Virtual Real Estate In The Metaverse Is Declining In Value
Decentraland is known as one of the most prominent virtual real estate platforms in the metaverse. While it was once valued at $1 billion, revenues have been on a major decline within the past year, according to reports from The Block.
Only a handful of users have reportedly been trading virtual real estate in Decentraland. The real estate traded can be transacted in the form of NFTs for users.
According to the reports from The Block, only about 20 to 30 people are actively buying and selling property weekley on the platform; valued at about $50,000. This marks a massive decline when compared to the millions of trades being made between 2021 and 2022.
This decline shows a major lack of interest in owning virtual real estate, and the metaverse in general.
While Decentraland had a billion-dollar market cap originally, reports from data collector DappRadar showed that only 38 active users were present over a 24 hour period on the platform. Other platforms within the metaverse have had the same level of struggles within the past year.
According to The Block, Decentraland also saw a decline in their Fashion Week event. Last year, over 60 brands sponsored the virtual fashion event with over 100,000 users showing up. This year, however, only about 26,000 users attended the event.
According to a gaming report from Jay Peters, “the world didn’t feel very alive. While walking around, I’d usually only see one or two other people in my vicinity.”
Hunter Swihart, a metaverse architect, told The Block that he wouldn’t be surprised if Decentraland would completely go under as a business in the near future.
“Everybody saw prices skyrocketing with big businesses buying land for millions of dollars, which now in retrospect was a terrible mistake.”
This decline in interest in virtual real estate shows that users are losing interest in spending their money within a virtual world, and the metaverse in general is losing hold of its audience.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
