$1.2 billion Metaverse project, Decentraland only has '38 active users', report claims

The metaverse has been having a moment for the most part of 2022. It's essentially become this year's favourite buzzword – and yet, some people still don't quite understand the concept.

To clear things up, the platform is a virtual world accessed by VR headsets, offering immersive experiences such as shopping, property investment, gaming and live concerts. Virtual influencers have even taken over the metaverse, making fashion show debuts earlier this year.

However, despite the word's popularity, one project isn't doing as well as anticipated, apparently.

Decentraland allows users to buy and sell virtual real estate, with a valuation in an ecosystem of $1.2 billion (£1 billion).

A recent report by data aggregator DappRadar claimed that the Ethereum-based world had only "38 active users over a 24-hour period", which Futurism described as a "confoundingly low number".

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Decentraland's creative director Sam Hamilton has since hit back, telling Coindesk that not all users were being logged.

"DappRadar doesn't track our users, only people interacting with our contracts," Hamilton told the outlet before adding that the platform has an average of 8,000 users per day.

He noted that Decentraland saw peak attendees in March, with the number of "tourists and spectators" since cooling down.

"We are finding the core community of people returning every day is growing," Hamilton added.

Decentraland has since taken to Twitter with a post that said they saw "1,074 users interacting with smart contracts" in September.

It also noted 56,697 "monthly active users," following their definition of an "active user" being "people who log in and then move out of a parcel.” It added that “there might be discrepancies between DCL Metrics and Foundation data."

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