Metaverse. If this name sounds too familiar, then you’re not alone. Not too long ago, the world was swept by what many called the next evolution of the internet. Flash forward to 2025, and the metaverse seems completely lost in oblivion. No one is talking about it. Not even Mark Zuckerberg, who may have incessantly pondered over that ‘ahh moment’ when he decided to change the name of his company from Facebook to Meta. Zuckerberg may never publicly admit it, but he must have felt a tad embarrassed about the failure of metaverse. This, however, doesn’t answer the billion-dollar question: Why did the0 metaverse failed?
This blog-post attempts to answer that billion-dollar question with brief yet accurate analysis.
Top Reasons Why Metaverse Failed:
Technological limitations:
Let’s start our argument with a bland yet strong point. That the world was simply not prepared for the metaverse. The world did not have the hardware capabilities to meet the apparently unrealistic expectations of Metaverse. The current computing power, the bandwidth, and the graphics were simply not able to match with the metaverse’s tall demands. In short, the metaverse is too futuristic for its own good.
VR headset’s limited mass appeal:
Only if VR headsets had become as successful and ubiquitous as smartphones, today metaverse would have become a rage. However, VR headsets still have a long way to go before it becomes a truly massy product.
Meta did drop the price of its VR headset Quest 3S VR headset to $299, but it failed to drive the sales to the satisfactory extent that Meta had anticipated. With not many takers for the VR headsets, today the huge virtual world of the metaverse feels more like a lonely and desolate place.
For all those who are not aware, VR headsets are the primary access point for the Metaverse world
Poor user experience:
When Mark Zuckerberg launched the Horizon Worlds, the metaverse VR game, people felt horribly let down. Horizon Worlds came across as a bland and uninspiring world to most users. In fact, the initial reaction to the Horizon Worlds was so negative that it even pulled down the prices of Meta’s stocks.
The social media world saw the surge of jokes and memes that after spending whopping $10 Bn, all that Zuckerberg came up with was a substandard product. Most people were literally left wondering that where did Meta’s $10 Bn really went?
The poor and shabby user experience meant that whatever little hype that was remaining about Metaverse quickly fizzled out.
The disappointment also showed in the rapid decline in the number of active users of the Horizon Worlds. At the time of its launch in 2022, Horizon Worlds had 2,00,000 monthly active users. This, however, came crashing to abysmally low 900 monthly active users by end of 2024, reflecting the colossal disappointment of users.
Didn’t offer any value:
The catchline about Metaverse was that it would transcend you into a virtual world where you can do pretty much everything and anything you wish to do. From attending a meeting, partying, hanging with friends and girlfriend or going to a vacation. It blurred the line between the virtual and real world to unimaginable level.
While the excitement to transcend into a virtual world looked promising, there was one big problem. It didn’t solve any of your pain-point or real-life problems or elevate your life in any way.
Today if smartphones have become a mass product then that’s because it offers a great value by helping us to communicate anywhere and giving us accessing to internet at our finger tips.
Metaverse does not offer any such value. It looks more like a desperate escapade that merely wants to suck you in its virtual world for few hours.
High Development cost:
One of the main reasons why Metaverse failed is because it is way too expensive. While manufacturing VR headsets is itself financially draining, even creating and maintaining VR games is no less financially draining either. Even big companies found to their own dismay that VR games create undue strain on its financial resource.
Clearly, the high development cost is an impedance and unless the cost comes drastically down, Metaverse will continue to remain on the fringe.
Lack of content:
The dynamic app ecosystem has played an important role in fueling the success of smartphones. Metaverse is still far from achieving such a thriving and booming ecosystem. Today there are very few and far good VR games to draw people into the virtual world of metaverse. As long as the cost of development remains high, there will be little incentives for developers to create engaging content.
Market uncertainties:
As the initial hype settled down, it became amply clear that Metaverse is still in its infancy and the raw technology didn’t offer any clear monetization and revenue stream. As a result, most companies refused to risk their valuable financial resources on a technology that is probably going to take decades to mature.
Ultimately, the Metaverse market suffered from the severe lack of investment, which further depleted its prospect of mass adoption.
Conclusion:
Metaverse is certainly not dead. The setbacks are probably part of its evolution but we might see some positive developments in the future that could propel this technology. One of the notable positive developments is its underlying technologies, the VR and MR headsets, are seeing a decent surge in popularity. However, metaverse’s mass adoption and the scale of its success will remain a subject of speculation. But there is no denying that this technology could offer intrinsic value to many of the critical areas of human life.
Therefore, we’ve all the reason to be cautious optimistic about Metaverse.
