Despite reports that the metaverse is so last year, new research from Bain & Company suggests the metaverse could become a sector worth between $700 billion and $900 billion by 2030.
However, the sector is currently in its “seed stage” of early development, which could last five to 10 more years, meaning there are opportunities to take advantage of in the present, though the window is closing.
The company’s report, “Taking the Hyperbole Out of the Metaverse,” predicts the metaverse will not become a unified platform, but will rather continue its path of multiple siloed platforms with unique data sets. Therefore, large companies will look to make their platforms more immersive and engaging, while smaller players will look to expand their user bases through unique offerings.
The report notes the most popular metaverse gaming platforms – Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft – already have about 200 million users each (on par with the number of subscribers for Disney+) and are looking to deepen their immersive experiences with more photo-realistic content. Outside of the gaming world, metaverse-enabling technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality have begun to appear in areas from medicine to manufacturing to speed learning and product development.
The report identifies five key areas of opportunity within the metaverse for companies. They are: virtual experiences (which will account for about 65% of the metaverse’s market size by 2030), content creation (about 5%), app stores and operating systems (10%), devices and hardware (10%), and computing and infrastructure (10%).
“As the metaverse quickly evolves, we’ve already seen these types of technologies take hold within different industries,” stated Chris Johnson, a partner in Bain’s Technology practice. “This is an ongoing journey toward more immersive and collaborative experiences, enabled by rapid improvements in the underlying technology.”
