Are consumers ready for the metaverse? — What's Next is Everything

A recent survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence suggests yes, kinda. The results, while admittedly skewed a bit towards younger audiences and likely metaverse early adopters, align with our point of view: the fully immersive metaverse vision that has been touted by science fiction and Silicon Valley alike may remain YEARS away, but the building blocks of that vision exist today and at scale. Gaming platforms like Roblox and Minecraft are perfect examples, but so too is the fact that web-based augmented reality experiences can reach upwards of 5 BILLION devices worldwide. Agencies and brands can lean into these building blocks now to gain valuable learnings for the future.

More than half of global respondents to a recent S&P Global consumer survey consider themselves somewhat or very knowledgeable of the metaverse and a strong majority have an interest in experiencing it. These results suggest that metaverse stakeholders have already established a potential audience to tap into and that the opportunity to capitalize on the market does exist.
The metaverse, which appeared to be on uneven footing at the outset of 2023, has recently benefited from several tailwinds. Specifically, Apple recently announced it would enter the augmented reality/virtual reality market with its Vision Pro headset, online game platform Roblox has returned to revenue growth, and advancements in generative AI are opening the door to automated content creation for virtual worlds.
Analysis of these survey results indicates that the metaverse is or will soon be primed for advertising, retail and content distribution opportunities inside virtual worlds. This next phase of the internet may still be years away, but some segments of consumers are ready to experience the metaverse right now.