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Highlights
- Investors have turned their attention to the metaverse, which has become somewhat of a buzzword since late last year.
- Webland, also called “The Worldwide Webb” is an interoperable pixel metaverse where players can explore, interact, complete tasks, and buy/sell NFTs.
- This week saw Webland achieve a massive US$3.6 million in sales – up 126% from the previous week.
While uncertainty has plagued the economy so far in 2022, investors have been buying up virtual real estate, resulting in a metaverse land boom.
In the “real world”, whose lines with the virtual world are becoming increasingly blurred, rising inflation and the anticipation of interest rate hikes have led to a somewhat stalled economy, with the S&P 500 index falling around 9% YTD (year-to-date).
Meanwhile, investors have turned their attention to the metaverse, which has become somewhat of a buzzword since late last year.
Investors are spending big money to buy up property in this emerging digital realm. Like actual real estate, once an investor purchases land in the metaverse, they can make money by building a property and then renting it out.
Some of the different metaverses which are seeing booming land sales are Decentraland, The Sandbox, Nifty Island and Axie Infinity. One metaverse that has made waves this week is called Webland.
Image Source: © Ifeelstock | Megapixl.com
What is the Webland?
Webland, also called “The Worldwide Webb” is an interoperable pixel metaverse where players can explore, interact, complete tasks, and buy/sell NFTs.
In Webland, users participate through their avatars, which, at the beginning, are little unclothed digital humanoid characters. Players can purchase clothes and other accessories through NFTs.
The graphics in Webland are very retro, akin to an early Nintendo Game (think Mario Brothers).
This week saw Webland achieve a massive US$3.6 million in sales – up 126% from the previous week.
According to CryptoSlam, an NFT industry data aggregator, two penthouses of Webbland--#9051 and #9056-- were sold for over US$130k each in the last 24 hours, making them the 14th and 15th most expensive NFT parcels to sell.
What makes metaverse land valuable?
Much like the real world, land in the metaverse is valued by location. It means, busier areas are more expensive. Moreover, as the metaverse becomes more popular and gains more users, the value of well-positioned properties will increase.
Much of the land available in metaverses like Webland is being bought up by companies, who then hire architects to design the buildings and then game developers to build them
For example, in Decentraland’s metaverse, there exists a shopping mall where users can purchase pretty much anything which is available on Amazon.
Clearly, the metaverse is a booming space. According to digital currency investor, Grayscale, the global market for goods and services in the metaverse will soon exceed US$1 trillion.
Bottom Line
The pandemic prompted people to spend more time online, which ultimately brought a slew of people into the metaverse.
Many analysts predict that the next generation of tech users will no longer be interested in social media as we currently know it. Rather, they’ll want the immersive and “real” experience that these virtual worlds offer. If that is true, the people who buy into metaverse real estate today, are likely to be wealthy in the coming years.
