The metaverse world that many tech luminaries dream of may not yet be fully realized. But that doesn't stop developers from using the term to promote their apps and games.
Based on the latest data from Sensor Tower, currently there are 552 mobile applications that use the metaverse name in the title or description of the application. Interestingly, most of these hundreds of apps have only been added in the last few months.
Of all the apps on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, at least 86 apps included the metaverse name in their title or description between November 2021 and January 2022.
This period follows the announcement of Facebook's name change to Meta and their plans to develop metaverse technology in the future.
While Facebook/Meta does not claim to have built a true metaverse, the term is immediately used to describe an online world where people can interact virtually.
After Facebook announced its focus on developing the metaverse on October 28, the number of apps bearing the metaverse name rose 66% month-over-month in November. At the end of November, there were 28 apps bearing the metaverse name, double the 11 in October.
Sensor Tower also analyzes what types of applications are lazy using the metaverse name. It turns out that, apart from carrying the name metaverse, these apps also use the names of other technology trends such as crypto, NFT, AR, and VR.
Apps that use the metaverse name apparently spread across many categories, not just games and crypto finance apps. But the Game category does dominate with 107 applications or 19% of the total applications, as quoted from TechCrunch, Sunday (6/2/2022).
Next is the Finance category with 101 metaverse applications. The two categories were followed by Social (70 applications), Entertainment (57 applications), Books (37 applications), Lifestyle (33 applications), Tools (26 applications), Business (25 applications), Art and Design (13 applications), and Education. (11 applications).
Whether apps use the metaverse name to help them attract more users remains unknown.