Wagner James Au / New World Notes

I'm almost done writing a new 2025 edition afterword to my book, which means updating my top 10 chart of leading metaverse platforms. These are platforms which qualify under my book's broad definition of the technology:

The Metaverse is a vast, immersive virtual world that's simultaneously accessible by millions of people through highly customizable avatars and powerful experience creation tools that are integrated with the offline world through its virtual economy and external technology. 

This is very much a first draft, as I run down some more leads, but here's the most current numbers I have now:

• Roblox: 390 million MAU (Source: RTrack + my estimate)
• Minecraft: 170 million MAU (Source: WN / Game Industry Ecosystem)
• Fortnite: 126 million  MAU (Source: Business of Apps as of 2023)
• Rec Room: 40 million MAU (My estimate based on sources)
• ZEPETO: 20 million MAU (Interview with company as of 2024)
• VRChat: 12 million MAU (My estimate based on sources)
• IMVU: 3 million MAU (My estimate based on sources)
• Avakin Life: 1.5 million MAU (Interview with CEO, see below)
• Second Life: 500,000 MAU (Interview with owner)
• Horizon Worlds: 200,000 MAU (Source: WSJ as of 2022)

Note: Not a final estimate — please do not cite without that qualifier!

The term "current" is doing some heavy lifting, seeing as it's been difficult, for example, to get a new stat from Horizon Worlds more current than 2022. Also, I suspect the Minecraft number is at its peak right after the Jack Black / Jason Momoa movie came out a few months ago, but has since fallen somewhat.

Anyway, if you have insight on any of these figures, please get in touch off the record and on background! Hit me up on Bluesky or on Reddit here.

Halli Thor Bjornsson, CEO of Avakin Life, confirmed reports that the virtual world had slipped to 1.5 million MAU, from a highly of 7 million MAU in 2023. "It’s a complex picture to be honest. A short answer is IDFA and platform changes, Roblox, huge change in consumer behavior." (IDFA, or Identifier for Advertisers, enabled precise targeting of iPhone users, but Apple removed that feature starting in 2021.)