[Meta is King?] What is the market size of Metaverse? 600 billion – 6 trillion USD – From multiple surveys
Beginning with Facebook’s name change to Meta, business in the metaverse has started to unfold in various places. The year 2021 can be called the first year of the metaverse, showing a great excitement.
Many companies may be considering new business development or entry into the realm of the metaverse. Clarifying business opportunities, it’s intriguing to consider the market size. Let’s organize information related to the market size of the metaverse based on information as of November 2021.
What is the Metaverse Business Market?
Definition of Metaverse Business
First, what is the “metaverse business market”?
We will summarize the definition and area of the metaverse business in another article, but
as a conclusion, there seems to be no clear definition that everyone can agree on yet.
Rather, the form of the metaverse should become clear as various services emerge.
Considering Market Size from There
Since the metaverse itself lacks a clear definition, in estimating the market size of the metaverse,
we need to consider how much business potential there is, including surrounding businesses.
Emergen Research, a group company of MARKETYSERS GLOBAL CONSULTING LLP, is investigating the market size produced by the metaverse in terms of both hardware and software.
Hardware mainly includes VR devices for immersing in metaverse spaces (as well as XR devices like displays and smart glasses),
while software includes virtual platforms, asset markets (such as metaverse real estate), avatars, financial services, and more.
It’s a broad field…
Particularly, the background of asset markets, financial services, or content like avatar customization, involves the technology of NFT (Non-Fungible Token) to ensure the uniqueness of digital content.
So, to understand the minimum potential, let’s first look at the potential of VR including hardware closely tied to the metaverse, and the NFT business currently being developed in metaverse services!
Metaverse Business Market Size from a VR/AR Perspective
When you hear about the metaverse, many might imagine wearing VR headsets and entering virtual spaces, like the world of the movie “Ready Player One”.
VR/AR play a vital role in enjoying the metaverse space. The AR/VR display market size, for instance, grew rapidly from $8.9 billion in 2018 to $16.85 billion in 2019.
It is projected to reach $160.65 billion (about ¥17.3 trillion) by 2023.
https://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?containerId=IDC_P34919
The annual growth rate is a very high 78.3%, and the market is growing rapidly. Furthermore, with Facebook changing its name to Meta and entering the metaverse market in full force, further growth is expected. It’s exciting to see how this market will grow beyond a trillion yen in scale.
Metaverse Business Market Size from an NFT Perspective
On the other hand, NFTs, from a software perspective, are attracting major attention.
For those wondering what NFTs really are, this interview is quite enlightening!
Now, regarding the market size, according to the latest market report by DappRadar,
the trading volume of NFTs in the July-September 2021 period was $10.67 billion (about ¥1.1945 trillion),
which is a 704% increase compared to the previous period (April-June).
Comparing annually, according to research by Japan Research Institute, the trading volume of NFTs in just January-March 2021 was more than five times the entire year of 2019 (15 billion dollars). With a growth rate exceeding 700% compared to the previous period, as mentioned above, the business scale for January-September alone has grown several thousand times compared to the previous year.
https://www.jri.co.jp/MediaLibrary/file/column/opinion/pdf/12710.pdf
The growth rate is astonishing… It’s easy to understand why this year is called the “first year of NFTs”.
[Latest as of November 2021] Metaverse Business Market Size Assessed by Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley’s Latest Market Size Report!
Meanwhile, the global financial institution group, Morgan Stanley, has released a report indicating the market size of the metaverse!
“Why didn’t you start with that!” – sorry, everyone! But it’s undeniable that the surrounding markets are also growing, and it’s crucial to understand the VR and NFT markets.
For details on how Morgan Stanley views and evaluates the metaverse market, see the following articles.
What is the market size you are interested in?
Now, as for the market size, Morgan Stanley says it is
$8 trillion (approximately 915 trillion yen)
.
Although the assumption is that this is the maximum market size that can be captured,
you can see that it is expected that a very large market size exists.
He also calls Metaverse “the next generation of SNS, streaming, and even a gaming platform,” suggesting its potential in many fields.
Among them, there are five stocks that are expected to grow significantly:
Meta, Roblox, Alphabet, Snap, and Unity Software.
It will be interesting to watch the growth of these five stocks in the future.
Furthermore, in the early stages, it is expected to grow as an advertising and e-commerce platform.
The key point seems to be how much Meta, which is said to be the biggest driver of this market, can leverage the advertising business power of the former Facebook into this Metaverse.
[November latest part 2] There was another one! Emergen Research‘s market research report
Metaverse is a xx trillion yen market! ?
About a week after the publication of Morgan Stanley’s report, Emergen Research, a group company of
MARKETSERS GLOBAL CONSULTING LLP, published a detailed report including the market size of each segment.
According to Emergen Research, the Metaverse market is expected to reach
US$828.95 billion (approximately JPY 93.9 trillion) in 2028
It has been.
The CAGR (compound annual growth rate) is 43.3%.
Emergen Research
https://www.emergenresearch.com/industry-report/metaverse-market
Compared to the contents of Morgan Stanley’s report, it seems a little more realistic.
The numbers seem to be calculated in a cumulative manner for each category.
In the first place, Morgan Stanley’s report is based on TAM (maximum achievable market size), so it is safe to assume that it assumes a bold case where the market is completely replaced by the metaverse. Probably not.
What are the most popular categories?
Emergen Research’s report summarizes the areas with the highest growth potential for each category.
| Classification | What kind of elements | Item List | Most Growth Potential Item |
| Components | Hardware or Software | ・Hardware ・Software |
Hardware (VR,AR,XR devices) |
| Platform | PC or Mobile | ・PC ・Mobile |
Mobile |
| Offering | What kind of services the business provides | ・Virtual Platform ・Metaverse Asset Market (Item Marketplace etc.) ・Avatar ・Financial Services |
Virtual Platform |
| Technology | What technological foundation the business is based on | ・Blockchain ・AR & VR ・MR (Mixed Reality) |
MR (Mixed Reality) |
| Application | Where the Metaverse Business is applied | ・Gaming ・Online Shopping ・Content Creation ・Social Media ・Business Meetings ・Virtual Fashion Shows ・Aircraft Maintenance Others |
Gaming |
| End-use | Which industries are the services provided to | ・Fashion ・Media & Entertainment ・Education ・Aviation & Defense Others |
Media & Entertainment |
Summary
We have summarized information about the market size of the metaverse so far, but
since the definition is still vague and it is hard to find significant numbers,
and considering that existing surveys predict a market size variance of about tenfold,
it seems necessary to analyze and detail expectations in terms of ‘what period’, ‘how much business opportunity’, and ‘in which specific areas’.
Clarifying the metaverse market itself and how much current business size can be expanded to the attainable market size,
aggressive incursion of the metaverse into existing businesses seems to be becoming important.
