The Metaverse in 2026: From Hype to Reality, Metaverse Glasses Emerge as the New Frontier

Looking back at 2025, one truth becomes undeniable: the metaverse that captured headlines and venture capital in 2021 has undergone a dramatic transformation. Yet rather than disappearing, it has fractured into a tale of two worlds. While some sectors have found their footing and achieved remarkable breakthroughs, others languish in the spotlight’s shadow. Most significantly, metaverse glasses and lightweight AR wearables have emerged as unexpected protagonists in an industry that once promised to revolutionize how we live, work, and play. The landscape now reveals itself to be far more nuanced than the simple “metaverse boom or bust” narrative that dominated recent discourse.

Gaming Platforms: The Metaverse Economy Without the Label

The most vibrant corner of this ecosystem remains immersive gaming. Roblox stands as the undisputed heavyweight, with staggering numbers that would have seemed impossible just years ago: 151.5 million daily active users in Q3 2025, representing a 70% year-over-year surge. The platform’s quarterly revenue reached $1.36 billion, up 48% from the same period a year prior. This trajectory demonstrates that the user-generated content (UGC) model—where players build, create, and socialize within persistent virtual worlds—remains exceptionally sticky.

Yet here lies a peculiar paradox: Roblox, despite architecting one of the most immersive digital economies in existence, has deliberately stepped back from the “metaverse” label. The company now prefers narratives around “gaming platforms,” “creator ecosystems,” and “virtual economies,” avoiding the terminology that once defined its market positioning. The executives have learned a lesson: the word “metaverse” itself has become baggage.

Epic Games, the studio behind Fortnite, takes a different approach. Tim Sweeney and team continue to champion the open metaverse vision, viewing Fortnite not merely as a game but as a digital ecosystem built on interoperable standards. In November 2025, Epic announced a partnership with Unity, emphasizing the need for industry-wide collaboration similar to the early internet era. Within Fortnite, 40% of playtime occurs in third-party content—user-created experiences that transform the platform into something resembling a true metaverse. The platform’s music festivals, featuring collaborations with Hatsune Miku, Sabrina Carpenter, Bruno Mars, and BLACKPINK’s Lisa, have attracted millions of participants and demonstrated how virtual spaces can host events rivaling physical counterparts.

Minecraft, once regarded as a metaverse giant, has taken yet another path. The company quietly discontinued VR and MR support by March 2025, signaling a retreat from immersive hardware integration. Instead, Minecraft doubles down on community and creation as its defining characteristics—distancing itself from metaverse positioning entirely.

The trajectory is clear: leading gaming platforms are experiencing a “consolidation at the top” effect. Roblox and Fortnite expand their user bases and revenue through ecosystem strength and creator communities, while smaller platforms face pressure, consolidation, or elimination. But they’ve collectively rejected the “metaverse” branding in favor of more grounded terminology.

Virtual Socializing: In Search of Authenticity

Compared to gaming’s robust momentum, metaverse-focused social platforms occupy a more troubled landscape. They’re in a period of deep reflection, attempting to redefine their value propositions after the initial novelty of purely virtual interaction wore thin.

Meta’s Horizon Worlds exemplifies this struggle. Despite Meta’s aggressive push into VR, Horizon Worlds languishes with fewer than 200,000 monthly active users—negligible compared to Facebook’s 3 billion. Meta’s Chief Technology Officer admitted in 2025 that the company must prove the metaverse can generate sufficient user retention and profitability; otherwise, the company’s massive investments become unjustifiable. To reverse course, Meta is pivoting toward AI-generated content, intelligent NPCs, and tighter integration with real-world social networks to reduce customer acquisition costs.

Not all virtual social platforms face equal struggles. VRChat, a long-standing VR community platform, has maintained steady growth driven by its hardcore community. Peak concurrent users exceeded 130,000 during the 2025 New Year’s holiday period—a new record—and the platform saw over 30% user growth between 2024 and 2025, fueled by user-generated content surges in markets like Japan.

Rec Room’s trajectory tells a cautionary tale. Once valued at $3.5 billion, the social VR platform announced layoffs of more than 50% of its workforce in August 2025. The company had hoped to capture mobile and console gamers alongside VR users, but the influx of low-quality content from these new audiences diluted the experience. Efforts to deploy AI creation tools failed to bridge the quality gap. As a Rec Room co-founder acknowledged, mobile and console players struggle to generate content that engages others on the platform.

Interestingly, emerging players are experimenting with AI-enhanced virtual social experiences: AI companions in VR chat rooms, GPT-powered personalized virtual spaces, and other innovations remain in experimental phases but point toward an evolutionary direction. The lesson is stark: mere novelty cannot sustain these platforms. Users demand high-quality content, authentic social value, and genuine reasons to spend time in virtual spaces rather than their established social networks.

Hardware Revolution: Metaverse Glasses Reshape the Landscape

2025 marked a pivotal inflection point for spatial computing hardware. The industry had dubbed 2024 “Year Zero” for XR, and that momentum accelerated throughout 2025, particularly in an unexpected direction: metaverse glasses and lightweight AR wearables.

Apple’s Vision Pro represented the high-end anchor. This $3,499 mixed reality headset initially launched with limited availability and continues rolling out globally. Sales remain constrained by price and production capacity, with Apple CEO Tim Cook openly stating the device targets “early adopters” rather than mass markets. Yet Apple continues investing heavily in the ecosystem, rolling out visionOS updates and rumored hardware improvements featuring upgraded M-series chips.

However, the real story in 2025 unfolded at the opposite end of the spectrum. Meta’s Quest 3, released in late 2023, powered two consecutive holiday sales surges in 2024 and 2025. According to IDC data, Meta commands approximately 60.6% of the global AR/VR headset and smart glasses market share in the first half of 2025—a commanding lead over competitors.

Yet the most exciting development lies in an entirely different category: consumer-grade metaverse glasses without full immersion displays. Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses (second generation), developed through collaboration between Meta and Ray-Ban, introduced integrated AR displays that achieve basic augmented reality without overwhelming visual immersion. Resembling ordinary sunglasses while offering practical AR features like photography and AI assistance, these glasses experienced surge shipments in 2025. The broader XR hardware market—including metaverse glasses and headsets—shipped 14.3 million units in 2025, representing a 39.2% year-over-year increase.

This represents a “hot at both ends, cold in the middle” market dynamic: ultra-high-end products like Vision Pro generate innovation but limited sales; mainstream Quest devices and metaverse glasses capture the majority of volume; while mid-tier offerings like PlayStation VR2 struggle. Sony reduced the PS VR2 price by $150-200 to $399.99 in March 2025, hoping to boost sales from disappointing initial uptake. Cumulative PS VR2 sales are expected to reach approximately 3 million units by year’s end.

Notably, metaverse glasses represent a fundamental shift in philosophy. Rather than full immersion, they offer practical AR-enhanced capabilities within a form factor indistinguishable from everyday eyewear. This positions metaverse glasses as a bridge between the virtual and physical worlds—far more practical for daily use than bulky headsets.

At Meta Connect 2025, Meta emphasized AI integration into XR—enabling users to generate virtual scenes through voice commands. Apple similarly explored Vision Pro integration with AI assistants. This signals AI+XR as the defining investment thesis for 2026. Additionally, industry collaboration accelerates: OpenXR standards gain broader support, different manufacturers’ hardware becomes increasingly compatible, and multiple vendors prepare new device launches.

Beyond consumer applications, XR hardware serves expanding professional purposes. Medical applications experienced significant growth in 2025, with hospitals deploying VR systems like RelieVRx for psychological therapy. Educational institutions adopted AR-assisted instruction. These professional successes validate XR technology and lay groundwork for eventual mass adoption.

Digital Avatars: Cross-Platform Identity Emerges

The digital identity and avatar ecosystem continues maturing in 2025, with numerous companies worldwide offering avatar creation and management services. Two platforms exemplify this evolution: South Korea’s ZEPETO and European startup Ready Player Me.

ZEPETO has accumulated over 400 million registered users, with approximately 20 million monthly active users. While smaller than Roblox or Fortnite, this represents a substantial community. The user base skews heavily toward Generation Z, particularly women, who leverage the platform to create personalized 3D avatars, dress in virtual fashion, and socialize within themed environments. In 2025, ZEPETO attracted collaborations with luxury brands (GUCCI, Dior) launching limited-edition digital apparel and partnerships with K-Pop groups hosting virtual fan meetings. These activities sustained platform engagement through the post-pandemic user retention challenge. NAVER Z (ZEPETO’s parent) reported 49.4 million monthly active users across its product suite in 2025, continuing growth momentum.

Ready Player Me captured significant attention after Netflix’s acquisition in late 2025. Since founding in 2020, Ready Player Me raised approximately $72 million from investors including a16z. The platform enables users to create 3D avatars compatible across multiple virtual worlds. Prior to acquisition, over 6,500 developers integrated Ready Player Me’s SDK, embedding its avatars into diverse products. Netflix plans to leverage Ready Player Me’s technology to provide Netflix users with unified avatar systems across the company’s expanding gaming portfolio. However, Ready Player Me announced plans to discontinue its standalone avatar service to the public in early 2026, focusing entirely on Netflix integration.

Meanwhile, Snapchat—boasting over 300 million daily active users—continues enriching its Bitmoji avatar service. Snapchat is testing generative AI application to virtual avatars and launched a Bitmoji fashion store. Meta, similarly, is building comprehensive avatar systems: 2025 saw Meta introduce photorealistic “Codec Avatars” compatible across Quest and social applications, with celebrity-endorsed AI avatars launching on Messenger to enable user interactions.

The broader pattern is clear: digital avatars are transforming from novelties into infrastructure. Cross-platform avatar systems enable consistent identity across multiple digital spaces—a fundamental requirement for metaverse viability.

Industrial Metaverse: Where Speculation Becomes Reality

Stepping back from consumer-facing metaverse products, the enterprise and industrial metaverse presents an entirely different narrative. This sector, primarily targeting businesses rather than consumers, represents the most practical and fastest-growing metaverse segment by 2025.

Manufacturing, engineering, construction, and medical training emerged as early adopters of industrial metaverse technology. Market research indicates the industrial metaverse will reach approximately $48.2 billion in 2025 market size, growing at a 20.5% compound annual rate through 2032 to reach $600 billion. These projections reflect genuine business value, not speculative hype.

NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform exemplifies this trajectory. By 2025, manufacturing giants including Toyota, TSMC, and Foxconn leverage Omniverse to construct digital twins of production facilities, optimizing production line layouts and training AI systems. Industrial software vendors like Siemens, Ansys, and Cadence deeply integrate with NVIDIA to establish industry-wide data and visualization standards.

Siemens itself actively promoted industrial metaverse adoption in 2025. A joint survey by Siemens and S&P Global found that 81% of companies worldwide are already using, testing, or planning to implement industrial metaverse solutions—remarkable penetration for technology still in early phases.

Concrete examples validate this momentum. BMW expanded its virtual factory project using digital twins to simulate new production line commissioning, reducing time-to-market by 30%. Boeing deployed HoloLens and digital twin technology for aerospace component design and assembly, reducing design error rates by nearly 40% on new aircraft models. In medical and training domains, VR/AR reached new maturity: U.S. hospitals adopted VR therapy systems; 84% of medical professionals believe AR/VR will positively impact healthcare; multinational energy companies employ VR for hazardous work training; logistics companies use AR glasses for warehousing and picking operations. A French nuclear power company reported VR training reduced new employee accident rates by over 20%.

Government-backed city digital twin projects flourished in 2025—Singapore upgraded its national 3D digital model for planning, while Saudi Arabia constructed a massive metaverse model for the NEOM development project. These represent practical industrial metaverse achievements.

Collectively, the industrial metaverse has largely transcended hype, becoming a natural extension of corporate digital transformation. However, significant obstacles persist: incompatibility between vendors’ solutions, data silos, and security concerns regarding production system integration drive wait-and-see attitudes. Many applications remain at Proof-of-Concept or small-scale stages, far from industry-wide adoption.

Crypto Metaverse: Trust Deficit Remains Formidable Barrier

Following the NFT bubble burst in 2022-2023, speculative fervor surrounding blockchain-based virtual worlds and NFT gaming subsided dramatically. Yet dedicated teams within the sector continue exploring, integrating new technologies, and attempting revival.

Established decentralized virtual worlds like Decentraland and The Sandbox persist but face user activity far below historical peaks. DappRadar data reveals the entire metaverse project ecosystem generated merely $17 million in NFT transaction volume during Q3 2025. Decentraland alone processed only $416,000 in quarterly land transactions across 1,113 transactions—a precipitous decline from 2021’s peak when single land sales exceeded millions. User engagement metrics prove even more damning: Decentraland attracted fewer than a thousand daily active users in 2022, with peak concurrent users ranging from several hundred to a few thousand, reaching tens of thousands only during major events. The Sandbox exhibits similar “ghost town” characteristics.

Project teams attempt community sustenance through DAOs and events: Decentraland established the Metaverse Content Fund in 2025, with the DAO allocating $8.2 million toward events like Art Week and Career Fair, attempting to attract creators and businesses. The Sandbox pursues partnership strategies, establishing collaborations with Universal Pictures and launching virtual zones themed around IPs like “The Walking Dead.”

The most significant crypto metaverse moment came via Yuga Labs’ Otherside launch in November 2025. Three years in development, this virtual world from the BAYC creators officially opened web access in November 2025 without requiring NFTs for entry. On opening day, tens of thousands of players explored the “Koda Nexus” area—a rare surge of activity in the Web3 metaverse. Notably, Otherside integrated AI world generation tools, enabling users to create 3D game scenes through dialogue, enriching user-generated content possibilities.

Yet this sector carries historical baggage the broader metaverse has shed. During its 2021 peak, excessive financialization and speculative narratives dominated positioning and user expectations. Many participants suffered significant financial losses, creating deep trust deficits regarding crypto-based metaverse projects. The ecosystem struggles to overcome stereotypes of asset speculation, disconnect from authentic user needs, and poor user experience. While some teams redirect focus toward content and experience quality, escaping these perceptions faces an uphill battle. Mainstream adoption remains distant.

The Path Forward: A Fractured Industry Finding Its Direction

The metaverse of 2026 resists the singular narrative it commanded in 2021. Instead, it fragments into distinct trajectories based on fundamental viability and business logic. Gaming platforms thrive while rejecting “metaverse” branding. Industrial applications deliver tangible ROI. Consumer social experiences struggle but persist in transformation. Hardware innovation accelerates, with metaverse glasses emerging as the most practical form factor for daily adoption.

What becomes clear is that genuine metaverse experiences emerge from authentic user needs and sustainable business models—not from speculatve hype or technological evangelism. The future belongs not to the loudest evangelists but to practitioners quietly solving real problems, whether they’re gamers seeking social spaces, manufacturers optimizing production, or companies building cross-platform avatar infrastructure.

Metaverse glasses represent this shift perfectly: practical, unobtrusive, and grounded in genuine utility. As 2026 unfolds, these lightweight AR devices may ultimately prove more revolutionary for metaverse adoption than any immersive headset, simply because they demand less from users while delivering tangible value in the physical world.