So many people are already using them

Image: Meta

Two months after the launch of Horizon Worlds, the first numbers of users are available.

Meta’s Metaverse platform was opened on December 9, 2021 to citizens of the United States and Canada. Before that, only guest beta testers had access to the VR app.

Meta brings together its own Metaverse applications under the brand horizon whole. In addition to Horizon Worlds, there’s the Horizon Venues event app, the Horizon Workrooms meeting app, and the still-in-development Horizon Home, a virtual home that other avatars can be invited to.

Horizon Worlds is by far the largest and most prestigious Metaverse project in Meta, and its success is critical to Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious goal of bringing one billion people into the Metaverse. Expectations for the platform’s rapid growth are therefore high.

Successful launch of the metaverse?

An internal meeting for Meta employees was held on Tuesday, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg presented the new and adjusted company values. Meta Product Manager Chris Cox mentioned the first Worlds usage stats, as reported by The Verge.

The number of monthly users has therefore increased since the launch by a factor of 10 to 300,000 grown up. To rank: Competitor Rec Room had over a million monthly active VR users at the start of 2021, but has been in the market for years.

Meta spokesperson Joe Osborne confirmed the report, adding that the number includes Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues users. In the latter, a VR concert took place after the Super Bowl, which despite server issues reached a five-figure number of concurrent visitors.

Like the Metaverse competition, Horizon Worlds relies on user-generated content. Creators can design their own worlds and games using the tools in the VR app. Meta announced this week that already 10,000 of these worlds have been created.

Horizon Worlds will continue to grow

Horizon Worlds user numbers are respectable, however no big surprise. On the one hand, Horizon Worlds only opened its doors at the beginning of December, on the other hand, Meta Quest 2 had a strong Christmas activity. A Super Bowl ad promoting Horizon Worlds and a Foo Fighters concert at Horizon Venues after the football final may also have helped user numbers.

Since Meta does not provide any sales figures, it is unknown what proportion of Quest 2 owners use Horizon Worlds on a monthly basis. Industry estimates assume ten million devices will be sold. In this case, the 300,000 is less than ten percent of Quest 2’s North American user base.

The number of users is expected to continue to grow this year despite much controversy on the metaverse. On the one hand, Horizon Worlds will probably start outside of North America and thus open up new markets. On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg promised that Horizon Worlds this year for mobile devices, i.e. smartphones and tablets, is coming. Exactly in what form is not yet clear.

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