Making a Metaverse That Matters

CHAPTER 10Metaverse Real-World Use Cases—Separating Substance from Hype

The very best use case for the Metaverse is the Metaverse itself: a real-time immersive virtual world for entertainment, socialization, and creativity on a mass scale. Despite this, I am often asked by reporters and analysts to discuss “real-world” use cases for metaverse platforms. It is somewhat strange to look at a technology with at least half a billion engaged users and creators on platforms run by highly profitable companies, and effectively say, “But this isn't useful until it does something I'm interested in.”

Any successful real-world use case for the Metaverse will be an extension of what it already excels at: immersion, fun, and creativity in a shared social space. The best and primary audience for those use cases will be the people deeply comfortable with immersive spaces, in either metaverse platforms themselves or 3D games/virtual worlds. Several of these applications have already proven themselves well enough to believe they'll be sustainable for the next few decades—not perfectly and not universally, but well enough to grow and sustain real companies and organizations built around them.

Understanding Real Metaverse Use Cases: A Checklist

Before going further, it's important to first address some frequent misunderstandings that often confuse this conversation. To hopefully make this a helpful guide, let's arrange them in the form of an advice checklist.

Avoid the Allure of Unscalable ...