According to YouTuber Jarvis Johnson, Meta’s $36 billion-worth metaverse, Horizon Worlds, has around 900 daily users. According to Meta, the platform’s monthly users amounted to about 200,000 in October 2022. However, the YouTuber’s experience does not reflect this number.
Johnson mentioned that he spent a whole week at Horizon Worlds. According to the YouTuber, a majority of the users were under the age of 18. This leads to speculation about whether the age restriction in Meta’s metaverse is poorly implemented.
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Meta Chief and its founder, Mark Zuckerburg, aimed to have around 500,000 monthly users by the end of 2022. However, going by Johnson’s research, current monthly numbers would be less than 30,000. This translates to more than a 94% deviation from Zuckerberg’s goal.
Why is Meta’s metaverse failing?
Meta’s financial reports have also revealed that the firm is losing money on its metaverse initiative. However, Zuckerburg said that the company believes in the technology despite the losses. Johnson found that most areas in the metaverse were devoid of humans. He also said that the mini-games were “janky” and moving around was difficult. Furthermore, the YouTuber added that using the VR (virtual reality) headset made him nauseous. He admitted to using anti-seasickness medication in order to make it through the week in the metaverse.
These reasons could be why people are not buying into Meta’s Metaverse initiative. The technology is still in its early phases and will take some time to develop. Metaverse projects took off during the COVID-19 lockdown as people were isolated in their homes. However, once things got back to normal, people quickly moved away from virtual meeting spaces.
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