A recent report by U.S. based market research and consulting company, Grand View Research now projects that 2021’s market share of $38.85 billion could surge at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.4% bringing the total market size to just over $670 billion from 2022 to 2030.

This growth will be fostered by several factors including the ‘growing focus on integrating digital and physical worlds using the Internet’. The metaverse, which denotes a highly immersive 3D virtual world experience has recorded tremendous growth, especially in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic which paralyzed almost every aspect of physical interactions. 

During this period, the popularity of Mixed Reality (MR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (MR) dominated the airwaves with companies such as Meta and Microsoft seeing the metaverse as an opportunity to optimize their businesses in keeping up with future technologies. 

Since then, businesses in the gaming world, entertainment, banking, fashion, and even food industry such as MacDonalds have been deeping their feet into this promising ecosystem as they seek to establish their presence within the market, buying up a stake in virtual reality environments including The SandBox, Somnium Space and Decentraland.

Furthermore, the metaverse is expected to take up a sizeable chunk of the global digital economy which represents about 15.5% of the world’s total GDP as per the World Bank. C-Level executives of leading metaverse firms have also projected that the market opportunity for the metaverse could rise to between 3.75 trillion and $12.46 trillion in the future, as the digital economy shifts into the metaverse.

Experts also say that the metaverse has the potential to generate over $1 trillion in yearly revenues which is why various end-users such as Walmart, Nike, Inc, Gap Inc, Verizon, Hulu, as well as a handful of banks such as HSBC and Jp Morgan are setting up shop in the metaverse in diverse ways to provide an immersive experience of the digital world to their customers. 

“I think it’s potentially a massive growth opportunity for financial services players,” Lucia Uribe, a financial analyst and partner at Oliver Wyman told ‘American Banker’ on Monday, speaking of how banks are experimenting in the Metaverse. “We’re at the very early stage of an emerging market that could have quite significant growth over the coming years.”

That said, the metaverse is undoubtedly one of the hottest sectors in the crypto ecosystem today, with no sign of slowing down as global institutions scramble to board this futuristic train.