Facebook — now Meta — is betting everything on The Metaverse. The Zuckerberg-owned mega-corporation is hoping that the mixed reality technology will one day be used for work, play and socialisation. Last month, the company tried to show just how engaging the tech can be with multiple Metaverse concerts. They were massive failures.
Metaverse concerts are a massive flop
Reported by Futurism, Facebook recently hosted a collection of Metaverse concerts that no one attended. Hosted inside Horizon Worlds, these concerts saw the appearance of multiple musicians to no applause.
The musical metaverse lineup opened with rapper Young Thug on December 26th. That concert was quickly followed up by beloved DJ David Guetta just five days later. Finally, The Chainsmokers were brought on to sing Metaverse users into the New Year.
The only issue: no one was there. Futurism reports that Young Thug’s concert only managed to accumulate 100,000 views. Additionally, the virtual performance of The Chainsmokers has been seemingly wiped from the Internet.
The most viewed of the Metaverse concerts is David Guetta’s. However, that concert was a pre-recorded 2D set that was also simply part of a standard Facebook live. It's not exactly what you'd expect from a Metaverse concert.
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Virtual concerts could be so much more
Facebook's idea of a virtual concert is far from the quality of its contemporaries. Virtual concerts are a great idea, especially after two years where traditional concerts have been essentially inaccessible. However, other companies are far better are providing the scale that these concerts can provide.
For example, Epic Games’ Fortnite has hosted numerous concerts, such as Marshmellow. Undoubtedly, by far the most popular Fortnite concert was the impressive Travis Scott event in 2020.
This concert was lauded for its fantastic use of 3D space. Instead of simply having the musician on a stage, Scott towered above players as the world reacted to the music. It was a spectacular event that could've only been made better in virtual reality — exactly what Facebook's Metaverse could’ve delivered.
As usual, Facebook's Metaverse concerts are behind their contemporaries. They don't have the same exaggerated creativity that the Metaverse is supposed to be providing. If anything, it’s just sad.