Examining metaverse types and top companies in the industry is the focus of this tutorial. Review and compare the top Metaverse Companies for your requirements:
Metaverse refers to a digital realm where users can interact with each other and the computer-generated environment, incorporating Web 3 technologies such as blockchain, crypto, NFTs, 3D, IoT, virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI.
In other words, users can use all these technologies to do a variety of things inside an interactive virtual world or space while still interacting with each other.
Metaverses are more inclusively interactive, and decentralized social virtual platforms/places when compared to traditional social media that are largely centralized on the server side. Users can do more than just make friends, post content, and chat.
They can, with a more advanced feel of virtual presence, interact (meet, chat, socialize), build, own assets, transact, and play games.
Table of Contents:
What is a Metaverse Company
Modern-day metaverses are partially developed and encompass one or a few of the aforementioned technologies. Most metaverses comprise 3D worlds such as in Second Life and OpenSim that can be owned by players. Players can explore virtual spaces and/or play games and transact with cryptocurrency and blockchain.
In most metaverses, players can own/trade virtual land, build assets and animations on the land, build and play games, build in-game assets, exchange land and games/other assets for crypto/in-game tokens, gift crypto/in-game tokens, play contests, create NFTs and in-world assets, etc.
A good number of metaverse companies have designed metaverses that comprise virtual worlds that can be explored through virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed-reality gear/devices. The latter can be tethered (to a PC), smartphone-based, or standalone.
Others are explored via web-based interfaces or through PC and/or phone applications and do not support VR/AR/MXR devices. Some of these leverage AI for content management and data usage.
Also Read =>> Differences between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
This tutorial looks at the various types of metaverses and the top metaverse companies in the metaverse industry. It includes those providing hardware/software and tools to build and access metaverses, those running or operating metaverses, developer companies, and those that invest in or sell related services/products.
Market Trends:
- The North American metaverse market size is expected to grow to $678.8 billion in 2030, representing a 39.4% growth from 2022. Globally, the market is expected to be $12.46 billion.
- Consumer marketplaces are some of the most promising features in modern-day metaverse platforms. For instance, there will be growth in business-to-business marketing and trading, which cuts across trade exhibitions, virtual concerts, celebrity promotions, events, product demos, customer service, and other commercials.
- Despite the expanding metaverse opportunities, IoT, AI, crypto, AR/VR, and NFT technologies of which metaverse will mediate metaverse crime.
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Expert Advice:
- Choosing a metaverse company may depend on your goals, while ordinary individual needs could be to socialize and play, companies do launch on the metaverse for branding and marketing. Creators can choose a metaverse based on the creator tools available, how large the marketplace is, the revenue channels available, and the percentage share of revenue given to them from their creations.
- Investors in the metaverse company stocks may need to look at the potential of the technology in question. NFTs are a major boom right now but metaverse play-to-earn games, in-built/platform tokens, community (users, players, developers on the platform), in-built asset exchanges, and trading are some of the other things to consider when choosing a metaverse company.
Types of Metaverses
Metaverses can be divided into centralized, hybrid, and decentralized. In the three types, you may find a mixture of technologies like 3D, AI, AR/VR/MXR.
#1) Centralized: The word centralization comes around because of the way of governing a software platform. A single or a few organizations that control all policies majorly manage centralized platforms.
The word is also used concerning the type of server storage, with centralized platforms using a (or a system of) centralized servers to store data/assets/information which makes it easier/cost-effective/possible to control by a single or a few organizations.
These are categorized as Web 2. These may apply 3D and all other technologies, but Web 5 modules such as blockchain or DLT may be lacking.
#2) Hybrid Metaverses: Hybrid metaverses use a centralized platform into which blockchain has been infused as an integration.
One way to approach this is to have data centrally stored and managed from a cloud, but use blockchain to mediate transactions with crypto/in-game currencies/tokens. They may also be perceived as partially decentralized platforms using a combination of Web 2 and Web 3.
#3) Decentralized Metaverses: Decentralized metaverses are built on the blockchain or digital ledger technologies (DLT) from the ground up.
They are usually governed through the decentralized autonomous organization where the community of users has a say in governance policies.
Although the power/right to control is judged based on some method like the number of native crypto tokens they own/stake in the network, amount of storage power they contribute to the network or amount of computer processing power contributed, etc.
These platforms employ smart contracts to execute transactions, such as trading, exchanging of crypto, in-game rewards, and staking investments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q #1) What companies are in the metaverse?
Answer: Unity, Roblox, NVIDIA, Amazon, Second Life, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft are all in the metaverse business. The list of companies in the metaverse also includes Decentraland, OpenSea, Sandbox, Adobe, Coinbase, Autodesk, and others.
Companies involved in the metaverse could be selling, manufacturing, supplying, or dealing with metaverse technologies like blockchain, IoT, NFTs, DeFi, VR/AR/MXR, 3D, and AI.
Building/running metaverses for other companies and the general public to use are metaverse developers, dealing in metaverse software and services, or simply investing directly in metaverse companies.
Q #2) Which company is big in the metaverse?
Answer: Roblox, OpenSea, Second Life, and Decentraland are some of the most successful metaverse companies with huge investments and/or user bases. Successful or big metaverse companies also set themselves apart by having a huge community of developers. Roblox, for instance, has 9.5 million developers creating games.
Q #3) What companies are best to invest in the metaverse?
Answer: The top 3 metaverse stocks or companies working on the metaverse today are Roblox, NVIDIA, and Coinbase, although Adobe, Microsoft, Unity, Meta, and Autodesk are also among the most promising metaverse stock names to invest in.
Other metaverse company names or best metaverse company stocks to consider are OpenSea, Second Life, Decentraland, Sandbox, and Apple. Our list has analyzed in depth the top 10 metaverse companies.
Suggested Read =>> Metaverse Development Companies list
Q #4) How to invest in metaverse?
Answer: Here are the steps:
Step #1: Research a company that directly deals in the creation of metaverse. It could be virtual worlds, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, crypto, blockchain, artificial intelligence, etc. You may need to match your investment goals during this stage.
Step #2: Research the potential of that stock. It could be through expert technical/fundamental/social metrics or other analyses and their predicted growth. This step could involve some comparison to other stocks/companies. Decide on one that shows the most strength currently or in the future.
Step #3: Buy stock and crypto. In this step, you can also invest in trading, or other forms of investment, depending on the type of stock/crypto/platform with which you are dealing.
Q #5) Who owns the most metaverse?
Answer: Most metaverse-related platforms are owned by Unity, Roblox, NVIDIA, Amazon, Second Life, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. Others who own metaverse substantially include Decentraland, OpenSea, Sandbox, Adobe, Coinbase, Autodesk, and others.
These platforms rank as the top metaverses and the best metaverses in terms of user base, market share, and popularity.
But the best answer for who owns the metaverse is that most metaverse are owned by creators and developers who are earning a huge amount of money creating games, NFTs, assets, and apps. For more on who owns Metaverse, check our listing below and the market shares of these companies based on research.
Q #6) Is metaverse a good investment?
Answer: Generally yes, although how good depends on which company, what metaverse tech it deals/invests in, and the prospects for that company and the prospects of the tech it invests in. Most of the metaverse technologies are blossoming and in their early-to-mid technology adoption phases.
This means they present vast opportunities for early market entrants/investors before the curve stops steepening, the tech reaches maturity, and flooding can occur.
Q #7) What is the metaverse?
Answer: Metaverse is a deeply interactive and immersive virtual world or digital space/world in which users can do a variety of things including interaction, games, work, etc. Metaverses are built with a wide range of tech including 3D, the Internet of Things, crypto, NFTs, blockchain, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality technologies.
Q #8) Which are the best metaverse stocks to buy?
Answer: The best metaverse stocks include Meta, Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), Roblox (RBLX), Unity Software Inc (U), Decentraland, Adobe (ADBE), Autodesk, Coinbase, and Sandbox. Based on our research, which considered a host of factors when doing the analysis, these rank as the best metaverse stocks in which to invest.
Also Read =>> Complete guide on Metaverse Crypto Coins to buy
Q #9) What are the top 3 metaverse?
Answer: The top 3 metaverses are Decentraland, Roblox, and Sandbox. These are ranked as the top in terms of user bases, size, and features that they have. Our research looks into these and other top metaverse companies one can use.
Q #10) Which is the most popular metaverse?
Answer: Decentraland, Roblox, Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Stacks are mentioned among the other most popular metaverses. They have immersive worlds, blockchain and metaverse gaming, NFTs, socialization, and in-built cryptocurrencies with which users can transact and trade in-world assets.
List of Best Metaverse Companies
Here is the list of top-rated companies:
- Meta (FB)
- Microsoft (MSFT)
- Nvidia (NVDA)
- Roblox (RBLX)
- Unity Software Inc (U)
- Decentraland
- Adobe (ADBE)
- Autodesk
- Coinbase
- Sandbox
Comparison Table of Companies Working on Metaverse
| Name of company | Founded | Annual earnings | Our rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta | 2004 | $116.61 billion | 5/5 |
| Microsoft | April 4, 1975 | $204.094 billion | 4.9/5 |
| Nvidia | April 1993 | $28.566 billion | 4.9/5 |
| Roblox | September 2006 | $2.21 billion | 4.6/5 |
| Unity | August 2, 2004 | $ 1.26 billion | 4.6/5 |
Detailed Review:
#1) Meta (FB)
Inspired by its social platforms Facebook and Instagram, Meta is realigning its technologies and adding more to become a metaverse company, starting with renaming itself from Facebook to Meta in 2021.
It is well known for Facebook and other social platforms, but it has also been expanding its line of products to include metaverse-related products and services. These new metaverse products and platforms cut across business/work applications, school, and private applications.
Meta Horizon, for instance, is its most developed metaverse platform in the works. It comprises virtual world rooms and spaces in which people can socialize, teammates, and company leaders can brainstorm and share presentations among themselves, and co-work as a team. People can access it using a Meta Quest virtual reality headset.
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Menlo Park, California, United States
Other Locations: Texas, Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts, and 94 others. Worldwide.
Annual Earnings: $116.61 billion
Stock Price: $188.7
Major Metaverse Products and Platforms: Facebook’s line of metaverse-related technologies include virtual reality headsets, augmented reality or AR devices, smart glasses (Ray-Ban Stories), Meta Horizon (formerly Horizon World) a social virtual world that is compatible with virtual reality headsets, and video-calling devices (Meta Portal).
This is in addition to its traditional social platforms Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Workplace (a social network for businesses and companies), and WhatsApp.
Website: Meta
#2) Microsoft (MSFT)
Microsoft is already established in the metaverse with its line of augmented reality platforms (devices and software) that work for Windows and other operating systems. They start with the HoloLens mixed reality device.
It also acquired a VR content development company known as AltspaceVR, which is now closing down so the company will focus efforts on the Microsoft Mesh platform.
Its Mesh for Microsoft Teams allows companies and businesses to use their avatars to collaborate and host remote meetings, immersively, with a virtual presence in virtual spaces. It works on mobile and laptops. They can explore existing spaces or build custom ones. The environments will be accessible from Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed reality device and other VR headsets.
Microsoft also utilizes artificial intelligence for data and information management and analytics on its Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform which utilizes holograms and augmented reality to help companies and employees share and collaborate when doing several things such as remote assistance through technical staff. It also hosts several metaverse games in its app stores.
Founded: April 4, 1975
Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States
Other Locations: United States, worldwide
Annual Earnings: $204.094 billion
Stock Price: $264.60
Major Metaverse Products and Platforms: HP Reverb G2, HoloLens, and Mesh for Microsoft. The Azure Cloud also powers the metaverse by supporting things like Azure Digital Twins for modeling real-life objects and mixed reality.
Website: Microsoft
#3) Nvidia (NVDA)
NVIDIA’s popular metaverse undertakings include the NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for creating metaverse apps. It hopes to facilitate the use of metaverse content, applications, digital twins, ray tracing technologies, 3D tools and platforms, and artificial intelligence across shared virtual worlds.
Companies and individuals can leverage the platform to build expansive metaverses and related apps. They can use it to build AI-enabled content and tools for every 3D world software and application. It will enable developers to interconnect 3D virtual worlds and metaverse tools.
Apart from this, there are many other technologies and services from NVIDIA that align with metaverse goals, including cloud gaming services such as GeForce Now, which transforms all types of devices into a PC gaming rig.
It allows companies and individuals to connect their games. Other services include data analytics, AI, machine learning, deep learning inference, etc.
Founded: April 1993
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States
Other Locations: United States, Worldwide
Annual Earnings: $28.566 billion
Stock Price: $217.09
Major Metaverse Products and Platforms: Metaverse Omniverse.
Website: Nvidia
#4) Roblox (RBLX)
Roblox is a social gaming platform that is a virtual home to 52 million daily active users, especially teenagers aged under 13. It allows users to create games and virtual spaces, play games together, and chat. Players can also earn money from playing and selling games or gaming items. Thus the metaverse combines social media with gaming.
The platform hosts a variety of games, including adventure, role-play, fighting, obby, tycoon, simulator, and others. And while many of them are games, they are essentially virtual hangouts.
Players make in-game purchases using the platform’s virtual currency called Robux. Others are won or earned from the games themselves. Players can also buy or sell virtual in-game items from/to other users.
Not only is Roblox a popular place for individual players but also for brands who use it for branding and marketing. For instance, they can build branded virtual experiences and games, or digital representations of their products and offices and offer them for free or sell them to users.
The platform is free but several experiences can be enjoyed only after purchasing, and 28% of income is shared with their creators. This means artists and game creators can make money from their games if those games become popular.
Roblox, via the Roblox Champion, also hosts contests and quests in which players can win items and other rewards. It works as a downloadable app on phones, computers, and virtual reality headsets.
Founded: September 2006
Headquarters: San Mateo, California, United States.
Other Locations: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and 33 other countries.
Annual Earnings: $2.21 billion.
Stock Price: $40.48.
Major Metaverse Products and Platforms: Roblox social gaming platform.
Website: Roblox
#5) Unity Software Inc (U)
Unity is a well-known metaverse development company, especially with its Unity Games Solutions for creating Unity games. First of all, it provides a very popular SDK and game engine for building metaverses, 2D content 2D/3D games, mesh, models, gaming items, and AR/VR/mixed reality content.
These virtual social worlds can be created to access AR capabilities and deployed across desktop, VR/AR devices and apps, console, web, and mobile platforms.
Companies can use Unity for building digital twins, digital ads, prototyping, metaverse marketing, developing human-machine interfaces to aid in manufacturing, film, and cinema as well as animations; and simulation and training such as in aerospace, machine learning, extended reality, AR, VR, and data visualizations.
Its platform also aids architecture, engineering, and construction in that it can be used to build 3D models for real-world representations.
Other industries it serves include gambling (for creating casinos, for instance), education technology, and creating interactive retail brand experiences, among others. Unity also features an asset store where people can buy and sell gaming assets for easy game building. It also provides game server hosting for multiplayer infrastructure.
Unity has products and services that allow companies to build custom enterprise solutions, whether they want to do 3D game development or improve their workflow at production factory floors. Companies, developers, and artists can use Unity tools to turn CAD and design software products into assets that can be used with real-time applications.
Founded: August 2, 2004.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States.
No. of Employees: 5,0001 -10,000.
Other Locations: United States, China, Korea, Japan, and other 25 countries.
Annual Earnings: $ 1.26 billion.
Stock Price: $39.65.
Major Metaverse Products and Platforms: Unity Games Solutions, Unity Asset Store, Unity Enterprises, Unity Pro, Art Tools, Digital Twins, Film Animation and Cinematics, etc.
Website: Unity Software
#6) Decentraland
Decentraland is a blockchain-based metaverse that lets users create virtual worlds, artwork, challenges, and 3D and social games using the company’s SDK.
It allows users to own, buy, and sell virtual land, NFTs, estates, and avatars. They can explore virtual worlds created by other users or build assets, games, and items for others to explore and play. Users can also host games on their land for others to play.
All of these items can be traded using crypto on the platform’s marketplace. The platform also hosts events such as music festivals. Users can also host their events and share them with others.
Decentraland recently introduced the Worlds, a personal 3D space that has its system of LANDS separate from Genesis City. It is a place where people can create their virtual worlds, customize them the way they want, and assign them to their avatars. The feature is in beta.
Founded: 2015.
Headquarters: Genesis City, Metaverse.
No. of Employees: 11-50
Other Locations: Worldwide.
Annual Earnings: $29 million.
Stock Price: $0.6953 (crypto price per coin).
Major Metaverse Products and Platforms: Decentraland Metaverse, Marketplace, SDK/builder, events, DAO.
Website: Decentraland
#7) Adobe (ADBE)
Adobe provides tools people and companies need to create and edit various types of artwork and is expanding that offering to include tools to empower others to create metaverses. The company’s Substance 3D tools allow people to create realistic 3D objects and scenes.
The tool has already been applied in building immersive games and gaming worlds like Fortnite, Halo, Final Fantasy, and Flight Simulator.
Another tool, Aero, lets users create augmented reality experiences without needing to code anything. Those who build with Aero can offer AR apps and content across mobile platforms. An upcoming tool, the Modeler, will allow people to sculpt 3D objects for gaming and other things.
In addition to its line of tools that enable people to do so, it acquired Mixamo, Allegorithmic, Medium, and Brio XR. This adds to its original line of products like Illustrator and Photoshop that can also create 3D content.
Other products include Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), a digital media delivery and asset management solution, and Adobe Workfront which will together with AEM, allow companies to build immersive metaverses using 3D assets built within Adobe and those imported from other tools. It will allow companies, brands, and individuals to co-create.
Behance helps creators and publishers showcase their digital works, a virtual assets marketplace is a place where people will trade assets, and Experience Cloud applications will help companies to share assets with the outside world.
Founded: 1992.
Headquarters: San Jose, California, United States.
No. of Employees: 10,000+.
Other Locations: North America, Asia, India, Japan, Europe, and South America.
Annual Earnings: $17.61 billion.
Stock Price: $378.70.
Major Metaverse Products and Platforms: Substance 3D, Aero, Modeler, Mixamo, Allegorithmic, Medium, Brio XR, Workfront, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), and Behance.
Website: Adobe
#8) Autodesk
Autodesk is developing a metaverse platform known as Keys. The platform will have multiple metaverse asset development tools that will, among other things, allow people to use in-built and imported 3D assets to build games, in-game assets, event venues, models, and custom 3D designs relating to businesses, entertainment, real estate, socialization, and other things.
The gaming and metaverse content will be streamed to any device, whether mobile, desktop, or VR/AR. The Keys platform will allow people to leverage Web 3, NFTs, BIM, 3D, generative design, and other technologies to build their metaverses.
The company is leveraging its partners including Autodesk, Unreal Engine, Revit, Solidworks, Maya, 3DS Max, and others in developing the Keys project. Revit lets architects and engineers create virtual models of the structure by leveraging the company’s information modeling program.
With Autodesk’s Rendering, companies and persons can transform their 3D models into virtual reality settings.
This is in addition to the company’s products that allow customers to build assets and apps that can be applied in the metaverse (in personal and corporate/business settings).
They include AutoCAD, Fusion 360, Civil 3D, Maya — which is popular for building gaming and virtual world assets, Inventor, BIM Collaborate Pro, Flame, ReCap, 3ds Max, Revit LT, Flame, Advance Steel, Assemble, BIM 360, among others.
Founded: 30 January 1982.
Headquarters: San Rafael, California, United States.
No. of Employees: 10,001+
Other Locations: Australia, China, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Asia Pacific, APAC region, EMEA region, etc.
Annual Earnings: $4.39 billion.
Stock Price: $223.64.
Website: Autodesk
#9) Coinbase
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Coinbase is delving into the metaverse by developing an identity on-ramp into the metaverse. Its Ethereum Name Service platform allows users to create username NFTs that they can then use in the metaverse. It resolves to a wallet and allows users to carry and use one unique ID no matter which metaverse they visit or explore.
Ethereum Name Service provides human-readable crypto addresses and decentralized domain names. The protocol is governed by a token named ENS which is in-built into it. Ideally, it allows the association of domain names to wallet addresses.
The company said that it is also working on technology to allow users to purchase avatars, define, and maintain their public profile and establish trust. It is also developing metaverse sign-in technology that allows people to sign into metaverses using Coinbase/Eth.
In addition to this, Coinbase supports or lists several gaming, web3, and metaverse tokens and cryptocurrencies to facilitate their trading, storage, sending, and receiving by users. It also has an NFT marketplace where users can trade, give and receive NFT airdrops, gift, send and receive, and collect NFTs.
Companies can also utilize it for branding. Aside from that, it supports the development of many blockchain, web3, and metaverse startups.
Founded: May 2012
Headquarters: No headquarters
No. of Employees: 10001 – 5,000
Other Locations: Worldover, available in 100+ countries.
Annual Earnings: $5.06 billion
Stock Price: $76.67
Website: Coinbase
#10) Sandbox
Sandbox is itself a metaverse in which players can create/curate, play either individually or as a team, and own land. They can also trade games and in-game assets using cryptocurrencies.
The metaverse employs two types of crypto tokens, namely Sand and Land. Sand token facilitates all ecosystem transactions and interactions while Land represents a digital piece of real estate.
Players/users can buy land on this metaverse and build or set up games and all other types of assets and virtual experiences. They can rent land, host games that they can play, host events, or just create virtual worlds and experiences for other people to explore.
Virtual land owners can also buy or acquire adjacent pieces of land to form estates. It is this, alongside popularity among metaverse users, which makes it rank highly in the metaverse stock list.
Sandbox allows users to earn from creating and playing games, as well as staking SAND tokens to get back Gem and Catalysts. There is a marketplace where all the items can be traded.
Assets created by users in the game act as NFTs based on the Ethereum ERC-1155 token standards. These unique items can also be traded inside Sandbox.
The company also funds selected creators involved in creating, sharing, and monetizing games on the platform. It does so through the Game Maker Fund. Those supported receive different support apart from funding, free LAND parcels, and exposure for their games. This way, more players can join the creators’ group and more games can be created.
Founded: May 2013
Headquarters: Hong Kong
No. of employees: 201-500
Other locations: Worldover, available in 100+ countries.
Annual earnings: $6.3 million
Stock price: $0.76 (crypto price per coin).
Website: Sandbox
Conclusion
This tutorial discusses 10 among the top 100 metaverse companies, including those providing hardware/software and services, those running metaverses, developers, etc. Metaverse companies involved in building metaverses are developing either centralized, hybrid, or decentralized versions.
The type of metaverse company you may want to choose depends on what you want to do or what you need. If you are interested in resources to help you build inclusive and decentralized metaverses and metaverse apps to become a metaverse company owner, Nvidia’s Omniverse and Unity’s resources/platforms will be helpful.
Meta and Microsoft lead in developing AR, VR, and MXR metaverse hardware and related SDKs. These platforms develop products for both enterprise and personal use.
For developers and companies wishing to invest in metaverse games, NFTs, apps, in-game assets, virtual land, etc. (either for branding, revenue, or other interests), you would be better off looking for metaverses to launch these apps and games. Platforms such as Decentraland, Roblox, and Sandbox offer the best answers.
Should I invest in the metaverse? While the metaverse industry is dominated by companies that have vast resources to develop these platforms, hardware, and services (e.g. Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Unity), newcomers are also successful in this relatively unpopular field.
For instance, best metaverse stocks like Sandbox, Decentraland, and Roblox are quite successful metaverses with play-to-earn games, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies.
Research process:
- Metaverse companies initially listed for review: 30.
- Metaverse companies actually reviewed: 10.
- Time taken to research: 2 days.