SAN FRANCISCO – A study report by Grand View Research, Inc. estimates that the global metaverse market is slated to amass USD 678.8 billion by 2030. The market is likely to register a CAGR of 39.4% during the forecast period due to the surging demand from various industries like education, media and entertainment, defense, and aerospace.

Key Industry Insights & Findings from the report:

  • Rising trend of online gaming primarily after the coronavirus outbreak has led to the use of metaverse in the sector to provide gaming with gesture-tracking devices offering users an enhanced virtual world experience. The technology is capable of enhancing the experience by creating virtual objects and characters that are linked to defined locations in the real world. Through metaverse, players can interact in real-time offering a live gaming experience.
  • In the aerospace and defense industry, the technology has showcased immense growth opportunities as it may be used to provide training. Safety in flying can be enhanced through thorough and accurate problem identification using metaverse.
  • Efforts taken by many leading companies across the globe to improve their outcomes has led to heavy investments in metaverse technology over the years.
  • Software-based metaverse products have gained phenomenal adoption owing to the growing need for cloud-based AR and VR solutions as well as the increasing need for centralized and decentralized gateways.
  • Increasing demand for blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs has supplemented the use of metaverse to design their platform along with decentralized systems.
  • The Asia Pacific region is slated to witness a robust growth rate over the period in focus due to the rapid expansion in the regional gaming sector along with the presence of many start-ups such as Bolly Heroes, OneRare, and LOKA.

Recent Developments:

  • In June 2022, HTC- a Taiwanese consumer electronics giant announced the launch of its first-ever metaverse phone which will leverage AR and VR in deeper integrations using its metaverse concept.
  • In July 2022, healthcare company- Thumbay Group declared that it is slated to launch UAE’s and the world’s first hospital in metaverse in the following months.
  • In June 2022, Facebook’s parent firm- Meta, a French digital training organization announced its plans to introduce a ‘metaverse academy’ that recreates real-life incidents using AR and VR. The students are expected to be trained in two roles- support and assistant technicians, as well as specialist immersive technology.

Metaverse Market Growth & Trends

Metaverse coupled with the XR technology provides remarkable visual effects when used in gaming. The gaming industry has been an early adopter of novel technologies like 3D, MR, and VR. These solutions can help improve the gaming experience by creating virtual objects and characters.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in a bid to overcome boredom, most people especially the young population gained interest in online gaming. They saw it as a way to keep them occupied for long hours.  A report by State of Online Gaming published in the year 2021 mentioned that the interest in      virtual games rose by 64% after the pandemic. The global coronavirus-led restrictions led to social distancing and an increase in demand for AR & VR technology spanning various industry verticals like education, retail, and media. This has created many opportunities for industry players to develop advanced metaverse solutions.

Advanced technologies like XR, AI, and analytics in the aerospace and defense sector is likely to be useful for training and simulation applications. These technologies along with metaverse have proven to be helpful for experiential training by using data-driven applications in real-time. Thus, the metaverse is likely to allow enhanced and efficient transfer of accurate skills and improved knowledge retention by trainees across this vertical.

Extended reality is used to train the ground crew for pre-flight check-in in airlines. It is also used to help the ground staff carry out necessary procedures before the aircraft takes off. Moreover, the technologies may be used to inspect aircraft, study the data and identify any malfunctions before it takes off, hence ensuring added safety. The metaverse when combined with XR technology can also help in weapon training, simulations, and flight training, further boosting the market growth.

The metaverse software market is led by extended reality software solutions. The relatively high share is linked to surging demand for AR and VR web app development solutions, AR and VR mobile application development solutions, AR and VR studios, cloud-based solutions, and software development kits. Additionally,3D mapping, modeling, and reconstruction tools, and volumetric video tools are essential tools for designing virtual worlds and games on the metaverse platform.

The growth in the software metaverse market is primarily due to the emergence of centralized gateways, avatar identity makers, play-to-earn games, and virtual worlds.

Metaverse Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global metaverse market based on product, platform, technology, offering, application, end-use, and region:

Metaverse Market – Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 – 2030)

  • Hardware
    • Displays
    • eXtended Reality (XR) Hardware
      • Haptic Sensors & Devices
      • Smart Glasses
      • Omni Treadmills
    • AR/VR Headsets
    • Others
  • Software
    •  Asset Creation Tools
    • Programming Engines
  • Services

Metaverse Market – Platform Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 – 2030)

  • Desktop
  • Mobile
  • Headsets

Metaverse Market – Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 – 2030)

  • Blockchain
  • Virtual Reality (VR) & Augmented Reality (AR)
  • Mixed Reality (MR)
  • Others

Metaverse Market – Offering Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 – 2030)

  • Virtual Platforms
  • Asset Marketplaces
  • Avatars
  • Financial Services

Metaverse Market – Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 – 2030)

  • Gaming
  • Online Shopping
  • Content Creation & Social Media
  • Events & Conference
  • Digital Marketing (Advertising)
  • Testing and Inspection
  • Others

Metaverse Market – End-use Category Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 – 2030)

  • BFSI
  • Retail
  • Media & Entertainment
  • Education
  • Aerospace and Defense
  • Automotive
  • Others

Metaverse Market – Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 – 2030)

  • North America
    • U.S.
    • Canada
    • Mexico
  • Europe
    • U.K.
    • Germany
    • France
  • Asia Pacific
    • China
    • Japan
    • India
    • South Korea
  • South America
    • Brazil
  • Middle East & Africa

Prominent Players of Metaverse Market

  • Meta Platforms, Inc.
  • Tencent Holdings Ltd.
  • ByteDance Ltd.
  • Nvidia Corporation
  • Epic Games, Inc.
  • Roblox Corporation
  • Unity Technologies, Inc.
  • Lilith Games
  • Nextech AR Solutions Corp.
  • The Sandbox
  • Microsoft Corporation

Source: Grand View Research, Inc.