Virtual plots sold on Metaverse platforms quickly became worthless: “It was a terrible mistake”

It is said that only 20 to 30 people a week actually buy and sell properties in Decentraland, which was once valued at $1 billion.

Virtual land ‘buying’, which started in 2021 in the Metaverse universe, has been experiencing its biggest decline in recent days. Architect Hunter Swihart , who designs virtual objects on Metaverse platforms , said : “Prices skyrocketed with large businesses buying land for millions of dollars. Looking back now, this was a terrible mistake.”

Social media, gaming and metaverse platforms Decentraland and The Sandbox were the leading apps in booming virtual land sales at the time. While virtual lands were sold at exorbitant prices in exchange for NFT, fashion brands were holding fashion shows there, and musicians were holding virtual concerts.

According to the news in Independent Turkish, the popularity of these applications began to decline rapidly as of 2022.

90 percent melted

While giants such as Disney and Microsoft have closed or downsized units they have established to develop metaverse strategies, The Wall Street Journal wrote that the selling price of land in Decentraland has dropped by almost 90 percent compared to a year ago.

In Decentraland, which was once valued at $1 billion, it is alleged that only 20 to 30 people a week actually buy and sell properties. This means roughly $50,000 in transactions.

Low attendance this year

Due to the decrease in the number of active users, metaverse platforms resort to old methods to attract users. For example, Decentraland recently held a virtual fashion week sponsored by big brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Adidas. More than 100,000 users attended the same event last year. It was reported that 26,000 people attended this year.

“It was a terrible mistake”

“Prices skyrocketed as large businesses bought land for millions of dollars,” said architect Hunter Swihart, who designs virtual objects on Metaverse platforms

“Looking back now, it was a terrible mistake,” Swihart said, adding that he believes Decentraland could go under in the near future.

According to commentators, the lack of interest of internet users in metaverse platforms is due to the expensiveness of hardware such as virtual reality glasses.

It is stated that users are adopting these platforms very slowly, which negatively affects the value of land or other NFTs.

A recent survey also revealed that less than 1 percent of U.S. teens use virtual reality glasses.

This is also bad news for Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, who has spent billions of dollars on the technology in question and the metaverse concept in general.