performance Issues?

This memory leak adds to existing server performance challenges developers face, including replication bandwidth limitations, physics performance, and script execution overhead. Combined with other known issues like network ownership replication delays and UDMUX proxy bypass lag, long-running servers face compounding stability risks.

Understanding the full spectrum of server limitations helps you architect games that work within Roblox's constraints. For creation.dev users building persistent world experiences or long-session games, accounting for platform-level memory leaks in your server architecture from day one prevents future scaling problems.