Interest in metaverse continues to decline

ISTANBUL

Public interest in the metaverse has significantly declined in recent years, despite early promises that it would revolutionize the internet. This vision was championed in 2021 by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, who rebranded Facebook to emphasize the company’s focus on the concept.

The hype surrounding the metaverse traces back to 2014, when Facebook acquired Oculus, a virtual reality (VR) hardware and software maker, putting VR technology in the spotlight. Investments in VR surged after the success of Pokemon GO, a mobile game that used augmented reality (AR) to allow users to catch virtual creatures through their phones, popularizing immersive technologies among the public.

By the 2020s, major tech companies began to explore the metaverse’s potential. Facebook’s transformation into Meta underscored its commitment to building virtual spaces, while Microsoft sought to integrate virtual environments into business and social interactions through its mixed-reality platform, Microsoft Mesh.

The metaverse was seen as a groundbreaking innovation, comparable to the invention of the internet itself. Financial institutions and celebrities joined the movement, further fueling the buzz. JPMorgan, for example, opened a virtual branch in the metaverse, projecting an annual economic opportunity of $1 trillion.

This sparked a boom in virtual land sales, with notable examples such as a plot in the Snoopverse—a virtual world created by rapper Snoop Dogg in collaboration with The Sandbox—selling for $450,000. At its peak, another plot in the same space fetched $2.4 million.

However, the excitement surrounding virtual land and the metaverse has since diminished. The average price of virtual plots on The Sandbox plummeted from $15,000 to $1,500—a 90% drop.

Interest in the metaverse also declined sharply after its peak in 2021 and 2022. Google Trends data revealed that while it was among the most searched terms during that period, its search popularity has now hit a four-year low.

Zuckerberg once projected that 1 billion people would use the metaverse by the 2030s. Today, achieving that goal seems increasingly unrealistic as the metaverse struggles to maintain its relevance.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim

ISTANBUL

However, the excitement surrounding virtual land and the metaverse has since diminished. The average price of virtual plots on The Sandbox plummeted from $15,000 to $1,500—a 90% drop.

Zuckerberg once projected that 1 billion people would use the metaverse by the 2030s. Today, achieving that goal seems increasingly unrealistic as the metaverse struggles to maintain its relevance.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim