Research states that the metaverse in 2026 will have increased adoption, and a quarter of people would spend at least an hour daily.
According to new findings by information technology research platform Gartner, a quarter of people will spend substantial time in the metaverse by 2026. Gartner postulates that 25% of people will spend no less than an hour per day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social, and entertainment purposes. In addition, the Connecticut-based company stated that 30% of the world’s organizations will have products and services in the metaverse by 2026. This is evidenced in the current trend of brands already making moves to own a piece of the digital world pie.
Terra Virtua co-founder and chief executive officer Jawad Ashraf also weighed in on this saying:
“It may be too early to predict exactly what the metaverse will become, but what we do know is it will open up completely new experiences and enhance our lives.”
Gartner Vice President Weighs in On the Metaverse Outlook for 2026 & Beyond
Gartner Vice President Marty Resnick stated that brands would need to collaborate to unify the metaverse. The Vice President said this would adequately meet the continual demand of virtual, interactive, and three-dimensional experiences from their users. Resnick made this assertion because activities conducted in the metaverse tend to take place in separate environments. Such activities are disparate, and range from acquiring digital land and constructing virtual homes to attending virtual classrooms and procuring NFTs. He concluded by saying:
“Eventually, they will take place in a single environment – the metaverse – with multiple destinations across technologies and experiences.”
However, becauase metaverse technology adoption is still nascent and fragmented, Gartner offers a word of caution. The research and consulting platform stated that organizations should refrain from investing heavily in a specific metaverse at the moment. Gartner believes that it is still too soon to know which investments will prove viable in the long term.
Gartner also expects the metaverse to run on a virtual economy enabled by digital currencies (crypto) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It also asserted that no single vendor will own or wield total or absolute control over this virtual realm.
Gartner’s forecast comes after research firm Strategy Analytics reported that the global metaverse market will hit $42 billion by 2026. Another report, this time from Grayscale, shows even larger optimism. The crypto investment and asset management platform asserts that total metaverse valuation might hit $1 trillion in the coming years. Considering the metaverse’s growth rate, it is not hard to see these predictions coming to pass. For instance, the rate of active metaverse users burgeoned ten-fold between the beginning of 2020 and June 2021.
The Metaverse
The metaverse is a vast, emerging, and potentially limitless technological concept that functions as a collective virtual shared space. It is essentially created out of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality. Also, the metaverse is a veritable playing field for crypto, NFTs, and AR/VR.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
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