VRChat recently (if belatedly) unveiled its in-world avatar marketplace, so here's an interesting stat from Charles Tupper, Community Manager at VRChat. Speaking during a recent Twitch forum for VRC creators, one of them offered a succinct comment about VRChat the company taking 50% from each avatar sale: "WTF?"
Tupper's reply:
I want to remind you that [the 50% cut] is the same as our creator economy system that we have out right now, and people that we bring into the creator economy from off-platform sources like Patreon and Ko-Fi, see anywhere from four to five times the revenue [emph. mine] through VRChat systems, even with the cut.
So even with the cut, they are making more money by having a wider band of access. The important thing is not how much is being cut here.
Obviously, we're trying to be as competitive as possible, which we are against a lot of our peers. But our peers aren't Gumroad and our peers aren't Ko-Fi, to be clear, that's not a comparative service. I'm thinking more along the lines of like Roblox or Second Life.
So that's impressive! That last part is notable, as there's been a move among some Second Life creators, especially in the furry community, to move their business to VRChat — even though, up until very recently, that required them to sell on Gumroad etc.
Back in 2021, I estimated that there are easily 1000+ VRChat creators already monetizing on third party sites like Patreon, YouTube, Gumroad, and so on. There's surely many multiple of creators now. The question is how many of them the company can bring directly into the platform, even when that 50% revenue split seeming so unfair on the surface. (Then again, blame Meta/Steam for taking 25% of that 50%!)
Thanks for the audio clip, my excellent VRChat creator friend!
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 
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