It’s hard to make friends in the metaverse
Despite $1.2 billion evaluation, a report claims that metaverse platform Decentraland has only 38 active users a day
According to data from DappRadar, Ethereum based virtual reality world Decentraland – one of the biggest names in the metaverse ecosystem with over $1 billion valuation – has only 38 active users over a period of 24 hours. While its competitor, Sandbox has on average 522 active users over the same period, DappRadar data suggests.
Despite the fact that both companies have over billions of dollars valuation, their virtual reality worlds are not teeming with users. However, the platforms argue that these data do not provide a whole picture of the situation.
Refuting the DappRadar's claim, Decentraland stated that the term "active users" refers to one-of-a-kind blockchain wallet addresses that interact with the platform. According to the explanation provided by CoinDesk, this indicates that the number of users who simply check in to chat or engage with others is not being counted as active users.
"DappRadar doesn't track our users, only people interacting with our contracts," said Sam Hamilton, Decentraland's creative director. He further added that the platform has approximately eight thousand total users in a single day on an average.
Notwithstanding the debate over what counts as active users, even the claimed "8,000 user base" appears dismal for a prospectus tech platform that is supposed to be the future of online communications.
It is the perfect illustration of the kind of huge discrepancy between market value and actual users that has been undermining the Web3 world for years since its inception. Additionally, it may be reflective of a significant downturn in appetite for virtual real estate as well as other blockchain-related assets, such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs.