Metaverse Review: VRChat

What is the platform about?

VRChat is an online virtual ecosystem created in 2014 where players can create instances of worlds in which they can interact with others through avatars. The platform is free for users to play and is compatible with VR headsets and the PC.

At the beginning of 2021, its growth of concurrent users peaked at 40,000 DAU, as recorded on Steam.

As a company, VRChat has raised $95M in total funding. Its most recent raise in June 2021 was also its most significant at $80M. This is likely due to two tailwinds: the pandemic and metaverse hype.

What makes the platform unique?

VRChat has been described as “peak metaverse.” I like to call it Ready Player Zero-Point-Five. Why? Because it is very close to the experience in Ready Player One and is one of the most immersive and robust virtual worlds on the market.

Part of what makes it immersive is its support for full-body tracking. With supported hardware, users can translate physical movements, including finger motions, lip-syncing, and eye movements, into the virtual world. Similarly, haptics translates interactions from the virtual into the physical world.

This has enabled communities that aren’t specifically gaming-focused — unlike other metaverses — to emerge. For example, Helping Hands is a sign language school in VRChat for the deaf. If you’re into working up a sweat, you can find dancing lessons for any style of dance as well as virtual dancing clubs. Those more wellness-aligned can participate in one of the many scheduled yoga sessions on the platform.

VRChat really blurs reality. So much so for users that some have been able to establish romantic and long-lasting relationships within the platform. Few have progressed to real marriages, virtually and in the physical world.

Why should brands consider it? What makes it relevant for brands to consider? What are the opportunities?

Official brand activations in VRChat are still few. As a brand, you can build worlds openly here.

You can find recreations of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and McDonald’s, the same brands that jumped on the NFT train in 2021. Rich experiences from Jurassic World, the Simpsons, and the Legend of Zelda are also here. But these worlds are created by users who were simply motivated to share their creations with the community.

More recent official activations include The Venice International Film Festival in September 2021. Additionally, this month, Nissan launched the Nissan Sakura Driving Island experience, where visitors can test drive the brand’s new car.

With such a rich ecosystem of creators and users, VRChat feels like a metaverse by-the-people and for-the-people. This is an aspect worth noting as there is a price for the social license to operate here. And it is primarily that creators should make available and prioritize elements that foster communities. If you lack these, users will be quick to disregard your world.

The richness of experiences is one thing brands could have a field day brainstorming and creating for. However, this is also a double edge sword. Reports of inappropriate activities, harassment, and the lack of safeguards for minors and women continue to surface in many open forums.

Rating

Engagement

• 5 — Some of the most popular VRChat worlds include watching movies with friends, playing Among Us, engaging in a richly rendered seaside city inhabited by robots, learning sign language with peers, participating in dancing lessons, and escaping prison. There’s no limit to the worlds creators want to create and have already made.

Immersiveness

• 5 — VRChat is entered through VR, as the name suggests. It supports body tracking, which elevates the immersive experience. It officially supports tracking up to 8 points for one’s feet, knees, hip, chest, elbows, and shoulders. Some workarounds allow support for more, including for eyes, mouth, and fingers, which further blur reality. It’s no wonder some users have been recorded spending more than 40 hours weekly in VRChat.

Social Interactivity

• 5 — Users can participate in private and public worlds. There are ways to disengage oneself from socializing while still being part of an experience. The interactive experience in VRChat is so rich and immersive that some users have explored being intimate with others, and there are stories of real-life romantic relationships emerging.

Centralization

• 2 — More than 100,000 worlds and countless avatars have been created for VRChat. Creators own them, but VRChat has rights over them when uploaded to the platform. The company has no future plans to adopt blockchain or NFTs.

UGC Creation

• 5 — Creators can create worlds using Unity, the VRChat SDK, and the Udon programming language. They can create avatars using any 3D software that supports FBX exports. Creators can integrate analytics into the worlds they make.

Economics

• 2 — There is no marketplace, monetization for creators, or ways to transact within the platform. However, there are secondary economies that have spawned around this platform. You can find service offerings from sites like Fiverr, Gumroad, Booth.pm for creating avatars, worlds, and sharing moments.

Partnerability

• 1 — There are no partner programs within VRChat.

Want to learn more about other metaverses, find out other reviews in our State of the Metaverse post.

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