Facebook's Metaverse already has 300,000 unique users

Is Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse push going to pay off? After rebranding the entirety of Facebook to Meta in an attempt to pivot into Metaverse technology, many have been skeptical of Facebook's Metaverse.

That skepticism isn't without merit. The virtual reality platform has already suffered from gropers and groomers in its first few months of launch. However, despite those issues, the platform is still bringing in new users.

Facebook's Metaverse is growing

Reported by The Verge, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that there is a considerable user base for its Metaverse Horizon. Introduced to the platform through Meta's massive marketing campaign — including Super Bowl ads — there is a market for Horizon.

Zuckerberg revealed that Horizon's monthly user base has rapidly increased. In December, the VR hub grew by 10-times. This saw the service reach a record 300,000 users in just a few months after leaving beta.

These users are split across two applications: Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues. Worlds is the big product, a collection of virtual worlds to hang out in. Venues is a VR platform for watching live events, a service which isn't anywhere near as popular.

In fact, those attempting to use Horizon Venues have encountered multiple problems. Just after the Super Bowl, Facebook's Metaverse hosted a Foo Fighters virtual concert. However, many users discovered that they were unable to join the virtual venue.

Read More: JPMorgan becomes first Metaverse Bank with crypto and NFT shops

The holiday boom

Of course, Facebook's Metaverse is currently benefiting from a perfect storm of popularity. Meta has been in the news constantly due to its recent rebrand, pushing through Facebook controversy to market Horizon Worlds.

Additionally, Horizon Worlds is benefiting from a massive boost in sales of Oculus Quest headsets, soon to be renamed Meta Quest. With Horizon Worlds on the front page of the Oculus store and free, there's no reason why new users wouldn't download it.

Importantly, in comparison to its competitors, Facebook's Metaverse isn't exactly impressive. The more free-form and established VR Chat, which does the same thing but better, has an estimated userbase of 10 million.

However, with the backing of Meta, Horizon Worlds does have a chance to be a large-scale virtual platform. But will people leave VR Chat and Rec Room in order to join Facebook's VR hangout? It’s possible.