25% of people will spend an hour in the Metaverse by 2026

The metaverse continues to be a platform that corporations hype up, even though it’s not readily available yet. The mixed-reality virtual world has created a negative stigma around the tech and nerd community, despite many being open to the service’s potential.

While some of us are very pessimistic about the metaverse, it is inspired by dystopian fiction after all, others are well up for the singularity. For example, companies like Gartner Inc. think 25% of people will be spending an hour per day on it by 2026, assuming it’s available by then.

Convenience will populate the metaverse

Due to the amount of content coming to the metaverse, Gartner feels that people will be spending a lot of time in the service. According to the press release, Gartner thinks that a combination of work and hobbies will result in them spending more time on Meta’s metaverse by Meta featuring Mark Zuckerberg

Gartner argues that vendors are already finding ways for people to replicate their lives on the metaverse, which already sounds like a sci-fi movie in the making. Whether it be shopping or going to classes, maybe even having a job, all of these things might be available in Meta’s big and fancy metaverse. This will lead to the supposed 25% using it for an hour or more every day.

“The metaverse will impact every business that consumers interact with every day,” says Gartner. In addition to this, Gartner says the convenience of working, shopping, and going to classes in one environment will lead to people using the metaverse daily. Should this prove to be a success, people will get used to it and spend more time on this service.

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Digital business, digital currency

Most, if not all, businesses will supposedly have a presence in the metaverse, ensuring more people will be spending their time here. Businesses will sell their products and people will need digital currency to take part in it. In recent months, we’ve already seen brands like Nike chase the virtual world, as well as banks like JP Morgan.

Unfortunately, Gartner is also expecting NFTs to have a major presence in the “virtual economy” as a form of digital currency, for better or worse.

So in addition to working in the metaverse, some people might sell things and only accept NFTs as currency. Definitely not the idealistic future that Meta is pushing the service to be, especially since the pandemic has improved and people are going out more again. This is probably why Gartner is expecting only 25% of the public to do this by 2026 so here’s hoping it’s limited to that 25% forever.