What is truly left after the decline of the metaverse?
If we rewind time two or three years ago, the 'metaverse' was the center of all tech narratives. But it is precisely after the narrative decline that this industry has revealed its true shape for the first time.
As we approach the end of 2025, the metaverse has not 'failed', but it has completely differentiated:
Some sectors are thriving, just no longer calling themselves the metaverse;
Some still insist on this name, but are gradually losing users.
A summary of the current metaverse landscape in one sentence:
The hype has disappeared, but the demand remains; the bubble has burst, but the structure is clearer.
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1. The most successful metaverse is quietly tearing off the 'metaverse' label.
If we only look at the data, immersive gaming platforms are still the strongest, most stable, and most profitable part of the metaverse.
Platforms like Roblox and Fortnite already have user scales at the 'hundred million' level, with content, social interaction, and virtual economy all running well. But a thought-provoking change is:
They hardly emphasize the term 'metaverse' anymore.
Roblox is more willing to talk about the 'creator economy' and 'virtual economy.'
Fortnite talks about open ecosystems, IP collaboration, and entertainment entry points.
The reason is simple:
When a product truly comes into being, the label becomes a burden.
The true surviving 'metaverse' is essentially a high-engagement content platform rather than a concept.
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2. Pure metaverse socializing: collective cooling, but not completely dead.
Compared to gaming, virtual socializing is clearly in a slump in 2025.
Meta's Horizon Worlds is still struggling.
Once-glorious Rec Room has started laying off employees.
Platforms like VRChat, which are community-driven, are actually doing quite well.
There is only one watershed here:
Is there a real, sustained community culture?
A purely 'socializing for the sake of socializing' virtual world has become hard to attract mainstream users. What remains are only those platforms with sufficiently high content density and sufficiently real emotional connections.
AI is being introduced into virtual socializing, but it acts more like an 'enhancer' rather than a savior.
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3. The answer for hardware is becoming clearer: VR is under pressure, AR is scaling.
Changes at the hardware level are actually more honest than software.
The high-end Vision Pro showcases the future but is not a mass-market product.
Quest and smart glasses are the true forms moving towards consumer ends.
The most important trend in 2025 is not 'more immersive,' but:
Lighter, more everyday, more like a regular pair of glasses.
This also means that the metaverse is no longer about 'entering another world.'
Rather, it adds a layer of digital capability on top of the real world.
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4. What has genuinely emerged is the industrial metaverse.
If we ask which direction is closest to 'long-term value,' the answer is actually very clear:
Industrial and enterprise-level metaverse.
Digital twins, simulation, training, and planning have already generated real ROI in manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and other fields.
It's not cool, it's not lively, but it can reduce costs and improve efficiency.
It is precisely because of this that it hardly needs a 'metaverse narrative' to prove itself.
This path is slow but very hard to deny.
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5. Crypto metaverse: the historical burden is too heavy, difficult to turn around in the short term.
NFT land, an on-chain virtual world, still exists in 2025 but has been completely marginalized.
The problem is not technology, but trust and memory.
In the previous cycle, the scars left by excessive financialization are too deep.
Even if new projects attempt to return to a content-oriented approach, they face a reality:
General users are no longer willing to pay for 'metaverse assets.'
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The final judgment.
2025 is not the end of the metaverse but a year of its demystification.
This concept is no longer a unified industry but a group of differentiated paths:
• Gaming and entertainment platforms will continue to grow but will no longer call themselves the metaverse.
• The social metaverse is entering a long period of trial and error.
• AR and AI are reshaping entry forms.
• The industrial metaverse quietly creates the greatest value.
• Crypto metaverses need a very long time to rebuild trust.
The metaverse has not disappeared; it has simply returned to the position of 'tools' and 'products.'
And this, in turn, is what a mature industry should look like.
