As part of our debunking-the-metaverse series, we look at the big, small and out of this world numbers in its evolution…
As with any developing platform, there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors going on in the metaverse – some of which we’ve tried to clear a way through in this debunking series. We can also look at the numbers – the good, the bad and the salutary – and what they tell us about how the metaverse is being met by businesses, brands, consumers and communities today. So here are the numbers that reveal the now, next, and not ever of the metaverse.
The metaverse is older than you think…
30 years
The word ‘metaverse’ was coined in the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson in 1992. The metaverse was an online refuge from the dystopian meatspace.
…but it could come about quickly
25%
The percentage of people who will spend one hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social, and/or entertainment by 2026 (Gartner, Inc).
How much?
$13 trillion per year
The revenue that Citi and KPMG state the metaverse could generate by 2030.
Metaverse platforms are bringing in the big bucks
$650,000 yacht
A luxury yacht with two helipads, several lounge areas, a jacuzzi and a DJ booth, sold as part of an exclusive luxury series developed for Sandbox (one of the largest gaming platforms).
$4.3 million real estate
On November 30 2021, metaverse investment company Republic Realm paid $4.3 million for land in The Sandbox metaverse to add to its 2,500 plots of digital land across 19 virtual worlds.
100 million log-ins
Nearly a hundred million people a day log onto Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite Creative platforms.
Tech business is getting a slice of the meta-pie
1,100 regulatory filings
The US Securities And Exchange Commission reports that in the first six months of 2022, the word ‘metaverse’ appeared in regulatory filings more than 1,100 times. The previous year saw 260 mentions.
$10 billion lost
In October 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta and it now loses more than $10 billion each year on its metaverse initiatives.
$70 billion
In January, Microsoft announced the largest acquisition in Big Tech history, paying $70 billion for gaming giant Activision Blizzard, which would “provide building blocks for the metaverse.”
Culture has exploded into the metaverse
£10 million
The estimated value of paintings burned by artist Damien Hirst after 5,149 buyers chose instead to have an NFT of the artwork from his latest collection – aptly titled ‘The Commerce’. “It is the most exciting project I have ever worked on by far,” says Hirst.
But there’s still a (very) long way to go…
38
The very low number of “active users” in the community of Decentraland (DappRadar)
This blog is based on our recent Crowd DNA Amsterdam webinar, which you can read here and watch in full here.