This year may have crushed the hopes of many as the metaverse recorded a series of unfortunate events. Leading the pack is Meta’s poor outing this year. Their flagship game, Horizon Worlds, has fallen short of users’ expectations. Things got out of hand when it was revealed that Meta’s staff were unhappy with the game.

Away from Horizon Worlds, Meta’s virtual reality division lost over $3 billion in the third quarter of 2022, a shocking increase from its second-quarter loss of $2.7 billion. Meta’s financial losses led to the company letting go of about 13% of its employees after Zuckerberg announced that it would sack 11,000 employees.

Following Meta closely are Sandbox and Decentraland, who were tipped to become the future of the metaverse after early prospects. After losing thousands of daily users this year, both platforms have recorded a combined loss, almost hitting $10 billion, with Sandbox losing $4.4 billion while Decentraland lost $4.92 billion.