100 Virtual Worlds in The Metaverse

Following on from our announcement last week that the total number of unique monthly active users in the Metaverse had reached 400m, today another milestone has been reached with the number of virtual worlds active or in development hitting 100.

We define 'active' as being operational or in open beta and 'in development' as being closed beta or announced. The table below shows how the 100 total splits out by platform type. The ratio between active and in-dev is pretty close with 48 operational companies and 52 with platforms in development.

At the highest level, virtual worlds are classified as being on or off-blockchain. As seen in the market, the number of new virtual worlds being built on blockchains has rapidly increased in recent months. From here, we have segmented platforms via access method - either via a web browser or virtual reality headset. There are 67 browser-based virtual worlds and 33 in VR.

There is then one further drill-down into the secondary classification that differs according to on or off-blockchain. Off-chain browser-based virtual worlds are grouped by age, be it under or over 13 years old and off-chain VR platforms are classified by the size of experience as either rooms or worlds. In terms of on-chain platforms, these are grouped by access method and then by blockchain type - Ethereum or non-Ethereum.

Here's the table data shown graphically.

What's obvious from this chart is that new virtual world platforms are favouring a blockchain approach as opposed to off-chain. These companies are deploying initial land sale approaches to assist with the launch funding. 76.9% of all in development virtual worlds are on-chain. Who are these companies? Check out the relevent segment of the Metaverse Universe chart below.